He was the dominator of the season and so it is no wonder that Tadej Pogacar once again finished the 2024 season at the top of the UCI world rankings. Winning the Giro d'Italia, the Tour de France, the world title, plus the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Tour of Lombardy monuments. In total, the UAE Emirates team pro won 25 times last season, 24 of which he achieved at World Tour level.
The cycling world saw the best Tadej Pogacar in history in 2024. The 26-year-old Slovenian collected a whopping 11,655 points this season. Since the (re)introduction of the UCI world rankings in 2015, no other rider has even come close to a similar figure. Pogacar even pulverised his own record from the previous year (7695.86 points) and added almost 4000 points - around a third more. Only in the 1970s under Eddy Merckx has there been a comparable dominance in cycling.
Pogacar almost twice as good as the competition
It remains to be seen where Pogacar's journey will take it. He recently extended his contract with UAE Emirates until 2030before that, he had the chances for a Grand Tour triple and rated a corresponding performance as "possible". In any case, it was almost impossible to beat him in 2024. This is also shown by the gap in the world rankings to Pogacar's rivals. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) is second in the rankings with 6072.57 points - just half of Pogacar's total. Yet the Belgian collected almost 2000 points in just three days of racing with his gold medals at the Olympic Games and the World Championships alone.
Evenepoel was able to increase his score by around 400 points compared to last year, when he was in third place. Last year's runner-up Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike), on the other hand, lost a lot of ground and - also due to due to his heavy crash at the Tour of the Basque Country and the long break - only in seventh place again. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck) is another Belgian in third place. The winner of Milan-San Remo and three Tour stages is the best sprinter with 4790 points.
O'Connor, Hirschi and Girmay new in the top 10
Then comes Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who has delivered a strong season in the shadow of Pogacar and thus relatively unnoticed. The Australian collected 4096 points and was better than ever before. In 2024, the 28-year-old rode five World Tour races and finished all of them in the top 5, including the Giro in fourth place and the Vuelta in second place behind Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe), who is ranked eighth in the world rankings. O'Connor was also runner-up in the world championships behind Pogacar. He should be rid of his underdog image once and for all in the new season, which he will contest for Jayco-AlUla.
Like O'Connor, Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates) is now also in the top 10 and ranks sixth with 3568 points. The basis for this was a furious second half of the season, in which he won five one-day races in a row, including the two World Tour races in San Sebastian and Plouay. One place ahead of him is Flanders and Roubaix winner Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck). The third newcomer alongside O'Connor and Hirschi is Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty). The Eritrean was not only convincing at the Tour de France with the green jersey and three stage winsbut also collected many other top 10 results in one-day races on the World Tour. 3352 points are enough for ninth place.
Van Aert loses ground, best German not in the top 40
Behind him, Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike) closes out the top 10, the Belgian being the biggest loser at the top of the rankings alongside Vingegaard. Van Aert (2925 points) has only just over half the points he had last year. But his season was also badly affected by crashes. His crash at Across Flanders deprived him of a top result in that race as well as in Paris-Roubaix and his first start in the Giro. When van Aert was finally back to his old self at the Vuelta, he crashed again and had to end the tour and the season prematurely. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) and the two UAE cyclists Adam Yates and Joao Almeida have lost their places in the top 10 of the UCI world rankings.
When looking for the best German in the rankings, you have to scroll a long way down. Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) has taken over from Lennard Kämna (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe), who crashed heavily in the spring. Despite a strong classics campaign, Politt only managed 44th place (1525.9 points). However, he was still 20 places better than Kämna last year.
The top 10 of the 2024 UCI world rankings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates/Slovenia) 11,655 points
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step/Belgium) 6072.57
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck/Belgium) 4790
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale/Australia) 4096
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck/Netherlands) 4053
- Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates/Switzerland) 3568
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike/Denmark) 3536
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe/Slovenia) 3471
- Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty/Eritrea) 3352
- Wout Van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike/Belgium) 2925
In addition to the overall ranking, the UCI also maintains separate world rankings for one-day and stage races. Unsurprisingly, both are also led by Pogacar. Maxim van Gils (Lotto-Dstny), Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek), Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla) and Pedersen, who do not appear at the top of the overall rankings, have placed in the top 10 of the one-day races. Politt is the best German in twelfth place.
The top 10 of the 2024 UCI world rankings - one-day races
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates/Slovenia) 4270 points
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck/Netherlands) 3785
- Marc Hirschi (UAE Team Emirates/Switzerland) 3143
- Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Deceuninck/Belgium) 3085
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step/Belgium) 3060
- Maxim Van Gils (Lotto-Dstny/Belgium) 2352
- Toms Skujins (Lidl-Trek/Latvia) 1852
- Michael Matthews (Team Jayco-AlUla/Australia) 1825
- Biniam Girmay (Intermarche-Wanty/Eritrea) 1818
- Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek/Denmark) 1771
The ranking for the stage races sees Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), Enric Mas (Movistar Team), Yates, Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) and Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) well ahead, who are not in the top 10 of the overall standings. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) is the best German in 27th place.
The top 10 of the 2024 UCI world rankings - stage races
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates/Slovenia) 7385 points
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike/Denmark) 3536
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe/Slovenia) 3431
- Ben O'Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale/Australia) 3090
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step/Belgium) 3012.57
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers/Spain) 2282.86
- Enric Mas (Movistar Team) 2216
- Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) 2188
- Richard Carapaz (EF Education EasyPost) 2066
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) 2044
The UCI also organises continental rankings. The points for this correspond to those from the world rankings. This means that Pogacar has won the UCI Europe Tour, O'Connor the Oceania ranking and Girmay the Africa Tour. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) came 13th in the America Tour, just missing the top 10 in the World Ranking with 2702.14 points. Asian champion Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazqastan Team) is only ranked 187th with 549.43 points.
The UCI points system
The UCI's points system is extremely complex. The Tour de France stands above all other races. The overall winner receives 1,300 points, with 1040 points for second place and 880 for third. The top 60 in the overall standings are rewarded with a minimum of 15 points. Stage victories earn 210 points, the 15th in the daily classification gets five more. The winner of the mountain jersey or the points classification is rewarded in the same way as a stage winner. However, the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta Espana are different. While the overall winners are rewarded with 1100 points, the stage winners receive 180.
800 points are awarded for winning one of the five monuments. And, although they are all World Tour races, the winner of the Santos Tour Down Under, for example, receives more points than the winner of the Tour of the Basque Country. Winning the Cyclassics also yields more than winning the Eschborn-Frankfurt. Victories in the individual World Tour races bring between 500 and 300 points. All Pro Series races, on the other hand, are again scored uniformly and earn 125 points, while the .1 and .2 events are also rewarded uniformly.
Points are also awarded for wearing the leader's jersey in all stage races and for winning national championships. However, the number of points depends on whether the respective country had at least one rider at the start of the previous World Road Race Championships.
The previous winners of the UCI World Ranking
- 2024 - Tadej Pogacar 11,655 points
- 2023 - Tadej Pogacar 7695.86
- 2022 - Tadej Pogacar 5131
- 2021 - Tadej Pogacar 5363
- 2020 - Primoz Roglic 4237
- 2019 - Primoz Roglic 4705.28
- 2018 - Alejandro Valverde 4168
- 2017 - Greg Van Avermaet 4148
- 2016 - Peter Sagen 5359
- 2015 - Alejandro Valverde 5090
