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Alejandro Valverde to finish year as world No 1 as Alberto Contador pulls out of Tour of Beijing

Image: Alejandro Valverde leads the UCI WorldTour rider rankings on 686 points

Alejandro Valverde will end the season as the world’s No 1-ranked rider after his closest rival, Alberto Contador, pulled out of this weekend’s Tour of Beijing.

Valverde overtook his fellow Spaniard at the top of the UCI WorldTour standings by finishing second at Il Lombardia on Sunday and now has 686 points to Contador’s 620.

Both men had been pencilled in to race the Tour of Beijing, which takes place from October 10-14, but Contador crashed towards the end of Il Lombardia and injured his knee.

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He tweeted on Monday: “Bad news. Training today, hardly could pedal because of the knee, finally I don't go to China. Next thing is to do an MRI and start thinking of 2015.”

Valverde has also since pulled out of the Tour of Beijing, with his Movistar team citing the recent birth of his child as the reason.

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