January 24, 2007 – The UCI ProTour Council (UPTC) met on 22 January in Geneva, Switzerland, during the annual conference for UCI ProTour teams and organisers which finishes today. 2008 Calendar

To take into account the influence of the Beijing Olympic Games which will take place in August 2008, the UPTC has decided to adapt the draft calendar for UCI ProTour races accordingly. In this respect, Council members have fixed new dates for the races below:
“¢ GP Ouest France-Plouay: 15 August 2008
“¢ Deutschland Tour: 30 August -7 September 2008
“¢ Tour de Pologne: 15-21 September 2008

Procedure for awarding licences

The procedure for awarding licences has on the whole been satisfactory over the last two years. The UPTC however believed that certain measures needed to be reviewed to enable the Licences’ Commission to take quicker decisions, both for the awarding of licences as well as their withdrawal in the event of serious problems.

Changes in this respect may be made from as early as 2007.

Participation in UCI ProTour calendar races

Following the announcement made by ASO, organiser of Paris-Nice, stating that the Swedish UCI ProTour team, Unibet.com would not be invited to this race, the UPTC has reaffirmed that the setting of participation conditions for UCI ProTour calendar races is its exclusive responsibility and cannot be decided by the organisers. The UPTC does not tolerate such an infringement to the rules.

TV coverage and audience

UPTC members were informed about the results of a UCI study on TV coverage and audience figures for 2006 UCI ProTour calendar races.

On the whole the figures are stable compared to last year. The study nevertheless highlighted a significant difference depending on the races and the years, which needs to be stabilised.

These findings reinforce the UPTC’s belief that the pooling and sale of TV rights of organisers with a licence, together with those of the UCI World Championships, would help to stop these uncertain developments and have a positive influence both on the visibility of races and on organisers’ revenue. This centralised management project of TV rights is currently being studied.

Fight against doping

According to the UPTC, although the UCI ProTour’s development is encouraging, this does not hide the grave danger that doping poses to cycling.

To fight against it, the UPTC is currently finalising a very ambitious programme, which will allow:

“¢ fraudulent practices to be more easily detected,
“¢ cheats to be discouraged,
“¢ encourage clean riders.

This new measure will lead to an increase in the budget allocated by the UCI for the fight against doping and will require close cooperation between all the parties involved in cycling.

The UPTC’s next meeting will be held in Bruges, Belgium, during the Ronde van Vlaanderen on 7 April 2007. This race will also host the official launch of the 2007 UCI ProTour.


UCI Press service

March 17, 2006 – The UCI ProTour Council (UPTC) met today at the offices of the Italian Cycling Federation (FCI), in Milano.

During this meeting, the UPTC was pleased with the constant development of the UCI ProTour, whose growth continues under the sign of the excellence which results from its philosophy.

The UPTC then confirmed that for the period 2007-2008 the UCI ProTour calendar and participation rules will respect the “statu quo” decided in Madrid in September 2005.

The UPTC also noticed with satisfaction the report on the discussions launched by the Team Sponsors with the involved parties. Within this framework it confirmed the decision taken in September 2005 to adopt a system aiming to a progressive renewal of Team licences and allowing candidates to apply each year, which corresponds to the proposals formulated more recently by the organisers of the Grands Tours.

Regarding the “wild cards”, the UPTC then decided to conduct an in-depth study, with the various implied parties of all the aspects and consequences of this question, in order to avoid possible inequalities. The UPTC finally appointed the nomination of a « Development » working group, which will study, amongst others, the introduction of a Promotional Calendar.