2005 UCI ProTour

Template:Infobox cycling season 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, Template:Cycling data SAX 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 Template:Cycling data QST 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 Template:Cycling data LIQ 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 Template:Cycling data LAM 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 Template:Cycling data THR 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 Template:Cycling data GCE 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 Template:Cycling data ONC 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 Template:Cycling data MRM. 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		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data SAX
March 9–15	Tirreno–Adriatico		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data RAB
March 19	Milan–San Remo		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data FAS
April 3	Tour of Flanders		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST
April 5–9	Tour of the Basque Country		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LIQ
April 6	Gent–Wevelgem		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data SIL
April 10	Paris–Roubaix		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST
April 17	Amstel Gold Race		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LIQ
April 20	La Flèche Wallonne		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LIQ
April 24	Liège–Bastogne–Liège		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data THR
April 26 – May 1	Tour de Romandie		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data PHO
May 7–29	Giro d'Italia		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC
May 16–22	Volta a Catalunya		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC
June 5–12	Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data EUS
June 11–19	Tour de Suisse		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data EUS
June 19	Eindhoven Team Time Trial		team event	Template:Cycling data GST
July 2–24	Tour de France		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC
July 31	HEW Cyclassics		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST
August 3–10	Eneco Tour of Benelux		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data SAX
August 13	Clásica de San Sebastián		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data FUJ
August 15–23	Deutschland Tour		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data GST
August 27–18	Vuelta a España		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data ONC
August 28	GP Ouest-France		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC
September 12–18	Tour de Pologne		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data FAS
September 25	Road World Championships		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST
October 2	Züri-Metzgete		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST
October 9	Paris–Tours		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data THR
October 15	Giro di Lombardia		Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST

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	File:Jersey white.svg Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LIQ	229
2	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST	171
3	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data GST	151
4	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data THR	140
5	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC	139
6	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data THR	136
7	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data GST	131
8	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data QST	130
9	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data SAX	130
10	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data DSC	129
11	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data FAS	128
12	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data LAM	111
13	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data SAX	110
14	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data RAB	109
15	Template:Flagathlete	Template:Cycling data GCE	107

Team Rankings

	Team	Points
1	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data SAX	390
2	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data PHO	353
3	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data RAB	349
4	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data SIL	322
5	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data ONC	320
6	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data GST	303
7	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data FUJ	293
8	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data DSC	274
9	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data C.A	264
10	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data GCE	262
11	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data COF	258
12	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data QST	253
13	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data FAS	245
14	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data THR	244
15	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data LIQ	228
16	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data LAM	211
17	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data BBO	183
18	Template:Flagicon Domina Vacanze	161
19	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data EUS	147
20	Template:Flagicon Template:Cycling data FDJ	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