Sam Bennett's win at Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne 10 days ago was worth almost as many world ranking points as his two Tour de France stage wins last year and his green jersey combined. The Irish cyclist is now ranked 15th in the world by the UCI (Photo: Wout Beel)

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Sam Bennett is now ranked 15^th best male
cyclist in the world in the UCI’s latest rankings, the highest placing he has
ever had.

The 30-year-old Irish rider currently has 1,290 points
and that tally has contributed to Ireland being 14^th best nation in
the world at present.

Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) leads the way in the individual world rankings, on 4,502 points, from Tour de France champion Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), on 3,505 points. Gent Wevelgem winner Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma) is in 3^rd place, on 3,386 points.

Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin Fenix) is then 4^th, on 2,805 points, with world champion, and Bennett’s Deceuninck-QuickStep team mate, Julian Alaphilippe in 5^th, on 1,851.

*Primoz Roglic can do it all; climb, TT, descend and even sprint and he dominates the world rankings but a huge margin (Photo: Gomez Sport)*

The rankings are based on a 52-week rolling points tally
meaning Bennett’s results from last year’s Tour and Vuelta, and some other
races in 2020, are combined with his results so far this year for his overall
points total.

The only pure sprinter ahead of Bennett in the rankings at present is Arnaud Demare of Groupama-FDJ, who is in 8^th place on 1,604 points. You can see the top 25 below.

Bennett’s previous highest ranking, of 18^th,
was immediately after the Tour de France last year, when he won two stages and
took the points classification in that race. He jumped from 51^st to
18^th during the three weeks of last year’s Tour.

By the time last season ended he had dipped to 37^th and as he began his 2021 season he was 49^th in the rankings. However, his performances since then have seen him get into the top 15 riders in the world for the first time ever.

*Sam Bennett wins into Ile de Re on stage 10 of last year's Tour; the Irishman rising the rankings during that race last year but gaining even more ground this season*

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Each of Bennett’s stage wins on the Tour last year were
worth 120 ranking points and his overall points classification win also scored
120 points; the UCI allocating the Tour green jersey win the same value as one
stage win in the race.

Bennett’s stage win at La Vuelta last year scored 100
points and his two recent stage wins at Paris-Nice were worth 60 points each. Holding
yellow for a day at Paris-Nice was worth 10 points.

His two 2^nd places on stages 3 and 11 at the
Tour last year worth 50 points each and his two stage wins at the recent UAE
Tour netted him 40 points each.

By far his biggest allocation of points for one result was the 300 points he netted for his win the week before last at Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne.

Dan Martin's 4th place at last year's Vuelta netted him 460 individual ranking points. Despite a very difficult season last year, when La Vuelta was the only race where he performed to his best, he is still 30th in the UCI's individual world rankings based on the last 52 weeks

That win – his first ever victory in a one-day WorldTour
race – was worth the same as his Tour green jersey, a Tour stage win and a
Paris-Nice stage win combined.

He had shot up the rankings by nineteen places to 25^th
after his performance in Paris-Nice and then went up another 10 places after
his victory in Oxyclean Classic Brugge-De Panne last Wednesday week.

The next best Irish rider in the rankings after Sam
Bennett is Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) in 30^th place.

Martin has 934 points and scored 460 of those for his 4^th
place overall at last year’s Vuelta. Just after the Spanish Grand Tour he was
29^th in the rankings.

Winning the Tour de France overall is worth 1,000 points, winning the Giro is worth 850 and winning La Vuelta is also worth 850 points.

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