List of world number one in men's road cycling

Primož Roglič , currently leader of the world rankings

With over five years of age, Sean Kelly led the world rankings like no other racing driver.

The list of world number one in road cycling for men lists all the leaders of the UCI world rankings for men in the rider rankings from their introduction on March 1, 1984 to their termination at the end of 2004, as well as the respective leaders since their reintroduction on January 11, 2016.

The site first lists all leaders in the ranking in chronological order. In further tables the world number one at the end of the year and the individual players who occupied the number 1 position are shown, sorted according to their number of days at the top of the ranking list. In the case of the first in the world rankings at the end of the year, the leaders at the end of the respective top-class successor in the world rankings for the years 2005 to 2015 are shown. Since these follow-up evaluations were season rankings and not 52-week rankings, these drivers do not appear in the ongoing overview of the world number one. When the world rankings were reintroduced in 2016, all drivers started with 0 points; In this respect, the points from the previous season were not converted to determine the world number one at the start of the season. The world rankings for 2016 therefore do not take into account a 52-week period; the corresponding leaders are nevertheless also listed in the chronological overview, since they were officially first in the world rankings.

A total of 24 racing drivers held the top position in the world rankings. First world number one was Irishman Sean Kelly , who kept the No. 1 position for over 271 weeks for five years in a row, which is the record for weeks in a row at the top of the world list as well as in absolute terms. The last world number one before the world rankings were set in favor of the new ratings of the UCI ProTour and UCI Continental Circuits on December 31, 2004 was the Italian Damiano Cunego . First world number one after the reintroduction in 2016 was New Zealander Jason Christie . The current leader in the ranking is Primož Roglič from Slovenia .

With Jan Ullrich and Erik Zabel as well as Tony Rominger and Alex Zülle , two German and two Swiss racing cyclists occupied the top position in the world rankings.

World number one in the course of the year

First in the world since 2016

• No .: Indicates how many athletes at the top of the world rankings was the driver.
• Nat .: Indicates the nationality of the driver.
• Driver: Indicates the name of the driver. Driver names in italics mean that the world ranking was never based on a 52-week period within the relevant series.
• From: Indicates the day the driver reached the No. 1 position.
• to: Indicates the day on which the driver was last leader of the world rankings within the respective series.
• Weeks: Indicates the number of weeks (partly rounded) that the driver topped the world rankings during the respective series.

