The rankings were topped for the first time by Belgian rider Greg Van Avermaet,[5] riding for the BMC Racing Team, who amassed 3,582 points with the newly-enlarged points-scoring system over the course of the season.
[9] Van Avermaet finished 130 points clear of Great Britain's Chris Froome, riding for Team Sky.
[11] The success gave him the World Tour points lead for several hours before Van Avermaet surpassed him with a seventh-place finish at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.
[2][14] An eleventh event, the Tour of Qatar, was originally added to the calendar in October 2016, but it was cancelled in December 2016 due to lack of sponsorship support.
In August 2017, the Association International des Groupes Cyclistes Professionels (AIGCP) agreed a deal with the UCI to avoid a boycott of the race, but no points would be awarded towards the World Tour rankings.