UCI ProTour
From Freepedia
The UCI ProTour is a competition comprising 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 is new to 2005 and in many ways replaces the UCI World Cup series, which ended at the end of the 2004 season.
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 World Cup races, such as Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders and Liege-Bastogne-Liege.
The ProTour licenses are given to 20 teams, which sponsors must commit to 4 years of sponsorship. The exception is the Phonak team, which is given only a 2-year license due to previous doping allegations.
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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 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 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 fear of not having a system in place for a timely upgrade and downgrade of teams from/to the lower-tier UCI Continental Circuits.
