Champions last time out, Movistar stormed to the top of the rankings again in 2014 as Nairo Quintana won the Giro d’Italia and Alejandro Valverde topped the individual rankings.

The only team with two riders in the top ten overall, Movistar saw 15 of their riders score WorldTour points this year, with their top five – Valverde, Quintana, Benat Intxausti, Ion Izaguirre, Juan Jose Lobato – scoring 1,310 between them.

Coupled with 110 points from the world team time trial and Movistar were simply untouchable – finishing 208 points ahead of BMC Racing, a tally which could have been even higher had Intxausti not struggled in Beijing.

BMC Racing snatched second place overall on the final day of the season thanks to Philippe Gilbert’s Tour of Beijing win but their world team time trial win had already propelled them up the rankings.

With a team packed with all-round talent, it is little surprise to see BMC Racing and Omega Pharma-Quickstep tallying more than 1000 points in the season.

Tinkoff-Saxo, meanwhile, had Alberto Contador to thank for their second place, coupled with Rafal Majka’s strong end to the season which promises much for next year.

Team Sky, top of the tree in 2012 and second last year, dropped to ninth, however, as illness and injuries plagued their season.

Froome’s late resurgence at the Vuelta a Espana rescued them to an extent but, despite third at Milan-San Remo for Ben Swift and third at E3 Harelbeke for Geraint Thomas, the British team failed to build on an encouraging start to the campaign.

At the very bottom of the pile, meanwhile, are newcomers Team Europcar as team leader Thomas Voeckler ended the year without a victory.

Bryan Coquard’s sprinting form at the Tour de France promises much for the future but, for now, the French team amassed just 271 points.

Were Pro Continental team IAM Cycling allowed to score points, the Swiss side would actually have finished level with Europcar despite not even racing the full calendar.

Matthias Frank’s form at the Tour de Romandie and Tour de Suisse, coupled with Sylvain Chavanel’s GP Ouest-France win contributed towards their metaphorical total.

UCI WorldTour 2014: final team ranking

1) Movistar (ESP) – 1420 pts (Top rider: Alejandro Valverde – 686)
2) BMC Racing (USA) – 1212pts (Philippe Gilbert – 272)
3) Tinkoff-Saxo (RUS) – 1186pts (Alberto Contador – 620)
4) Omega Pharma-Quickstep (BEL) – 1016 (Michal Kwiatkowski – 257)
5) Orica-GreenEDGE (AUS) – 953 (Simon Gerrans – 478)
6) Katusha (RUS) – 938 (Alexander Kristoff – 321)
7) Ag2r-La Mondiale (FRA) – 919 (Jean-Christophe Peraud – 300)
8) Giant-Shimano (NED) – 905 (John Degenkolb – 278)
9) Team Sky (GBR) – 890 (Chris Froome – 326)
10) Astana (KAZ) – 823 (Vincenzo Nibali – 392)
11) Garmin-Sharp (USA) – 807 (Daniel Martin – 316)
12) Belkin Pro Cycling (NED) – 795 (Bauke Mollema – 246)
13) Trek Factory Racing (USA) – 759 (Fabian Cancellara – 286)
14) Lampre-Merida (ITA) – 706 (Rui Costa – 461)
15) Lotto-Belisol (BEL) – 590 (Tim Wellens – 204)
16) FDJ.fr (FRA) – 505 (Thibaut Pinot – 162)
17) Cannondale (ITA) – 456 (Peter Sagan – 263)
18) Team Europcar (FRA) – 271 (Pierre Rolland – 138)