2005 UCI ProTour explained

2005 UCI ProTour
Edition:	1
Competition:	UCI ProTour
Dates:	March 6 – October 15
Location:	Europe
Rounds:	28
Nations Champion:
Previous:	2004 (UCI Road World Cup)
Next:	2006

The 2005 ProTour was the first year of the newly introduced UCI ProTour system, in which the ProTour teams are guaranteed, and obliged to, participate in the series of ProTour races. In certain ways the ProTour replaced the UCI Road World Cup series of one-day races, which in 2004 was won by one-day specialist Paolo Bettini for the third time in a row. The beginning of the ProTour saw difficult negotiations with the organizers of the Grand Tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.

Spring classics

Following tradition, had a strong showing in the early season, with a commanding control of the season opener Paris–Nice, placing American Bobby Julich on the top step of the General classification, combining his strong prologue individual time trial performance and good placing in the Mont Faron queen stage. Sprinter Alessandro Petacchi shed some weight over the winter and built up a strong base to win the classic Milan–San Remo convincingly, leading to speculation that he will be the undisputed Italian team leader for the World Cycling Championship in Madrid later in the season.

Belgian sprinter Tom Boonen of showed that he was the strongest kasseinfretter, or cobble-eater, by winning both the Tour of Flanders and Paris–Roubaix cobbled classics, propelling him to the top of the UCI ProTour rankings and thus earning him the white leaders jersey.

As the spring classics campaign continues, Bettini was plagued with injuries, but fellow one-day specialist Danilo Di Luca of found his best form in years and won the Tour of the Basque Country race. With his confidence boosted, he topped his form with wins in both La Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race, leading many to speculate that he would also win the Liège–Bastogne–Liège. However, Jens Voigt committed himself to long breakaways in both la Flèche and Liège, and in the later race was joined by Kazakh Alexander Vinokourov. Together they managed to keep the peloton behind, and Voigt was beaten in the final sprint by Vinokourov.

Grand tours

Having earned the ProTour white leader's jersey, Di Luca further increased his lead with a stage win and fourth place in the general classification of the 2005 Giro d'Italia, joining Gilberto Simoni of in igniting the queen mountain stage of Sestriere. The same race also saw Damiano Cunego, who finished at the top UCI ranking last year, fall ill. In the end, the descending skills and strong form of Paolo Savoldelli earned him the maglia rosa in Milan.

The 2005 Tour de France again brought Lance Armstrong to the win, extending his record for consecutive Tour wins to 7. Despite promises of igniting the race with the trio of Jan Ullrich, Andreas Klöden and Vinokourov, the failed to wrestle the race control from Armstrong's Discovery team, and allegations flew abound of internal dispute within the team. Instead Ivan Basso showed himself as a main contender, though he never seemed to pressure Armstrong. As in the previous editions, Armstrong's team launched a vicious attack on an early mountain stage to discourage other contenders from pursuing the top podium. Spanish racer Alejandro Valverde of showed that he is a serious contender for the future by not only staying with Armstrong, but by sprinting away to win the stage at the finale. However, both Valverde and green jersey contender Tom Boonen were forced to quit due to injuries.

The Vuelta brought an exciting race in which Denis Menchov was able to stave off attacks by Roberto Heras and his strong team until the closing days of the race. A choreographed attack by Liberty Seguros climbers, and Heras' thrilling ride down a treacherous descent, finally won him the leader's jersey. However, a doping scandal erupted two months after the Vuelta. Urine samples taken from Heras after the final time trial proved to be positive for EPO. Heras was stripped of what had been his record-setting fourth win, and Menchov was elevated to first place.

World championships

Belgian Tom Boonen had the confidence of the entire Belgian team, and won in style in Madrid. Petacchi, despite being the favorite, claimed to have suffered from a cold, and could not keep in contention as the peloton ascended the last climb before the finale. Valverde, having taken the Spanish team leadership after the injury of Óscar Freire, overcame his own injury to finish second, his second podium placing in race that tactically was not well-suited to his style.

