UCI ProTour

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2006 UCI ProTour

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 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 World Cup races, such as Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders 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.

1 History
2 2006 ProTour calendar
3 List of current UCI ProTour teams
- 3.1 ProTour Results
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] 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 not having a system in place for a timely upgrade and downgrade of teams from/to the lower-tier UCI Continental Circuits.

[edit] 2006 ProTour calendar

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.

[edit] List of current UCI ProTour teams

Code	Official Team Name	Country	Website
AGR	Ag2r Prévoyance	Image:Flag of France.svg France	[1]
AWT	Astana Team	Image:Flag of Spain.svg Spain	[2]
BTL	Bouygues Télécom	Image:Flag of France.svg France	[3]
CEI	Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears	Image:Flag of Spain.svg Spain	[4]
COF	Cofidis, Le Crédit par Téléphone	Image:Flag of France.svg France	[5]
C.A	Crédit Agricole	Image:Flag of France.svg France	[6]
CSC	Team CSC	Image:Flag of Denmark.svg Denmark	[7]
DSC	Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team	Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States	[8]
DVL	Davitamon-Lotto	Image:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium	[9]
EUS	Euskaltel-Euskadi	Image:Flag of Spain.svg Spain	[10]
FDJ	Française des Jeux	Image:Flag of France.svg France	[11]
GST	Gerolsteiner	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany	[12]
LAM	Lampre-Fondital	Image:Flag of Italy.svg Italy	[13]
LIQ	Liquigas	Image:Flag of Italy.svg Italy	[14]
MRM	Team Milram	Image:Flag of Italy.svg Italy	[15]
PHO	Phonak Hearing Systems	Image:Flag of Switzerland.svg Switzerland	[16]
QSI	Quick Step-Innergetic	Image:Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Belgium	[17]
RAB	Rabobank	Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands	[18] (Dutch)
SDV	Saunier Duval-Prodir	Image:Flag of Spain.svg Spain	[19]
TMO	T-Mobile Team	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Germany	[20]

Note: Former co-title sponsors, Liberty Seguros and Wurth, rescinded each of their sponsorships of the team in the wake of a doping scandal. The team was renamed as Astana Team.