From Pogacar to Van der Poel: How cycling's biggest stars earned their UCI ranking points in 2026

The Tour of Guangxi brought the road season to a close on 18 October. By then, Pogačar's lead was safe. The more compelling contests were further down the standings, where just 26.1 points separated third from fourth and the final race of the year decided fifth place.

Pogačar won 22 races in 2026 and had built enough of a lead by early September to remain out of reach. He opened his spring at Strade Bianche, then won Milan-San Remo by just four centimetres ahead of Tom Pidcock after crashing earlier in the race. He dropped Mathieu van der Poel with 18 kilometres remaining to win a record-equalling third Tour of Flanders, before claiming a fourth Liège-Bastogne-Liège later in April. Second place behind Wout van Aert at Paris-Roubaix was his only Monument defeat before the autumn.

His stage racing was equally impressive. He won four stages and the general classification at the Tour de Romandie, three stages and the overall at the Tour de Suisse, and five stages on his way to a fifth Tour de France victory, effectively sealing the race on the Tourmalet on stage six.

He added three stage victories at the Vuelta before crashing out on stage eight and did not race again. His lead over second place stood at nearly 4,000 points in early September and just over 2,000 by the end of the season, despite missing Il Lombardia, the World Championships and the autumn classics.

His final total was also well below the 11,655 points he scored in 2024, largely reflecting the races he missed rather than a decline in performance.

Evenepoel's first season at Red Bull delivered 14 victories, the joint-third highest total in the peloton. For much of the summer, he was the only rider within 4,000 points of Pogačar.

He finished second at the Tour de France, 6:26 behind Pogačar, after losing 3:49 of that deficit in the opening ten days. He recovered to win two stages in the final week, on the Plateau de Solaison and in Thonon-les-Bains.

His one-day results were even more impressive. He won the Amstel Gold Race in April, a record fourth Clásica San Sebastián in August and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec in September. He then claimed the European road race title in Šenčur, beating Giulio Ciccone by millimetres.

In Montréal, he secured a fourth consecutive world time trial title before ending his season with victory over Jay Vine by more than two minutes at the Chrono des Nations.

Evenepoel did not dominate any single part of the season to the extent Pogačar did, but his consistency kept him comfortably ahead of the rest. With two long time trials on the 2027 Tour route, July is likely to remain central to his ambitions next season.

Del Toro was fifth in the ranking in April and spent much of the summer inside the top four. His biggest points contribution came at the Tour de France, where he was third overall heading into the final week and wore the white jersey, putting two UAE riders in the top three.

In August, he won the Deutschland Tour, one of 12 victories he recorded during the season.

He held third place in the ranking until the end of the year, but only narrowly. His autumn results cost him valuable ground. He finished 28th at Il Lombardia, missed the Giro del Veneto, which he had won in 2025 and which offers 200 points, and competed at Gran Piemonte while dealing with a knee problem.

Meanwhile, Paul Seixas won Lombardia and Evenepoel claimed the Chrono des Nations, reducing the gap between Del Toro and fourth place to just 26.1 points.

One more strong result from Seixas in October could have pushed Del Toro off the podium. Nevertheless, he finished as UAE's second-highest scorer, ahead of every Grand Tour leader except Pogačar and Evenepoel.

Seixas won eight races in 2026, finished fourth at the Tour de France at just 19 years old and won Il Lombardia at 20, becoming the youngest winner in the race's history.

He also claimed bronze in the world time trial championship in Montréal behind Evenepoel. According to Velo, 47 of his 49 race days this season came while he was still a teenager.

His Lombardia victory brought him remarkably close to Del Toro in the final ranking. Seixas was the highest-ranked rider outside UAE and Red Bull, with most of his points coming from stage races and a single Monument.

That makes his total particularly notable given his limited spring classics programme. He also skipped the European Championships to focus on Lombardia, a decision that paid off in both ranking points and prestige.

Next season, the Tour de France could again feature in his programme, although Seixas has also raised the possibility of skipping it to target the Giro d'Italia and World Championships. The 2027 Tour route features two long time trials and an opening summit finish on the Grand Colombier, potentially suiting a rider who took bronze against the clock in Montréal and finished fourth in Paris on his first attempt.

Pinarello-Q36.5 have reportedly made him a record offer despite his existing Decathlon contract. For now, however, he remains central to Decathlon's plans, with Ben O'Connor and Pavel Sivakov arriving to support him.

Pidcock made the biggest late move in the top ten. He entered the final week of the season in sixth place before finishing second overall behind Jarno Widar at the Tour of Guangxi, overtaking Jonas Vingegaard on the final day of racing.

