Philippe Gilbert’s third place at Fleche Wallone was enough to see him maintain his lead at the IG Markets Pro Cycling Index.

However, the Belgian’s lead has been cut dramatically after he failed to defend any of his Ardennes Classics wins from 2011. The gap between him and Tom Boonen now stands at just 169 points.

Both riders now have a break from racing where they have no points to defend for a couple of weeks -but battle will commence for the number one spot at their home race, the Tour of Belgium, which starts on April 23. Gilbert was the winner last year, picking up 439 points, while Tom Boonen had a quiet race finishing 36th overall with a best finish of fourth place on stage one and, as a result, earned just 22 points.

Astana rider Maxim Iglinskiy climbs 80 places to 36th after his victory in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the fourth Monument of the season, on Sunday. Meanwhile, Vincenzo Nibali’s courageous ride to second place lifted him four places to fifth in the rankings, and Enrico Gasparotto moved into the top 50 after winning the sprint for third. Both Frank and Andy Schleck have dropped out of the top 20 after failing to defend their podium finishes from last year’s race.

 This week sees the Tour de Romandie take place, with Team Sky’s Geraint Thomas winning the opening prologue. Tour de France champion Cadel Evans won last year and is riding again this time out, and the Australian holds such a large points gap over Nibali that even if he fails to finish he will remain above the Italian. Last year’s other podium finishers, Tony Martin and Alexandre Vinokourov, are not racing so will inevitably slip down the rankings.