No.	Nat.	driver	from	to	Weeks	source
1		Sean Kelly	March 1, 1984	May 14, 1989	271.6
2		Charly Mottet	May 15, 1989	July 22, 1989	9.9
3		Laurent Fignon	July 23, 1989	5th August 1989	2
		Charly Mottet	August 6, 1989	September 29, 1989	7.9
		Laurent Fignon	September 30, 1989	June 5th 1990	35.6
4th		Gianni Bugno	June 6, 1990	June 15, 1991	53.6
5		Claudio Chiappucci	June 16, 1991	June 29, 1991	2
		Gianni Bugno	June 30, 1991	June 13, 1992	50
6th		Miguel Indurain	June 14, 1992	June 11, 1994	104
7th		Tony Rominger	June 12, 1994	September 24, 1995	67.1
8th		Laurent Jalabert	September 25, 1995	October 9, 1996	54.4
9		Alex Zülle	October 10, 1996	October 26, 1996	2.4
		Laurent Jalabert	October 27, 1996	March 8, 1997	19th
		Alex Zülle	March 9, 1997	April 5, 1997	4th
		Laurent Jalabert	April 6, 1997	October 9, 1998	78.9
10		Michele Bartoli	October 10, 1998	June 5, 1999	34.1
		Laurent Jalabert	June 6, 1999	June 3, 2000	52
11		Francesco Casagrande	June 4, 2000	August 19, 2000	11
12		Jan Ullrich	August 20, 2000	September 16, 2000	4th
		Francesco Casagrande	September 17, 2000	June 9, 2001	38
13		Davide rebel	June 10, 2001	June 30, 2001	3
14th		Lance Armstrong	July 1, 2001	September 29, 2001	13
15th		Erik Zabel	September 30, 2001	March 23, 2002	25th
16		Erik Dekker	March 24, 2002	April 6, 2002	2
		Erik Zabel	April 7, 2002	March 22, 2003	50
17th		Paolo Bettini	March 23, 2003	April 5, 2003	2
		Erik Zabel	April 6, 2003	June 28, 2003	12
		Paolo Bettini	June 29, 2003	October 4, 2003	14th
		Erik Zabel	October 5, 2003	October 11, 2003	1
		Paolo Bettini	October 12, 2003	February 21, 2004	19th
		Erik Zabel	February 22, 2004	May 8, 2004	11
		Paolo Bettini	May 9, 2004	May 29, 2004	3
		Erik Zabel	May 30, 2004	June 26, 2004	4th
18th		Alessandro Petacchi	June 27, 2004	July 24, 2004	4th
		Erik Zabel	July 25, 2004	August 14, 2004	3
		Paolo Bettini	August 15, 2004	October 2, 2004	7th
		Erik Zabel	October 3, 2004	October 9, 2004	1
		Paolo Bettini	October 10, 2004	October 16, 2004	1
19th		Damiano Cunego	October 17, 2004	December 31, 2004	10.9
		-	January 1, 2005	January 10, 2016
20th		Jason Christie	January 11, 2016	January 24, 2016	2
21st		Simon Gerrans	January 25, 2016	March 13, 2016	7th
22nd		Richie Porte	March 14, 2016	March 20, 2016	1
23		Greg Van Avermaet	March 21, 2016	March 27, 2016	1
24		Peter Sagan	March 28, 2016	April 9, 2017	54
		Greg Van Avermaet	April 10, 2017	March 3, 2018	47
25th		Chris Froome	4th March 2018	April 14, 2018	5
		Peter Sagan	April 15, 2018	May 26, 2018	5
		Chris Froome	May 27, 2018	July 21, 2018	8th
		Peter Sagan	July 22, 2018	22nd September 2018	9
26th		Alejandro Valverde	23rd September 2018	23 March 2019	26th
27		Julian Alaphilippe	March 24, 2019	September 14, 2019	25th
28		Primož Roglič	15th September 2019	17th March 2020	26th
		(Primož Roglič)	March 18, 2020	current

Status: July 20, 2020

World number one at the end of the season

Note: The number in brackets after the driver's name indicates the number of times the driver was able to finish a season at the top of the world ranking at any given time. The winners of the seasonal ratings, which were no longer based on a 52-week system and no longer included all UCI races, are shown in italics .

year	driver	year	driver	year	driver	year	driver
1984	Sean Kelly	1995	Laurent Jalabert	2006	Alejandro Valverde 1	2017	Greg Van Avermaet
1985	Sean Kelly (2)	1996	Laurent Jalabert (2)	2007	Cadel Evans 1st	2018	Alejandro Valverde (5)
1986	Sean Kelly (3)	1997	Laurent Jalabert (3)	2008	Alejandro Valverde 1 (2)	2019	Primož Roglič
1987	Sean Kelly (4)	1998	Michele Bartoli	2009	Alberto Contador 2
1988	Sean Kelly (5)	1999	Laurent Jalabert (4)	2010	Joaquim Rodríguez 2
1989	Laurent Fignon	2000	Francesco Casagrande	2011	Philippe Gilbert 3
1990	Gianni Bugno	2001	Erik Zabel	2012	Joaquim Rodríguez 3 (2)
1991	Gianni Bugno (2)	2002	Erik Zabel (2)	2013	Joaquim Rodríguez 3 (3)
1992	Miguel Indurain	2003	Paolo Bettini	2014	Alejandro Valverde 3 (3)
1993	Miguel Indurain (2)	2004	Damiano Cunego	2015	Alejandro Valverde 3 (4)
1994	Tony Rominger	2005	Danilo Di Luca 1	2016	Peter Sagan

¹Winner of the individual classification of the UCI ProTour .

²Winner of the individual ranking of the UCI World Calendar .

³Winner of the individual classification of the UCI WorldTour .