His season had already been his most consistent on the road. He finished second to Pogačar at Milan-San Remo by just four centimetres and third at Dwars door Vlaanderen behind Van der Poel and Tiesj Benoot.

At the Tour de France, he finished third on stage 13 into Belfort from the breakaway, a result that temporarily lifted him into the top four overall.

Pidcock is the highest-ranked rider competing for a ProTeam, a distinction that matters beyond his individual achievements.

Pinarello need ranking points to strengthen their chances of securing a WorldTour licence for 2029 and maintaining invitations to the sport's biggest races in the meantime.

With Ciccone and Mauro Schmid among the riders joining him next season, the team is building around Pidcock. His late surge in China gave them a stronger position heading into the winter.

Vingegaard's season got off to a difficult start. A training crash and illness ruled him out of the UAE Tour, prompting him to add Paris-Nice to his programme.

By spring, he was back to winning summit finishes at the Volta a Catalunya, including the climb to Queralt.

His biggest success came in May when he won the Giro d'Italia, claiming five stage victories along the way.

He then headed to the Tour de France as Pogačar's main challenger, but a crash left him with a broken collarbone and brought his season to an early end.

Missing the second half of the season proved costly in the ranking. Completing the Tour, even without challenging for yellow, would likely have been enough to keep him inside the top five.

Instead, Pidcock overtook him during the final week.

Vingegaard remains under contract with Visma until the end of 2028, although speculation surrounding his future has continued throughout the year.

Van Aert's season was shaped by injuries as much as results.

He began the year recovering from an ankle injury sustained during the winter, then finished third at Milan-San Remo before winning Paris-Roubaix.

In the Roubaix velodrome, he beat Pogačar in a two-man sprint, with Jasper Stuyven finishing third.

An elbow injury subsequently kept him out of the Tour de France, but he returned at the Vuelta a España to win stages 13 and 15, the latter finishing in Córdoba.

He also claimed the points jersey, becoming the first Belgian to do so since Frank Vandenbroucke in 1999.

Roubaix and the Vuelta accounted for much of his points total, while missing July limited his opportunities to finish higher.

The Tour of Flanders remains the race Van Aert says he wants to win above all others and will once again be a major target in 2027.

Philipsen spent much of the Tour de France chasing a stage victory.

He recorded five top-five finishes without winning before Mathieu van der Poel led him out to victory on stage 17 in Voiron.

It was his 11th career Tour stage win and the fifth consecutive Tour in which he had claimed at least one stage.

The victory also brought him back into contention for the green jersey. With four days remaining, he was just seven points behind Mads Pedersen, having appeared out of contention a week earlier.

Philipsen admitted afterwards that his run of near misses had been weighing on him.

He was sixth in the ranking in early September, just behind Pidcock, but raced relatively little in the autumn and slipped to eighth behind Van Aert.

Much of his points total came from consistent sprint finishes rather than one standout result. For a rider who won the green jersey in 2023 and Milan-San Remo in 2024, it was a quieter season by his standards.

Gall finished second at the Giro d'Italia and third at the Vuelta a España, becoming one of the few riders to reach two Grand Tour podiums in the same season.

In Spain, he finished 3:01 behind Enric Mas, attacking on the Collado del Alguacil on the penultimate day to secure his podium position behind Primož Roglič.

Almost all of his ranking points came from those two Grand Tours, illustrating how heavily the UCI ranking rewards consistency over three weeks.

He also gained ground during the summer at the Vuelta a Burgos, where he was among the biggest movers in the ranking that week.

Gall is one of two Decathlon riders in the top ten alongside Seixas, but he will not remain with the team.

He moves to Lidl-Trek for 2027, where he will share Grand Tour leadership responsibilities with Juan Ayuso, Mattias Skjelmose and Derek Gee-West.

Decathlon will replace him with Ben O'Connor, who returns from Jayco AlUla to support Seixas.

Van der Poel won Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on his debut in the race and added Dwars door Vlaanderen a few weeks later.

He said afterwards that his spring campaign had been better than in 2025, although for the first time since 2021 he finished the classics without winning a Monument.

Pogačar dropped him on the way to winning the Tour of Flanders, while his run of 18 consecutive top-ten finishes in the cobbled classics ended at Gent-Wevelgem.

He won two stages at the Tour de France, including one just days before helping lead Philipsen to victory in Voiron.

At the mountain bike World Championships in Val di Sole, he again missed out on the cross-country title, describing the outcome as a repeat of the previous year.

He then took bronze at the road World Championships in Montréal, where he ended his road season.

His total was enough to keep him inside the top ten, although lower than in recent seasons.

Van der Poel also won the cyclo-cross world title in Hulst in February, but cyclo-cross points do not count towards the road ranking.

Away from racing, he is due to become a father in January.