LL Sanchez tops world rankings after Paris-Nice

Spain’s Luis-Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) leads the 2010 UCI World Rankings thanks to strong performances at the year’s first two ranking events, the Tour Down Under and Paris-Nice.

While Alberto Contador (who won the first-ever World Rankings title in 2009) won Paris-Nice, his  countryman Sanchez also earned points there with his third place overall and three top-five stage finishes. And Contador did not race Down Under, where Sanchez won stage 5.

Tour Down Under winner Andre Greipel is in second and Contador is in third. While Paris-Nice was only the year’s second World Ranking event, the races are now coming fast. The just-concluded Tirreno-Adriatico race is part of the ranking (but not included in the results the UCI released this week), as is this weekend’s Milan-San Remo.

Sanchez’s native land leads the national rankings. And his Caisse d’Epargne team leads the team rankings.

The only American among the 37 riders to earn World Ranking points so far is Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), who scored two points by finishing third in the Paris-Nice prologue.

Complete rankings.

FILED UNDER: News / No Spoil / Road TAGS: rankings / UCI

Steve Frothingham

VeloNews.com editor Steve Frothingham joined the gang in bike-crazy Boulder in early 2008. He is the former executive editor of the trade magazine Bicycle Retailer & Industry News. He also was a reporter and editor for The Associated Press, where he covered three presidential primaries in politics-crazy New Hampshire. His racing career began on a BMX track in 1980 and reached its zenith with several miserable road races as a category 2 in the early 90s. He subsequently retreated to cat. 3, where he has had a consistently mediocre (at best) record ever since, in road, mountain bike and cyclocross events. Follow him on Twitter at @steve_froth

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