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The UCI ProTour logoUCI Cycling WorldCup was superseded by the UCI ProTour in 2005

Although each participating country have got it's own official tour website but the official website for the UCI Pro Tour is :

www.uciprotour.com

The UCI World Cup was a season-long competition for European professional racing cyclists, organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body of competitive cycling. First run in 1989 (but the third in a series of similar initiatives dating back to 1948), the WorldCup was superseded by the UCI ProTour in 2005.

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.

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.

After 2005, Fassa Bortolo team folded and the vacant place was given to AG2R Prévoyance.

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.
 

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