UCI ProTour

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UCI ProTour logo

The UCI ProTour was from the International Cycling Union UCI organized series of major cycling races in road cycling that the since 2005 UCI Road World Cup and the UCI World Ranking replaced. In 2009 and 2010, the UCI ProTour together with the so-called historical calendar formed the UCI World Calendar 2009 and 2010 respectively . At the end of the 2010 season, the ProTour was combined with the historical calendar to form the UCI WorldTour .

run

From 2005 to 2007, the ProTour included both the most important stage races (including the “Grand Tours” Tour de France , Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España ) and the most important one-day races (including all races of the previous cycling World Cup ). In total, the ProTour comprised up to 27 bike races in these three years.

The races of the large organizer groups Amaury Sport Organization , RCS MediaGroup and Unipublic (including the Tour der France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España) had a special role from the start , cf. "Conflicts and the end of the ProTour" . After years of controversy, these races were completely eliminated from the ProTour in the 2008 season and, with the exception of Paris Tours, were included in a "historical calendar". The historical calendar initially formed the UCI World Calendar with the ProTour races from 2009 and was included in the new UCI WorldTour in 2011. The races of the historical calendar are in the following list of hist. Marked.

Below the Pro Tour, the UCI established the UCI Continental Circuits ( UCI Africa Tour , UCI America Tour , UCI Asia Tour , UCI Europe Tour and UCI Oceania Tour ) in 2005 .

One day race

Monuments of cycling

other one-day races

other races

Stage race

Big tours

other stage races

* The road cycling world championship is not an official part of the ProTour, as only national teams, not ProTeams, can take part in the world championship. However, the individual result of the 2005 World Cup was included in the ProTour classification

hist. = part of the historical calendar from 2008

Teams

With the introduction of the UCI ProTour, the UCI undertook a reorganization of the international cycling teams , which essentially still exists today.

The UCI ProTeam had the right and the duty to take part in all ProTour races. Since the UCI ProTour was introduced, the UCI has issued up to 20 ProTour licenses - which is why the teams were often imprecisely referred to as “ProTour teams” - for up to 4 years on the basis of sporting, ethical, financial and administrative criteria. Since the sporting value was not checked during the term of the license, a descent of a UCI ProTeam was not possible due to unsuccessfulness.

In addition, the Professional Continental Teams could be invited by the respective organizer of a race. As of the 2009 season, only those Professional Continental Teams could be invited that had previously received a “wild card label” from the UCI on the basis of sporting, legal, administrative and ethical criteria.

A national team from the host country was also entitled to participate in individual races such as the Tour Down Under or the Tour of Poland .

Scoring scheme 2005–2008

In the years 2005 to 2008 there was a ProTour rating 2005-2008. With the elimination of the “historic races” from the ProTour in the 2008 season, this rating lost its importance. In 2009 and 2010 the ProTour was part of the UCI World Calendar 2009 and 2010 with a joint UCI World Ranking; there was no longer an overall ProTour ranking.

Individual evaluation

space Tour de France Giro d'Italia,
Vuelta a España
the five “monuments
of cycling”,
other stage races
other
one-day races
Road World Championships
Overall rating
1. 100 85 50 40 (50)
2. 75 65 40 30th (40)
3. 60 50 35 25th (35)
4th 55 45 30th 20th
5. 50 40 25th 15th
6th 45 35 20th 11
7th 40 30th 15th 7th
8th. 35 26th 10 5
9. 30th 22nd 5 3
10. 25th 19th 2 1
11. 20th 16
12. 15th 13
13. 12 11
14th 10 9
15th 8th 7th
16. 6th 5
17th 5 4th
18th 4th 3
19th 3 2
20th 2 1
Stage win (changed from 2006)
1. 10 8th 3
2. 5 4th 2
3. 3 2 1

(x) = no points for the World Championships from ProTour 2006

italics = other changes in 2006

After the Tour de France, the Giro d´Italia, the Vuelta a España and the other "historic races" were eliminated in 2008, no more points were awarded in these races.

