UCI PROTOUR

The 'UCI ProTour' is a competition under the International Cycling Union (UCI). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises 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.
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Contents

Licensing

History

UCI versus Grand tour organisers

List of current UCI ProTour teams

ProTour Results

See also

External links

Licensing

The ProTour licences are given to 20 teams, to which sponsors must commit 4 years of sponsorship. The exception is the Phonak team, which was 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.

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.
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 between the UCI and the Grand Tour organisers to settle the dispute.

List of current UCI ProTour teams

Code	Official Team Name	Country	Website
AGR	AG2R Prévoyance		ag2r-cyclisme.com
AST	Astana Team		team-astana.eu
BTL	Bouygues Télécom		equipebouyguestelecom.fr
GCE	Caisse d'Epargne		cyclisme-caisse-epargne.fr
COF	Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone		equipe-cofidis.com
C.A	Crédit Agricole		credit-agricole.fr
CSC	Team CSC		team-csc.com
DSC	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team		team.discovery.com
EUS	Euskaltel-Euskadi		fundacioneuskadi.com
FDJ	Française des Jeux		fdjeux.com
GST	Gerolsteiner		gerolsteiner.de
LAM	Lampre-Fondital		lampre-fondital.com
LIQ	Liquigas		teamliquigas.it
MRM	Team Milram		team-milram.de
PRL	Predictor-Lotto		davitamon-lotto.com
QSI	Quick Step-Innergetic		qsi-cycling.com
RAB	Rabobank		rabobank.nl
SDV	Saunier Duval-Prodir		saunierduvalteam.com
TMO	T-Mobile Team		t-mobile-team.com
UNI	Unibet.com Cycling Team		unibetcycling.com

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'	'Alejandro Valverde' Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears	'Team CSC'	''
'2005'	'Danilo Di Luca' Liquigas-Bianchi	'Team CSC'	''

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