Alpecin Phoenix, with Mathieu Van Der Pol, has moved to the top of the latest UCI Europe Tour rankings.

The Belgian team leads the latest ranking released on Thursday with 3,492 points, 73 points ahead of Arkea Samsic. Van der Pol's performance overturned a 319-point deficit to the French team.

His victory in the Bink Bank Tour added 450 points to their total, while Gianni Vermeersch, Jonas Rickert, and Tim Merlier earned 64 points in the race. Meanwhile, Petr Vacocheu and Louis Verweke earned 44 points in La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Arkea Samsic has earned 367 points since the September 29 ranking, while Warren Barguil has 320 points in Flèche and Liège.

Alpecin Phoenix is the overwhelming favorite to top the 2021 ranking, despite the fact that both teams are separated by only a few points at this late point in the season. [Neither team has competed in the two biggest point-getters, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España. In fact, Arkea-Samsic will not compete in the remaining World Tour events, while Alpecin Phoenix will compete in Ghent-Wevelgem, Tour de Flanders, Dreiderghe Brugge-des-Pannes, and Paris-Roubaix.

Van der Pol will lead the team outside of De Panne and will also participate in Wednesday's 1. Pro Rank Brabantse Pijl. Alcare Samsic's hopes for a European Tour victory rest on Wednesday's Warren Barguil and Nasser Bouhanni in Paris-Tours and Scheldepri.

Alpecin Phoenix's current standings owe much to Van der Pol's 1,290 point haul. Other 625 point hauls include victories in the Antwerp Port Epic, Brussels Cycling Classic, Dwars Door Het Hagelan, and the Belgian Championship road race by Vermeersch, Mellier, Rickert, and Dries de Bont.

If a team finishes the season at the top of the European Tour, it is automatically invited to race the World Tour in 2021.

They can choose their calendar, as 2019 ranking winner Total Direct Energy did this season, and the spring classics and Van der Pol's Tour de France debut will likely be their focus.

"Mathieu Van der Pol is undeniably a great engine, but it would not have been possible with him alone," team co-director Philippe Rudhoft told Wielerflits (open in new tab). If we had succeeded, it would have been a true team effort, with Mathieu as the perfect leader." [Let's be honest. Let's be honest. Right now we are not ready to join the World Tour. We will continue to strengthen our team and we will get a top rider in Yasper Philipsen.

"We don't have the team to complete all three Grand Tours and the entire World Tour program. So this scenario is more interesting. But let's not sell bearskin. We still have a number of races ahead of us."