Team ranking

In the team ranking , every ProTour race had the same value. The team that was best placed in a ProTour race received 20 points, the 2nd then 19 points, up to the last team, which received 1 point. The team ranking of the individual races was as follows: In stage races, the ProTour team ranking corresponded to the team ranking based on time (addition of the three best times per stage). In one-day races, the placements of the top three drivers in the race counted.

Nations ranking

The points of the five best-placed drivers in each country in the individual standings were decisive for the nation ranking. The sum of the points resulted in the number of points for a country in the national ranking.

winner

year Driver ranking Team ranking Nations ranking
2005 ItalyItaly Danilo Di Luca DenmarkDenmark Team CSC ItalyItaly Italy
2006 SpainSpain Alejandro Valverde DenmarkDenmark Team CSC SpainSpain Spain
2007 AustraliaAustralia Cadel Evans DenmarkDenmark Team CSC SpainSpain Spain
2008 SpainSpain Alejandro Valverde SpainSpain Caisse d'Epargne SpainSpain Spain

The UCI ProTour 2009 and 2010 no longer had separate ratings. Rather, a uniform ranking was carried out together with the "historic races" as part of the UCI World Calendar 2009 and 2010 respectively .

Conflict and End

The largest race organizers ASO (including Tour de France), RCS-Sport (including Giro d'Italia) and Unipublic ( Vuelta a España ) refused to include their races in the UCI ProTour from the start. In particular, they objected to the right to start of the 20 licensed ProTeams, which restricted the possibilities of inviting other teams via wildcard as well as excluding teams from participation due to ethical criteria. They also rejected the ProTour licensing system because the teams could not go up and down in sport. Nevertheless, the UCI, the world cycling association, added a total of eleven races of the three organizers to the ProTour calendar.

The race organizers opposed to the UCI ProTour did not accept this inclusion and always reserved the right not to apply the UCI ProTour participation rules. In 2007 they did not invite the then ProTeams Unibet.com and Astana to their races. The outsourcing of the races from the UCI ProTour 2008 did not end the conflict either. The dispute escalated in 2008 after the ASO declared that the Paris – Nice stage race would be held as a “French national race”. The UCI threatened all participating teams and drivers with sanctions; these started nevertheless and decided the power struggle in favor of the OSA. For the ProTeams, their status became worthless. They declared closed with the end of the 2008 season to return their licenses. The end of the UCI ProTour seemed sealed.

A change in the business policy of the ASO and the mediation by the IOC made a compromise possible. The "rebel races" were summarized in a "historical calendar" with its own rules of participation, with the exception of Paris Tours, which was subdivided into the UCI Europe Tour . The “historical calendar” formed the UCI World Calendar 2009 and 2010 with the UCI ProTour .

With the end of the 2010 season, the story of the UCI ProTour ended. It was replaced by the UCI WorldTour , which met the concerns of the ASO, RCS and Unipublic with new ProTeam licensing criteria, in particular the reduction of ProTeams from 20 to 18 and the possibility of relegation due to unsuccessful sport.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. cf. UCI street calendar , accessed April 3, 2011
  2. a b http://www.cyclingnews.com of September 7, 2007: Grand Tours out of the ProTour
  3. a b UCI press release from October 1st 2010 on the introduction of the World Tour  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.uci.ch  
  4. cf. List of UCI teams , accessed April 3, 2011
  5. UCI press release of February 10, 2009 on the allocation of wildcard labels  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.uci.ch  
  6. ^ Link collection from www.cyclingnews.com on the overall conflict , accessed on April 3, 2011
  7. http://www.cyclingnews.com of April 7, 2007: UCI begins legal action against ASO
  8. http: //www.cyclingnews  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of March 8, 2008: “Teams vote on Paris-Nice participation” and a.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.cyclingnews  
  9. radsport-news.com from July 15, 2008: ProTour at the end - teams give back their licenses
  10. http: //www.radsportnews  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of September 26, 2008: Agreement between ASO and UCI@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.radsportnews