Following a successful Critérium du Dauphiné, including a stage win, a spell in yellow and fifth place overall, Alberto Contador has assumed the lead in the UCI WorldTour individual rider rankings. The Spanish rider moves ahead of teammate Peter Sagan, with them both weighing heavily in favour of the team’s top spot in the overall team rankings and extending the lead to an impressive 146 points

Talking about his lead in the rankings, Contador said: “It was never a goal but, obviously, every rider is happy to reach that position. It also is a bonus to the sponsor, Tinkoff Bank, and Oleg Tinkov that have shown their strong support. We lead the team ranking and sit on the two top spots of the individual ranking."

Contador took a powerful opening prologue victory in the typical Tour de France warm up that is the Dauphiné, before spending the first half of the race in yellow. Scoring points again on the mountain stages, Contador went on to finish fifth on GC, attaining enough points to move ahead of teammate Sagan.

The UCI World Road Race Champion was also scoring points himself this weekend to add to his tally, with a stage win on the second stage of the Tour de Suisse. With more stage opportunities ahead, Sagan will be looking to add further points before he lines up alongside Contador at July’s Tour de France.

Contador leads the rankings with 337 points, just eight points ahead of Sagan, with third place on 290 points. In the team rankings, Tinkoff sits on 876, leading by an impressive 146 points over Movistar, with Team Sky in third on 713 points.

The UCI WorldTour rankings are based on results in the races ranked as WorldTour in the UCI calendar, arguably the biggest and best races on the international calendar. To lead the rankings, results are needed in depth rather than just through one leader in a selection of races – results that are a just reward for the hard work and dedication put in by the team in the build up to this season and over the first half of the race calendar.

Tinkoff has now been leading the UCI WorldTour team rankings uninterruptedly since March 27th, a clear witness to its racing successes.

Finally, Hopplà-Petroli Firenze, Tinkoff's Italian U23 affiliate team has continued its streak of wins in the Italian racing calendar. Thanks to an impressive performance on Sunday, which saw the team taking the top five spots at Trofeo Impresa Fagni Luca,  the tally was brought to ten. Hopplà-Petroli Firenze now sets its sights on the Italian National Championships and, further ahead, the World U23 Championships in Qatar.