Driver at the top of the world rankings after weeks

• No .: Indicates the position of the driver in the list.
• Nat .: Indicates the nationality of the driver.
• Driver: Indicates the name of the driver. The current leader is highlighted in color. Driver names shown in italics mean that the driver topped the world rankings only at times when this was not based on a 52-week period.
• First time on: Indicates the date on which the driver was at the top of the world rankings for the first time.
• Weeks: Indicates the number of weeks (partly rounded) that the driver was at the top of the world rankings. The position in the table is also based on this value.
• Series: Indicates the number of weeks (partially rounded) that the driver has been at the top of the world rankings without interruption during his longest series.

No.	Nat.	driver	first on	Weeks	series
1.		Sean Kelly	March 1, 1984	271.6	271.6
2.		Laurent Jalabert	September 25, 1995	204.3	78.9
3.		Erik Zabel	September 30, 2001	107	50
4th		Miguel Indurain	June 14, 1992	104	104
5.		Gianni Bugno	June 6, 1990	103.6	53.6
6th		Peter Sagan	March 28, 2016	68	54
7th		Tony Rominger	June 12, 1994	67.1	67.1
8th.		Francesco Casagrande	June 4, 2000	49	38
9.		Greg Van Avermaet	March 21, 2016	48	47
10.		Paolo Bettini	March 23, 2003	46	19th
11.		Laurent Fignon	July 23, 1989	37.6	35.6
12.		Michele Bartoli	October 10, 1998	34.1	34.1
13.		Alejandro Valverde	23rd September 2018	26th	26th
13.		Primož Roglič	15th September 2019	26th	26th
15th		Julian Alaphilippe	March 24, 2019	25th	25th
16.		Charly Mottet	May 15, 1989	17.7	9.9
17th		Lance Armstrong	July 1, 2001	13	13
18th		Chris Froome	4th March 2018	13	8th
19th		Damiano Cunego	October 17, 2004	10.9	10.9
20th		Simon Gerrans	January 25, 2016	7th	7th
21st		Alex Zülle	October 10, 1996	6.4	4th
22nd		Alessandro Petacchi	June 27, 2004	4th	4th
23.		Jan Ullrich	August 20, 2000	4th	4th
24.		Davide rebel	June 10, 2001	3	3
25th		Claudio Chiappucci	June 16, 1991	2	2
25th		Jason Christie	January 11, 2016	2	2
25th		Erik Dekker	March 24, 2002	2	2
28.		Richie Porte	March 14, 2016	1	1

Status: July 20, 2020

References and comments

1. ↑ See Launch of a new UCI World Ranking , UCI press release of December 24, 2015.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y} UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking Chronology Chart
3. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 23.03.2003 (PDF; 392 kB)
4. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of April 6, 2003 (PDF; 460 kB)
5. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 06/26/2003 (PDF; 427 kB)
6. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 05.10.2003 (PDF; 187 kB)
7. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of October 12, 2003 (PDF; 184 kB)
8. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 02/22/2004 (PDF; 355 kB)
9. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 09.05.2004 (PDF; 359 kB)
10. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 05/30/2004 (PDF; 360 kB)
11. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of June 27, 2004 (revised) (PDF; 356 kB)
12. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 25.07.2004 (revised) (PDF; 356 kB)
13. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 08/15/2004 (PDF; 322 kB)
14. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 03.10.2004 (revised) (PDF; 359 kB)
15. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 10.10.2004 (revised) (PDF; 360 kB)
16. ↑ UCI Road Ranking Elite-Men Individual Ranking as of 17.10.2004 (revised) (PDF; 360 kB)
17. ↑ In 2015, the UCI had already tried to reintroduce the world rankings. On January 19, 2015, a world ranking was published (based only on the races held up to then in 2015), which was topped by the Venezuelan José Rujano and the Spaniard Francisco Mancebo with equal points (see dailymail.co.uk of January 19, 2015, accessed on March 22, 2016). After just one week, the rating was discontinued in favor of the WorldTour and Continental Circuit ratings.
18. ↑ After racing had to be interrupted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic , the world rankings were frozen at the status of March 17, 2020.

Web links

• UCI ranking archive until 2005
• UCI rankings