UCI ProTour
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The UCI ProTour is a competition under the International Cycling Union (UCI). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it is comprised of a series of road bicycle races and a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the competition. This system was created for 2005 and in many ways replaces the UCI Road World Cup series, which ended at the end of the 2004 season (although the World Cup did not include any stage races).
The ProTour includes the three Grand Tours, namely the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España. It also includes most of the former UCI Road World Cup races, such as Paris-Roubaix, Ronde van Vlaanderen and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
The ProTour licences are given to 20 teams, to which sponsors must commit 4 years of sponsorship. The exception is the Phonak team, which is given only a two-year licence due to previous doping allegations.
After 2005, the Fassa Bortolo and Domina Vacanze teams folded and the vacant places were given to AG2R Prévoyance and Team Milram respectively. Following the 2006 season the designated principal sponsor for the Phonak Hearing Systems team, iShares, pulled its support as a results of the Floyd Landis doping scandal and the team was disbanded. The Unibet.com Cycling Team received Phonak's ProTour license, and the Swiss/Kazakh-based Astana Team received the license previously owned by Manolo Saiz and his Liberty Seguros-Würth.
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History
Season-long competitions for professional road racing were first instituted in 1948, and continued until the late 1980s when the UCI instituted the UCI Road World Cup series which ran until 2004.
In replacing the World Cup, the ProTour was designed to follow the format of the Formula One motor-racing series, and was intended to address several concerns:
- The Grand Tours were not part of the UCI Road World Cup series
- Different riders and different teams targeted different types of races, making direct comparisons during competition difficult
- Team sponsorships tended to last only a very few years
- Many teams had financial difficulty in paying their riders and staff members
- Several teams had been plagued by doping issues
The UCI lobbied the organizers of the Grand Tours to participate in the ProTour, and was successful in obtaining their agreement despite prior disagreements and threats to completely pull out of the ProTour.
The ProTour has been criticized for not having a system in place for a timely upgrade and downgrade of teams from/to the lower-tier UCI Continental Circuits.
UCI versus Grand tour organisers
Originally, UCI and the organisers of the Grand Tour had been unable to come to terms on the 2006 UCI ProTour, with the result that the status of both the Grand Tours and some of the other races organised by the organisations behind the Grand Tours are unclear. A deal was finally reached on April 7. See the main article 2006 UCI ProTour for a list of races.
Template:Current news For the 2007 UCI ProTour season, the ASO, RCS and Unipublic, organisers of the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana respectively, remain at odds with each other. The primary reason is that grand tour organisers would like to have more freedom to invite popular national teams (e.g., UCI Professional Continental teams) and are attempting to exclude some UCI ProTour teams such as Unibet.com. The riders' organisation, the International Association of ProTour Cycling Teams (IPCT), has demanded a meeting betwwen the UCI and the Grand Tour organisers to settle the dispute.
List of current UCI ProTour teams
ProTour Results
- See UCI ProTour 2007 for reviews, points and results for the 2007 season.
- See UCI ProTour 2006 for reviews, points and results for the 2006 season.
- See UCI ProTour 2005 for reviews, points and results for the 2005 season.
| Year | Top Ranked Individual | Top Ranked Team | Top Ranked Nation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | To Be Determined | To Be Determined | To Be Determined |
| 2006 | Template:Country data ESP Alejandro Valverde Template:Country data ESP Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears | Template:Country data DEN Team CSC | Template:Country data Spain |
| 2005 | Template:Country data ITA Danilo Di Luca Template:Country data ITA Liquigas-Bianchi | Template:Country data DEN Team CSC | Template:Country data Italy |
See also
- Partial listing of major road races in 2005
- Union Cycliste International (UCI)
- List of UCI ProTour records
External links
- Official UCI ProTour website
- Official Union Cycliste Internationale website
- www.cyclingnews.com coverage of ProTour collapse, a 1-April joke
- REDIRECT Template:Cycling box start
Template:Road bicycle racing Template:Cycling season competitions Template:UCI ProTour
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