UCI ProTour
March 9th, 2007 |
I think the UCI made a mistake in replacing the World Cup with the ProTour in 2005.
The World Cup was a series of 10 single day road events that took place through out Europe. The series would kick off with Milan-San Remo (Italy) in the spring and be followed by the Tour of Flanders (Belgium), Paris-Roubaix (France), Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands), Liège-Bastogne-Liège (Belgium) and the HEW Cup (Germany). The World Cup season would then take a break for the Minor Tours (Romandie, Dauphiné Libéré, Switzerland) and the Grand Tours (Italy, France and Spain). Following the tours the World Cup season would start back up with San Sebastian (Spain), the Championship of Zurich (Switzerland), Paris-Tours (France) and wrap up with the Tour of Lombardy (Italy). The results of each event in the World Cup was scored on a sliding scale from 1st to 20th place and the leader of the World Cup would wear a special jersey denoting his lead in the series. The World Cup ran from 1989 to 2004 and each year became more popular with fans and professional racers. It was easy for the fans to follow and became a real target for riders that specialized in single day classic events and who would most likely never have a shot at winning a major tour. In its inherent wisdom, the UCI scrapped the whole thing in favor of the ProTour.
The ProTour includes all of the classic races listed above, all three Grand Tours, as well as some of the minor tours and single day classic events. A team time trial is also included in the series. Teams are “pre-qualified” to participate in the ProTour which forces them to take part in all ProTour events during the season, but also guaranties them an entry into the event (with the current exception of Unibet and Astana, this is now under litigation). As opposed to the standard sliding scale used in the World Cup, the ProTour uses a convoluted scoring system that weighs the Tour de France as the most important event, followed by the Tour of Spain and the Tour of Italy, followed by the major single day classics and the minor tours, followed by the minor single day classics and then the team time trial.
It’s the scoring system in the ProTour that makes it impossible for me to figure out how one would target this series as a goal for the season, or even allows me to figure out who is going to be a favorite to win the series each year.
In 2005 the ProTour was won by Danilo di Luca. Di Luca had a great spring season, winning Amstel Gold and the Flèche Wallonne single day classics and then placing 4th in the Tour of Italy and the single day Championship of Zurich. So in his case you could say that a rider that wins a couple of single day classics and then can hold his own in a Grand Tour can win the ProTour.
In 2006 the ProTour was won by Alejandro Valverde. Valverde is the closest thing to an “all around” cyclist as there is racing today. Valverde won the Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège single day events, placed 3rd in the Tour of Romandie minor tour, 7th in the Dauphinè Libéré minor tour and 2nd in the Tour of Spain. Obviously, a rider who can excel at both single day races and tours can win the ProTour.
It seems to me that the winner of the ProTour is the guy who just happens to end up wearing the leaders jersey at the end of the season. Not to say that they do not deserve the honor. It takes an entire season of consistent results in order to earn the points to win the ProTour prize. But there has not yet been an active defense of the ProTour lead like was seen in the World Cup series. There has not yet been a strategy employed by a rider to capture or take over the lead of the ProTour series. So far the rider that happens to have the most arbitrarily acquired points gets to wear the white ProTour leaders jersey.
Maybe it’s just because the ProTour concept is only in its third year and things will get sorted out over the next few years. After all, it took a few years for the World Cup to really be accepted. But until a victory in the ProTour can be strategized, fought for and defended, it’s really a meaningless award. Not to mention all the headaches that have so far been involved with keeping the idea of the ProTour afloat.
Will the ProTour last? Time will tell.
