 World Cup leader jersey | |
| Formerly | Super Prestige Pernod International |
|---|---|
| Sport | Road bicycle racing |
| First season | 1989 (1989) |
| Ceased | 2004 |
| Replaced by | UCI ProTour |
| Countries | International |
| Last champions | |
| Most titles |  Paolo Bettini (ITA) (3) |
| Related competitions | |
TheUCI Road World Cup was a season-longroad cycling competition, organised annually by theUnion Cycliste Internationale (UCI) from 1989 until 2004.
The World Cup was made up of tenone-day races chosen from theclassics. Riders accumulated points based on finishing positions across various events, with scoring for individuals and teams. In the years of the competition, points were awarded to the top 25 finishers in each round, ranging from 100 points for the winner to 1 point for 25th place. The rider leading the overall standings wore a distinctive jersey for subsequent events.
Following the 2004 season, the competition was discontinued. It was replaced by theUCI ProTour and theUCI Continental Circuits, which began in 2005.
The UCI Road World Cup was introduced in 1989 which replaced the former season-long cup, theSuper Prestige Pernod International. The competition initially featured a set of one-day races that collectively formed an annual calendar of races. In the first three years, the competition was sponsored byPerrier. Both an individual overall winner and a team winner were determined each season.
In 1989, the classics making up the World Cup were the:Milan–San Remo,Tour of Flanders,Paris–Roubaix,Liège–Bastogne–Liège,Amstel Gold Race,Wincanton Classic (Newcastle),Grand Prix of the Americas (Montreal),Clásica de San Sebastián,Züri-Metzgete,Grand Prix de la Liberation (though the team time trial was held in Eindhoven),Paris-Tours, and theGiro di Lombardia.
In 1990, anindividual time trial was added inLunel. In 1991, the final time trial was held inBergamo, which counted as both theGrand Prix des Nations and theTrofeo Baracchi.
The final time trial (1990–1993) was an invitation event. Those invited were: the single Cup race winners, the first 10 of the general classification before the last race, the first 10 in theWorld Ranking, and the reigningWorld Champion. If any declined their invitation, the highest ranked in the World Cup yet to be invited were invited in their place.[1]
In 1992, the Grand Prix de la Liberation was removed from the series. In the sea year, the Grand Prix of the Americas was renamed to the Grand Prix Téléglobe, before being removed as a World Cup event the following year. That same year the final time trial was replaced by the Grand Prix des Nations, which took place in Palma de Mallorca. In 1993, the Grand Prix des Nations was held at Lac de Madine, before being removed from the competition the following year. In 1994, the Wincanton Classic became the Leeds International Classic.
In 1995, theFrankfurt Grand Prix was included as an event for that year only. Likewise, theJapan Cup was introduced only in the 1996 season.
In 1997, the Leeds International Classic was renamed the Rochester Classic. The following year it was replaced by the HEW Cyclassics in Hamburg.
From 1998 onward, the World Cup calendar stabilised around 10 events:
The competition was held alongside theUCI Road World Rankings, which included all UCI sanctioned events. Both were replaced in the 2005 season by the newly createdUCI ProTour andUCI Continental Circuits.
The record for most overall wins is held byPaolo Bettini for his three consecutive wins in 2002, 2003, and 2004.Maurizio Fondriest (1991 and 1993),Johan Museeuw (1995 and 1996) andMichele Bartoli (1997 and 1998) won the competition twice.Mapei had the most team wins (5).
Points are awarded for the best riders in each race according to the following scale:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Points | Editions 1989[2] | 12 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||||||||||||
| Editions 1990–1991[3] | 25 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Editions 1992–1996[4] | 50 | 35 | 25 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 5 | ||||||||||||||
| Editions 1997–2004[5] | 100 | 70 | 50 | 40 | 36 | 32 | 28 | 24 | 20 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | |
From 1997-2004, a rider had to participate in at least six races to be considered in the final scoring.
For team scoring, the places of the first three riders of each team were added together. The team with the lowest total received 12 points, the second team received nine, the third team received eight, and so on until the tenth team scored a single point.
From 1997-2004, a team had to participate in at least eight races to be considered in the final scoring.
An X corresponds to a race that was held. Races with a grey background were not part of the World Cup that year.
After each race, the points each rider gained was added to their total. A special rainbow jersey was then presented to the leading rider in the overall ranking of the World Cup. He was obliged to wear this jersey in the following World Cup races as long as he held the lead in the overall standings. The jersey was issued for the first time in1990. It retained the same core design with minor modifications of logos and colors. Only in thefirst World Cup was a grey-yellow jersey awarded to the leader instead of the later rainbow scheme.[7][8][9][10][11]
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| UCI ProTour |
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| UCI World Tour | |
| UCI World Ranking |
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