Vollering Betters Pogačar with Near-Perfect Season and More Hot Takes from the Year-End Rankings

Demi Vollering just wrapped up the greatest season in the pro peloton.

The Dutchwoman obliterated the women’s UCI rankings with a season-long rout that won her the Giro d’Italia Women, Tour de France Femmes, road world championships, and a whole lot more.

Vollering topped the 2026 year-end rankings with a haul of 9,330 UCI points – some 65 percent more than second-place Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. Vollering’s Polish nemesis finished the year on 5,660 points.

Spanish super talent Paula Blasi rounded out her breakout season third in the rankings with 5,201 points.

Hot take?

Vollering’s season wasn’t only the best in the women’s road peloton.

It was more impressive than anything achieved on the men’s side of the sport, too.

This year, Vollering strung together a 2026 season even more dominant than Tadej Pogačar’s.

Yes, the Slovenian won the Tour de France for a record-equalling fifth time, unlocked Milan-San Remo, and topped the UCI league by echelons, despite racing for only six months.

He probably would have also won the Vuelta, worlds, and Il Lombardia if a brutal crash didn’t prematurely end his season.

But hypotheticals don’t count.

Vollering went full GOAT in 2026

In 2026, Vollering won two monuments, the world and European titles, and topped the GC of every stage-race she started.

The 29-year-old became only the second woman after Annemiek van Vleuten to complete the “triple crown” of Giro, Tour, and world championships.

And she hit the podium of every one-day road race she started bar Strade Bianche. Being directed off course (depending on your reading of the situation) at the sterrato classic will do that to one’s podium aspirations, we guess.

Vollering’s 2026 season was a masterpiece on-par with anything that GOATs like Van Vleuten, Anna van der Breggen, or Marianne Vos ever put together.

It was a Hall of Fame eight months that saw FDJ Suez’s superstar leader amass more UCI points than eight women’s WorldTour teams.

Dem Vollering: Rider of the year.

Gotta be.

The 2026 UCI rider and team rankings, and a ranking of rider victories, can be found at the bottom of this post.

Here is our breakdown and hot takes from the 2026 men’s rankings.

Wiebes wins, again

One thing Vollering didn’t do this year?

Be the winningest rider of the year.

But we’ll let her off.

Super-mega sprinter Lorena Wiebes was in her own orbit, again.

With a total of 24 victories, Wiebes won the most for the third year in a row. Not even a controversial bike weight disqualification at the Giro d’Italia slowed the 27-year-old’s High Speed Express.

Vollering ranked second in individual wins with 16.

The extent of Wiebes’ and Vollering’s dominance over the Women’s WorldTour is brutally clear if you scan further down the year-end victory table.

With “only” 8 and 7 wins apiece, some might think Marlen Reusser and Blasi in third and fourth were riding with brake rub in 2026.

A problem team and a (temporary?) super team

Some other interesting points?

Picnic-PostNL’s troubles are not isolated to the men’s peloton.

The under-scrutiny Dutch team is dead-last in the Women’s WorldTour rankings with a total of 2,450 points. That’s 11 percent of the most successful team, UAE L’Imad. The news that long-time leader Pfeiffer Georgi is headed for the exit door will compound Picnic-PostNL’s problems in 2027.

Speaking of UAE L’Imad – the Women’s WorldTour got a new superteam in 2026.

The UAE-based squad topped the UCI charts for the first time courtesy of its prolific leadership trident Blasi, Elisa Longo Borghini, and Dominika Wlodarczyk.

Former dominators FDJ United-Suez and SD Worx-ProTime went two-three, respectively.

But getting to the top ain’t the same as staying at the top.

UAE L’Imad’s winning season might be a one-and-done. Blasi’s blockbuster move to Movistar will blow a hole in her former UAE team in 2027.

Where’s Ferrand-Prévot?

Last up – take a look at the rankings again.

There’s a big name missing.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot bombed out of the top 20 after her incredible 2025 season.

PFP was woman of the year in 2025 after she won both Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France Femmes. This year, the template that had worked so well for the Frenchwoman went very wrong, and her form nosedived soon after spring.

Ferrand-Prévot’s year-end ranking of 31st says a lot about her winless annus horribilis.

But it might not paint the fairest picture.

Ferrand-Prévot wasn’t near the top of the board in 2025, either. The 34-year-old races so selectively that she finished only 13th in 2025. She doesn’t care about points; she cares about history and legacy.

2026 was no doubt a season PFP will be hoping gets lost in the mists of time.

Women’s 2026 rankings

UCI points: Individual top-20

UCI points: Women’s WorldTour teams

Individual wins: Top-10