If Dan Martin, Nicolas Roche and Philip Deignan could score UCI ranking points earlier next season Ireland would have a six-man team at the 2014 World Championships (Photo: Brendan Slattery)
By Graham Healy
The latest UCI WorldTour rankings have been released, with Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) jumping back into the top 10 after his 4th place finish at the Tour of Lombardy last weekend.
He now sits in 8th place, with just one WorldTour event remaining this season in the shape of the Tour of Beijing. He had previously been in 11th place.
Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) sits in 34th position following his results in the Vuelta a Espana last month, which included 5th overall and a stage win.
Despite having just two riders in a position to gain WorldTour points, Ireland sits in an excellent 12th position now, ahead of countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Denmark.
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If results go well for Martin at the Tour of Beijing, it could mean Ireland leapfrogs Poland and Slovakia into the top 10, which would be a remarkable achievement.
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If that had been the case prior to the World Road Race Championships in Florence last month, Ireland would have qualified six riders to take part in the elite men's race.
With Philip Deignan joining Team Sky next season, it means Ireland will have another rider in a position to score points and the country may rank higher before next year’s Worlds.
The fact Martin and Roche look set to lead their respective teams at the Giro d'Italia next May means they may score points earlier in the season than this year and have those points banked for themselves and Ireland well before the cut off deadline in mid August for the determination of nations' allocations of Worlds places.
The latest rankings also show Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) has taken over from Chris Froome (Team Sky) as leader. Spain is ranked the highest nation ahead of Italy, and Team Sky are the highest ranked team ahead of Movistar.
Martin is obviously still in good form after a long season, so will hopefully be in a position to challenge for a good result in Beijing. This would also help him to possibly move up in the rankings, confirming that he is one of the best riders in the world.
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