UCI Rankings Team Update | UAE Team Emirates cements its lead thanks to outstanding Del Toro in home race

This week's update features points scored in stage races UAE Tour, Vuelta a Andalucía and Volta ao Algarve, as well as French one-day races Classic Var and Tour des Alpes Maritimes.

You can check the previous UCI Rankings update here. It has been an action-packed week of racing, with three important stage races that took place simultaneously (the WorldTour-level UAE Tour and two ProSeries events), meaning a lot of points were awarded.

The ranking has not changed substantially, as the order of the top 10 is almost the same as it was the past week. UAE Team Emirates - XRG remains on top, and that is unlikely to change. The Emirati squad broke the 1000-point threshold for the second week in a row, mostly thanks to Isaac del Toro.

The Mexican rider made his season debut at the UAE Tour and he didn't want to lose any time to make a statement, as he won the uphill sprint of the first stage. The Mexican rider struggled more than expected during the time trial, mostly due to the strong wind, and he was caught off guard by Antonio Tiberi in the first mountain test of the race, but he bounced back in the final stage and secured both the stage and the general classification.

This meant Del Toro left the Middle East having obtained almost 700 UCI points out of the 1031 his team got throughout the week. Joao Almeida was another man delivering a strong result last week. The Portuguese rider finished in third place at Volta ao Algarve, just behind Juan Ayuso and Paul Seixas, which helped him secure 155 points. A second podium finish out of two stage races he has competed in this season, definitely not a bad result especially because it was visible he is not in top shape yet.

The remainder of the points were obtained in Spain. Jan Christen and Tim Wellens shared the leadership at the Vuelta a Andalucía, and both riders made it to the final top 10. Christen was fourth while Wellens finished in ninth place.

The podium is completed by XDS Astana Team and Team Jayco AlUla, both squads with a surge of around 500 points. Regarding the Kazakh team, Harold Tejada was one of the revelations at the UAE Tour, putting on strong performances at the mountain stages and securing a strong fourth place in the overall, which translates to 300 points. Meanwhile, Christian Scaroni almost got his fourth win of the season, but he was ultimately beaten by Paul Lapeira at the Tour des Alpes Maritimes.

On the other hand, Luke Plapp single-handedly got almost all the points Jayco AlUla earned the past week. The Australian rider was another revelation at the UAE Tour, clinching the third place in the GC thanks to an outstanding effort in the last stage, in which he was second.

Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe stays in fourth, after a week that was disapointing to say the least. Remco Evenepoel had his first big test of the season and he failed it, losing over 3 minutes to Del Toro in the two ascents of the race. Florian Lipowitz was meanwhile racing in Portugal, but he was never in contention for the win either, finishing in eighth place.

Finally, a special mention to Team Picnic PostNL and Alpecin-Premier Tech. Both teams have a World Tour licence, but they have been visibly struggling during the early season, as the ranking shows. They sit in 26th and 27th place respectively, with less points than the American Modern Adventure Pro Cycling, which was created just a few months ago.