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 First run in 1989 (but the third in a series of similar initiatives dating back to 1948), the World Cup was superseded by the UCI ProTour in 2005. This article is about the continent. ... A cyclist is a person who engages in cycling whether as a sport or rides a bicycle for recreation or transportation. ... Entrance of UCI headquarter at Aigle (Switzerland) Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is a professional cycling union that oversees cycling events in the international community. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1948 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 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. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2005(MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

History

The origins of the World Cup (and therefore the ProTour) date back to the 1940s. After World War II, professional cycle racing was becoming increasingly international, and the organisers of the leading stage races and Classic one-day races decided to create a competition to determine who was the best professional road-racing cyclist. The UCI World Cup was the third manifestation of this effort. Jump to: navigation, search World War II was a truly global conflict with many facets: immense human suffering, fierce indoctrinations, and the use of new, extremely devastating weapons such as the atom bomb World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a mid-20th-century conflict that... The Classic cycle races are the most prestigious one-day professional cycling road races in Europe. ...

Challenge Desgrange-Colombo

Named after Henri Desgrange and Emilio Colombo, two great sports journalists and organisers, the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo was organised by the newspapers L'Équipe, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Het Nieuwsblad-Sportwereld and Les Sports, and ran from 1948 until 1958. Henri Desgrange (1865 in Paris, France - 1940 in Beauvallon, France) was a competitive bicycle racer and French sports journalist. ... LEquipe logo LÉquipe (French for the team) is a French nationwide daily newspaper devoted to sports. ... La Gazzetta dello Sport is an Italian newspaper dedicated to coverage of various sports. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Riders' performances in the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Tour of Flanders, La Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Brussels, Paris-Tours and the Tour of Lombardy all counted towards the competition. The Tour of Switzerland was added in 1949, the Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 1951, and the Vuelta a España was included in 1958. Jump to: navigation, search The Tour de France (French for Tour of France), often referred to as La Grande Boucle, Le Tour or The Tour, is an epic long distance road bicycle racing competition for professionals held over three weeks in July in and around France. ... The Giro dItalia, also simply known as the Giro, is a long distance road bicycle race for professionals held over three weeks in May or early June in and around Italy. ... Milan - San Remo, nicknamed la primavera, is an annual cycling race between Milan and San Remo. ... Begun in 1896, Paris-Roubaix, third of the ten UCI World Cup races, has become the most famous single-day bicycle road race. ... The Tour of Flanders (Dutch: Ronde van Vlaanderen) is a road cycling race held in Flanders, Belgium. ... La Flèche Wallonne is a major professional cycle road race held in April each year in Belgium. ... Paris-Brussels is a semi classic European bicycle race. ... Paris-Tours is a French single day classic cycling race which takes place in October towards the end of the European season. ... The Tour of Lombardy (Italian: Giro di Lombardia) is an Italian cycling race. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1949 is a common year starting on Saturday. ... Liège-Bastogne-Liège, often called La Doyenne (the oldest woman), is one of the five Monuments of the European professional road cycling calendar, and the oldest. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1951 was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... The Vuelta a España bicycle race is one of the three Grand Tours of Europe and, after the Tour de France and the Giro dItalia, the third most important road cycling stage race in the world. ...

The first winner was Belgian Briek Schotte (winner of the 1948 Tour of Flanders and also World road race champion that year). The 1949 version was won by the great Italian Fausto Coppi while the 1950 edition went to the Swiss Ferdi Kubler. Kubler won the Challenge Desgrange-Colombo three times (he added victories in 1952 and 1954) - a record equalled by Fred de Bruyne, who won the last three editions from 1956 to 1958. Alberic Briek Schotte ( September 19, 1919 - April 4, 2004) was a Belgian cyclist. ... The professional World Cycling Championship is organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), and is a single massed start road race, the winner being the first across the line at the completion of the full race distance. ... Fausto Coppi (September 15, 1919 in Castellania (Province of Alessandria), Italy, - January 2, 1960 in Tortona, Italy) was an Italian racing cyclist. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1952 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A belgian cyclist champion. ... 1956 was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Super Prestige Pernod International

Disagreements between the organisers then led to its demise, but another version of the competition was resurrected as the Super Prestige Pernod International in 1961. Points were awarded in a series of races and the winner of the overall points classification was given an award at the end of the season. This continued until 1987 when France introduced a ban on sports sponsorship by alcohol brands, including Pernod. Jump to: navigation, search 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Pernod Ricard is a French company producing alcoholic beverages. ...

Like its predecessor, the Super Prestige Pernod International was won by some of the greatest names in professional cycle racing. The first winner, in 1961 was France's Jacques Anquetil (who later won it three more times); Belgian Eddy Merckx won it a record seven times (1969-1975 inclusive); Bernard Hinault equalled Anquetil's total with his fourth consecutive victory in 1982; while the final four years were dominated by Ireland: Sean Kelly won three times (1984-1986) and Stephen Roche won the final edition in 1987. Jump to: navigation, search 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jacques Anquetil (January 8, 1934 - November 18, 1987), was a French cyclist and the first cyclist to win the Tour de France five times, in 1957 and from 1961 to 1964. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Bernard Hinault (born 14 November 1954) is a French cyclist best known for his five victories in the Tour de France. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1982 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search Sean Kelly, or John James Kelly (born May 24, 1956, Waterford, Republic of Ireland but raised near Carrick-on-Suir, Co. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Stephen Roche (born November 28, 1959 in Dundrum near Dublin, Ireland) is a retired professional cyclist. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1987 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

UCI World Cup

From 1988 until 2004, the competition was reborn as the UCI World Cup. The first years' competitions (up to 1991) were sponsored by Perrier, but fewer events counted towards the overall competition - which was essentially focused on one-day road races. Perrier bottles have a peculiar, instantly recognizable shape. ...

The first winner was Stephen Rooks. The record number of wins was Paolo Bettini's three consecutive wins in 2002, 2003, and the last edition in 2004. Three riders won the competition twice: Maurizio Fondriest (1991 and 1993), Johan Museeuw (1995 and 1996) and Michele Bartoli (1997 and 1998). Paolo Bettini (born April 1, 1974 in Cecina, Livorno province, Italy) is an Italian road cyclist with the Belgian Quick. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2002(MMII) is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2003(MMIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 2004(MMIV) is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Johan Museeuw (born October 13, 1965) was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1996 is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... Categories: Possible copyright violations ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

As well as the individual UCI World Cup, there was also a parallel annual competition for the best professional cycling team, first run in 1986, and also now superseded by the UCI ProTour. A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races of any kind, whether they are recreational or professional. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1986 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

UCI World Rankings

Like professional tennis, professional cycling also produced world rankings. These were first instituted by the UCI in 1984. Tennis balls This article is about the sport, tennis. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1984 is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sean Kelly of Ireland was the first rider to be ranked world number 1 in March 1984 and was the year-end rankings leader for six years from 1984 to 1989 inclusive. The only other rider to come close to Kelly's dominance was Laurent Jalabert who topped the rankings four times, from 1995 to 1997 and again in 1999. Sean Kelly is the name of more than one person: Sean Kelly, an Irish cyclist Sean Kelly. ... Photograph of Laurent Jalabert, present at the arrival of the Tour dAlsace at the Ballon dAlsace, France, 2005 // Biography Laurent Jalabert was born in France in 1968, a professional cyclist from 1989-2002. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1997 is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...