2007 UCI ProTour

The 2007 UCI ProTour is the third year of the UCI ProTour system. Following a dispute and power struggle between the UCI and the organisers of the Grand Tours, ASO, RCS and Unipublic, a number of events were run as ProTour events, although without ProTour licences. This meant the races counted towards the ProTour standings, although the organisers were not obliged to invite all 20 UCI ProTeams, notably not inviting Unibet.com.

After numerous doping scandals in previous years, culminating with Floyd Landis' doping scandal in the 2006 Tour de France, the Phonak Hearing Systems team was disbanded when the new title sponsor, iShares, decided to cease sponsoring and pull out of cycling. As of December, 2006, the ProTour license abandoned by Phonak has been granted to the Unibet.com Cycling Team, and the Active Bay group of Manolo Saiz has lost its license, which was given to the Astana Team. The links between the ProTour and the organisers of the three Grand Tours (ASO, RCS Sport and Unipublic) remain strained.

The 2007 Paris-Nice race was the focus of a dispute between (ASO) and the UCI. ASO have requested that the 2007 edition be downgraded from ProTour status to NE (national calendar status), therefore lacking UCI world-ranking points and threatening the participation of the ProTeams. [cite news|url=http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2007/feb07/feb22news2 |title=UCI instructs all ProTour teams to not race Paris-Nice |work=Cyclingnews.com |date=2007-02-22 |accessdate=2007-02-22] This was resolved to an extent though and Paris-Nice took place as the first ProTour race of the season, although without Unibet.com.

2007 ProTour races

* 241 riders have scored at least one (1) point on the 2007 UCI ProTour.

Previous leaders

* : March 18–April 11
* : April 15–April 22
* : April 11–April 15
* : April 22–June 3
* : June 3–October 19
* : October 19–October 20 (Final)

Team standings

As of October 20, 2007, after the 2007 Giro di Lombardia. [cite web |url=http://www.uciprotour.com/Modules/SUCI/RACES/RaceRanking.asp?RaceId=MTU5&MenuId=MjE5OA&RankId=ODQ&BackLink=%2Ftemplates%2FUCI%2FUCI2%2Flayout%2Easp%3FMenuId%3DMjE5OA&RankType=TEAM |title=Rankings as of 2007.10.20 updated after Giro di Lombardia|publisher=UCI |date=2007-10-20 |accessdate=2007-10-20]

* If a rider is not part of UCI ProTour, no points are given. The points corresponding to the place are not awarded
* Top 20 teams get points in scale 20-19-18...1.
* Team time trials in stage races doesn't give points for riders.
* In Eindhoven time trial rider has to finish to earn points.
* In country ranking, top 5 riders of each country count towards the ranking.

References

External links

* [http://www.uciprotour.com/ Official Website]