The finale brought an exciting race as Paolo Bettini, having regained his form, was unleashed a little too late by Italian selector Franco Ballerini and nearly stayed away with Vinokourov in the closing meters of the race.

Summer and Autumn Classics

Having been left off the Tour de France lineup, Erik Zabel decided to join fellow sprinter Petacchi in the newly formed . As his last race with the T-Mobile team, Zabel took the sprinters classic Paris–Tours to end his career in style.

Smarting from his disappointment at the World Championships, Bettini won Züri-Metzgete convincingly, with a 40-km solo attack in the rain that was almost derailed by his chain dropping off his chainring after his first acceleration. Proving that he is a better climber than ever before, he won the climbers classic Giro di Lombardia in a three-way sprint with Gilberto Simoni and Fränk Schleck.

2005 ProTour results

Date	Race	Country	Winner	Team
March 6–13	Paris–Nice
March 9–15	Tirreno–Adriatico
March 19	Milan–San Remo
April 3	Tour of Flanders
April 5–9	Tour of the Basque Country
April 6	Gent–Wevelgem
April 10	Paris–Roubaix
April 17	Amstel Gold Race
April 20	La Flèche Wallonne
April 24	Liège–Bastogne–Liège
April 26 – May 1	Tour de Romandie
May 7–29	Giro d'Italia
May 16–22	Volta a Catalunya
June 5–12	Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré
June 11–19	Tour de Suisse
June 19	Eindhoven Team Time Trial		team event
July 2–24	Tour de France
July 31	HEW Cyclassics
August 3–10	Eneco Tour of Benelux
August 13	Clásica de San Sebastián
August 15–23	Deutschland Tour
August 27–18	Vuelta a España
August 28	GP Ouest-France
September 12–18	Tour de Pologne
September 25	Road World Championships
October 2	Züri-Metzgete
October 9	Paris–Tours
October 15

2005 ProTour Points System

	Tour de France	Giro d'Italia Vuelta a España	Milan–San Remo Tour of Flanders Paris–Roubaix Liège–Bastogne–Liège Giro di Lombardia Lesser stageraces	Lesser one-day races	World Cycling Championship
Overall Classement
1	100	85	50	40	50
2	75	65	40	30	40
3	60	50	35	25	35
4	55	45	30	20
5	50	40	25	15
6	45	35	20	11
7	40	30	15	7
8	35	26	10	5
9	30	22	5	3
10	25	19	1	1
11	20	16
12	15	13
13	12	11
14	9	9
15	7	7
16	5	5
17	4	4
18	3	3
19	2	2
20	1	1
Stage wins (if applicable)
1	3	3	1
2	2	2
3	1	1

2005 ProTour Individual Rankings

	Rider	Team	Points
1			229
2			171
3			151
4			140
5			139
6			136
7			131
8			130
9			130
10			129
11			128
12			111
13			110
14			109
15			107

Team Rankings

	Team	Points
1		390
2		353
3		349
4		322
5		320
6		303
7		293
8		274
9		264
10		262
11		258
12		253
13		245
14		244
15		228
16		211
17		183
18		161
19		147
20		130

Team classification winner got 20 points, second 19, third 18 etc. Wildcard teams didn't score points, but ProTour teams didn't move up either. For example, no team received 20 points in Vuelta as team competition was won by Comunidad Valenciana.

2005 ProTour Nation Rankings

	Country	Points
1		749	-	2		559	-	3		459	-	4		405	-	5		307	-	6		304	-	7		280	-	8		191	-	9		163	-	10		153
11		144	-	12		131	-	13		119	-	14		101	-	15		97	-	16		72	-	17		67	-	18		62	-	19		53	-	20		15	-	21		7	-	22		3	-	23		1

External links

• Official Website