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Peter Sagan wins overall UCI WorldTour title, Movistar top team after Il Lombardia

Ryder Hesjedal contests his final race as two team say goodbye to the WorldTour

October 1, 2016
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Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) solidified himself as a generational talent in 2016 and his WorldTour overall title was confirmed as the season wrapped up at Il Lombardia. With the weight of the world championship rainbow stripes on his shoulders, Sagan took his first monument win at the Ronde van Vlaanderen, he won a fifth consecutive green jersey at the Tour de France to go along with his three stage wins, he was crowned the European champion, and won Gent – Wevelgem, two stages at the Tour de Suisse and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Quebec. After Nairo Quintana won the Vuelta a España, Sagan briefly fell out of the top spot in the WorldTour rankings but with two stage wins and podium performance at the Eneco Tour, the 26-year-old Slovak regained the lead. Sagan was all but assured the victory unless Quintana, who ended his season after the Vuelta, unexpectedly decided to race at Lombardia and win it which he did not do.

RELATED: Esteban Chaves triumphs in 2016 Il Lombardia

Quintana (Movistar) raced onto the podium of the Tour de France and won the Vuelta which netted him second overall. Chris Froome (Sky) won his third Tour de France on his way to third in the overall standings. For the past two season, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has won the overall WorldTour title. Valverde raced all three Grant Tours in 2016 taking victories at La Flèche Wallonne and a stage at the Giro d’Italia but managed only fourth overall this season. Canada did not have any riders in the top-100.

Movistar was the top team in 2016 with Sagan’s Tinkoff team close behind in second aided by Alberto Contador’s sixth place overall. For the fifth consecutive year, Spain was the top nation with only Italy’s win in 2009 interrupting the Iberian peninsula’s WorldTour dominance. Colombia was second with Great Britain in third.

RELATED: Ryder Hesjedal is proud of his career, unsure what challenges await in retirement

Il Lombardia also marked the conclusion of some storied cycling careers. For the foreseeable future, Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segrafedo) will remain the only Canadian to have won a Grand Tour taking the pink jersey at the 2012 Giro d’Italia. His teammate, Frank Schleck also hung up the bike after the Italian monument after seeing his brother Andy forced to retire due to injury in 2014. Oliver Zaugg of IAM, a former Il Lombardia winner, was concluded his career. Fabian Cancellara was a spectator at the Race of the Falling leaves and hangs his bike up this year as well.

IAM Cycling had a disappointing race at Il Lombardia and the team is folding at the end of the season. IAM’s Stefan Denifl was the first rider to crest the Colle del Ghisallo but after that the team’s riders were all but invisible. The team is folding at the end of 2016 and the race marked their last WordlTour event. Tinkoff also say goodbye to the WorldTour as Russian entrepreneur Oleg Tinkov will pull out of professional cycling at the end of the year.

Though the WorldTour calendar wrapped up with Il Lombardia, the 2016 world championships get underway in Doha, Qatar on Oct. 9 and run until Oct. 16 when the elite men’s race ends on the Pearl, an artificial island that juts out into the Arabian Gulf.

UCI WorldTour Ranking 2016

1. Peter Sagan (Slovakia/Tinkoff) 669 points
2. Nairo Quintana (Colombia/Movistar) 609 points
3. Chris Froome (Great Britain/Team Sky) 564 points
4. Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) 436 points
5. Greg Van Avermaet (Belgium/BMC Racing) 420 points
6. Alberto Contador (Spain/Tinkoff) 428 points
7. Richie Porte (Australia/BMC Racing) 394 points
8. Romain Bardet (France/Ag2r La Mondiale) 374 points
9. Daniel Martin (Ireland/Etixx-QuickStep) 280 points
10. Jon Izaguirre (Spain/Movistar) 270 points

Team ranking

1. Movistar 1471 points
2. Tinkoff 1361 points
3. Team Sky 1187 points
4. BMC Racing 1128 points
5. Orica-BikeExchange 909 points

Nation ranking

1. Spain 1475 points
2. Colombia 1446 points
3. Great Britain 1050 points
4. France 1024 points
5. Belgium 1003 points

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