The efforts of the two big winners of the first week of the Tour de France have been rewarded with moves up the IG Markets Pro Cycling Index.
Both race leader, Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky), and Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale), winner of three stages, have climbed the ranking of the world’s top 200 cyclists.
Sagan’s success has brought him victory in a third of the stages held so far, form that has placed the green jersey of points competition leader on his shoulders, and moved him oe place higher on the Index to fifth, just 15 points behind fourth-placed Wiggins, the Tour’s yellow jersey holder.
The Londoner will feel today’s rest day has been well-earned: he assumed the lead of the race on stage seven, and yesterday claimed his first stage victory. Should he continue in the same vein, topping the Index is not impossible.
Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) has dropped one place from sixth to seventh, despite some strong performances at the Tour. The 12-month rolling Index measures a rider’s results against their performances in the same race last year. By this stage of the 2011 Tour, Evans had a stage victory to his credit (the third stage from Lorient to the Mur de Bretgane). Should he fail to defend his title, he will slip further down the Index.
Index climbers this Tour include Andre Greipel (Lotto-Belisol) and Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek). German sprint king, Greipel, won stages four and five and moved from 21st on the Index to 13th. Cancellara claimed his fourth Tour de France prologue victory in Liege, taking his tally of Tour stages to eight, and his Index ranking to tenth.
Others who have made a strong start to the Tour include Chris Froome (Team Sky), whose ranking on the Index has risen from 45th to 28th since the Tour started eleven days ago. Victory on stage seven and second on yesterday’s stage nine time trial has moved him to third in the Tour.
Riders to crack the top 200 this week include Haimar Zubelida (RadioShack-Nissan-Trek) who enters in 177th position, and Michael Mørkøv, in 180th. Zubelida is sixth overall in the Tour, the highest placed of any of his teammates, and the de facto team leader. The man most observers expected to lead the Luxembourg-registered squad at the Tour, Jakob Fuglsang, was instead sent to the Tour of Austria. His overall victory in the race has moved him 20 places on the Index to 52nd.
Mørkøv’s aggressive start to the Tour, where he featured in the break on each of the first three stages, brought him an impressive accumulation of King of the Mountains points and the polka dot jersey from the end of stage one to stage seven.
The Dutch rider, Tom Veelers (Argos-Shimano) has been another rider to climb the Index after replacing Marcel Kittel as the team’s sprinter when the German abandoned with stomach problems. Veelers has recorded three top 10 finishes, including fourth place on stage two and third place on stage four.
Those who have fallen on the Index include Thor Hushovd (BMC Racing) who is not riding Le Tour, having chosen instead to ride the Tour of Poland as preparation for the Olympic road race. Hushovd rode an impressive Tour last year, winning two individual stages and wearing the yellow jersey from stage two to stage nine, accumulating a large haul of points on the Index which he has not been able to ‘defend’ this year. As a consequence, he has fallen from 31st to 60th on the Index.
Another rider who has swapped France for Poland in the name of Olympic preparation, Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), could claim top spot on the Index by the end of Le Tour. The Belgian road race champion is currently second, just 89 points from the leader, Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha).
As a final statistic, the 2012 Tour de France is the first in which three British riders have won a stage. All three victories came from Team Sky riders. Mark Cavendish won stage two, Chris Froome won stage seven, and Bradley Wiggins won stage nine.
About the IG Pro Cycling Index
The IG Markets Pro Cycling Index exists to answer a simple question: who is the best cyclist in the world? IG have teamed up with sports data experts, Opta, to produce a rolling, 12-month Index ranking the top 200 cyclists in the world based on results from 120 major international races. The ranking events are classified in four tiers within three categories, and selected by an expert panel on a consideration of prestige and importance to cycling fans.
The Index contains a number of unique features. The allocation of races does not simply follow that of the sport’s governing body, the UCI, but is based on factors including the quality of the field and its historical significance. The winner of Paris-Nice, for example, would, as a result, accrue more points than the winner of the Tour of Beijing. That said, victories attract more points than placings. Bonus points are awarded to the winners of Classiscs and the more prestigious stages of Grand Tours.
