Team Columbia-HTC has received Eurosport's Number One Team ranking in the 2009 Classment Eurosport, and British rider Mark Cavendish tops the ranking as the number one cyclist in 2009. With three riders in the top ten and 86 wins during 2009, Team Columbia-HTC capped the team ranking with an impressive 7,253 points, ahead of Teams Astana and Saxo Bank by greater than a 40 percent gap.
The ranking is based on more than 160 races on the UCI calendar. Points are awarded to riders in the top ten of each race, the top 20 in the major Tours, stage winners and jersey wearers. According to the point totals published on www.fr.sports.yahoo.com/cyclisme, Cavendish, as the most successful rider of the season, scored a total of 3,193 points for his 23 victories riding for Columbia-HTC.
Team Columbia-HTC riders earned three of the top-ten individual spots, and Cavendish also topped the best young rider ranking.
"What sets our team apart," commented Columbia-HTC Directeur Sportif Rolf Aldag to his team's press office, "is we won races from January to October, including 17 Grand Tour stage wins, Milan-San Remo, Ghent-Wevelgem, six stage wins in the Tour of Switzerland, and seven national time trial championships titles. Together we can be proud of our results in 2009."