Dan Martin in the early stages of the Tour of Lombardy yesterday; he and Nicolas Roche were the only two Irish riders to score WorldTour points this season (Photo: Sirotti)
After a period dogged by crashes, Dan Martin returned to form this season and while a classic win or a Grand Tour stage victory eluded him he has made it into the top 10 in the WorldTour.
The Etixx-QuickStep man is one of only two Irishmen to score points at WorldTour level this year, with Nicolas Roche also on that list.
Martin has finished 10th in the WorldTour rider rankings published by the UCI after the final WorldTour race of the year yesterday, the Tour of Lombardy.
Topping the rankings is world and European champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) followed by Vuelta winner Nairo Quintana (Movistar).
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Then comes Tour de France winner Chris Froome of Team Sky.
Martin collected 280 points at WorldTour events this year, compared to 669 by the spectacular Sagan.
And Roche claimed 6 points during the season to finish in 176th of the 235 riders ranked.
Roche missed out on the Tour de France this year but took the national road and TT titles instead (Photo: Toby Watson)
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Ireland’s other three WorldTour riders – Matt Brammeier (Dimension Data), Philip Deignan (Team Sky) and Ryan Mullen (Cannondale-Drapac) – did not score points this time around and so do not feature in the rankings.
Among Martin’s points-scoring results were the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (2.UWT) in March where he won a stage and finished 3rd overall and so took 76 ranking points.
He was also 3rd in La Flèche Wallonne (1.UWT) and collected 50 points. And he was 3rd overall at the Criterium du Dauphiné (2.UWT) in France in June, where he finished in the top four in half of the eight stages. He took 78 ranking points for his efforts there.
And in the Tour de France in June he collected a further 76 ranking points; an event in which he finished an excellent 9th overall.
Nicolas Roche collected his six ranking points for his 9th place in the Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian (1.UWT) in July.
The scoring of Martin and Roche during the year put Ireland in 14th place in the WorldTour nations rankings, one place ahead of the USA.
Final WorldTour Rider Rankings
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 669 pts
2 Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team 609
3 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 564
4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 436
5 Alberto Contador (Spa) Tinkoff Team 428
6 Greg Van Avermaet (Bel) BMC Racing Team 420
7 Richie Porte (Aus) BMC Racing Team 394
8 Romain Bardet (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale 374
9 Esteban Chaves (Col) Orica-BikeExchange 351
10 Daniel Martin (Irl) Etixx - Quick-Step 280
11 Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar Team 270
12 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 241
13 Ilnur Zakarin (Rus) Team Katusha 239
14 Sergio Henao (Col) Team Sky 234
15 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 229
16 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 211
17 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ 206
18 Sep Vanmarcke (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 201
19 Rui Costa (Por) Lampre - Merida 194
20 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac 185
176 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 6
Team Rankings
1 Team Movistar 1471 pts
2 Team Tinkoff 1361
3 Team Sky 1187
4 BMC Racing 1128
5 Orica-BikeExchange 909
6 Team Katusha 789
7 Etixx - Quick-Step 775
8 Cannondale-Drapac 616
9 Trek-Segafredo 565
10 Team Astana 539
11 Team FDJ.fr 516
12 LottoNL-Jumbo 506
13 Ag2r La Mondiale 482
14 Lotto-Soudal 463
15 Lampre-Merida 442
Nation Rankings
1 Spain 1475 pts
2 Colombia 1446
3 Great Britain 1050
4 France 1024
5 Belgium 1003
6 Australia 908
7 Italy 773
8 Netherlands 683
9 Slovakia 669
10 Switzerland 416
11 Norway 343
12 Germany 339
13 Russia 336
14 Ireland 286
15 United States 280
16 Poland 225
17 Portugal 218
18 Czech Republic 191
19 Luxembourg 179
20 Denmark 133
21 Slovenia 103
22 South Africa 101
23 Costa Rica 68
24 Canada 54
25 New Zealand 46
26 Belarus 40
27 Kazakhstan 28
28 Latvia 20
29 Estonia 16
30 Argentina 15
31 Austria 15
32 Sweden 6
33 Croatia 4
34 Eritrea 2
35 Lithuania 1
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