The competition started with the opening stage of the Tour Down Under on 19 January, and concluded with Il Lombardia on 1 October.
The title was won for the first time by Slovakian rider Peter Sagan for the Tinkoff team, scoring 669 points over the course of the season.
Second place went to Valverde's Movistar Team team-mate Nairo Quintana, 60 points behind Sagan; Quintana also won three races overall: the Volta a Catalunya, the Tour de Romandie and the season's final Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España.
Third place in the individual rankings went to Chris Froome (Team Sky), 45 points behind Quintana and 105 in arrears of Sagan.
[3] In November, the final WorldTeam licence was awarded to Team Dimension Data, which had previously competed at Professional Continental level as MTN–Qhubeka.
It was reported that the UCI Professional Continental teams attending the AIGCP General Assembly also supported the motion.
[10] However a month later, it was announced that WorldTeams would compete in the event, although not compulsory, and no points would be awarded towards the World Tour rankings.