2008 UCI ProTour
The 2008 UCI ProTour is the fourth year of the UCI ProTour system. Following protracted disagreement between the organisers of the Grand Tours (ASO, RCS and Unipublic) and the UCI, all races organized by ASO, RCS and Unipublic were withdrawn from the ProTour calendar. This removed all three Grand Tours (Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España), four of the five monuments (Milan–San Remo, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Giro di Lombardia) and four further races (Paris–Nice, Tirreno–Adriatico, La Flèche Wallonne and Paris–Tours). As such, the quality of the races of the ProTour was diminished. The Australian race, the Tour Down Under was added to the calendar, making it the first race outside Europe on the ProTour (although races had previously been held outside Europe as part of the UCI Road World Cup).
| Fourth edition of the UCI ProTour | |
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | 22 January – 21 September |
| Location | Australia and Europe |
| Races | 15 |
| Champions | |
| Individual champion |  Alejandro Valverde (ESP) (Caisse d'Epargne) |
| Teams' champion | Caisse d'Epargne |
| Nations' champion | Spain |
The highly successful U.S. Postal Service ceased operations at the end of the 2007 season. Johan Bruyneel signed on to become the directeur sportif and revamp the embattled Astana; joining him are 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador and 2007 Tour of California champion Levi Leipheimer. Other major signings included American George Hincapie moving to Team High Road and Daniele Bennati from Lampre to Liquigas, while Giro d'Italia winner Danilo Di Luca left Liguigas for the UCI Professional Continental team LPR Brakes–Ballan.
2008 UCI ProTour races
As of September 28, 2008.[1]
Teams
As of 6 December 6, 2007[2][3]
| Code | Official Team Name | Country | Website |
|---|---|---|---|
| ALM | Ag2r–La Mondiale |  France |
|
| AST | Astana |  Luxembourg |
|
| BTL | Bouygues Télécom | France |
|
| GCE | Caisse d'Epargne | Spain |
|
| COF | Cofidis | France |
|
| C.A | Crédit Agricole | France |
|
| CSC | Team CSC |  Denmark |
|
| SIL | Silence–Lotto | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Belgium |
|
| EUS | Euskaltel–Euskadi | Spain |
|
| FDJ | Française des Jeux | France |
|
| GST | Gerolsteiner |  Germany |
|
| LAM | Lampre |  Italy |
|
| LIQ | Liquigas | Italy |
|
| MRM | Team Milram | Germany |
|
| QST | Quick-Step | Belgium |
|
| RAB | Rabobank |  Netherlands |
|
| SDV | Saunier Duval–Scott | Spain |
|
| THR | Team High Road |  United States |
Unibet.com Cycling Team, whose sponsors have pulled out of cycling, failed to submit its application renewal by the November 20, 2007 deadline.
Individual standings
| Rank | Name | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alejandro Valverde (ESP) |
Caisse d'Epargne | 123 |
| 2 | Damiano Cunego (ITA) |
Lampre | 104 |
| 3 | Andreas Klöden (GER) |
Astana | 96 |
| 4 |  Roman Kreuziger (CZE) |
Liquigas | 94 |
| 5 | .svg.png.webp){kind=small} Cadel Evans (AUS) |
Silence–Lotto | 85 |
| 6 | André Greipel (GER) |
Team High Road | 62 |
| 7 | Mikel Astarloza (ESP) |
Euskaltel–Euskadi | 60 |
| 8 | Alberto Contador (ESP) |
Astana | 58 |
| 9 | Thomas Dekker (NED) |
Rabobank | 54 |
| 10 | Stijn Devolder (BEL) |
Quick-Step | 50 |
- 107 riders have scored at least one point on the 2008 UCI ProTour.
Team standings
| Rank | Team | Nationality | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caisse d'Epargne | Spain |
147 |
| 2 | Astana |  Kazakhstan |
145 |
| 3 | Team CSC | Denmark |
126 |
| 4 | Euskaltel–Euskadi | Spain |
114 |
| 5 | Team High Road | United States |
111 |
| 6 | Saunier Duval–Scott | Spain |
109 |
| 7 | Silence–Lotto | Belgium |
108 |
| 8 | Liquigas | Italy |
107 |
| 9 | Rabobank | Netherlands |
105 |
| 10 | Gerolsteiner | Germany |
102 |
| 11 | Française des Jeux | France |
102 |
| 12 | Quick-Step | Belgium |
95 |
| 13 | Crédit Agricole | France |
76 |
| 14 | Ag2r–La Mondiale | France |
94 |
| 15 | Bouygues Télécom | France |
93 |
| 16 | Cofidis | France |
73 |
| 17 | Lampre | Italy |
63 |
| 18 | Team Milram | Germany |
54 |
Nation standings
| Rank | Nation | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Spain |
336 |
| 2 | Italy |
237 |
| 3 | Germany |
198 |
| 4 | Belgium |
155 |
| 5 | France |
147 |
| 6 | Australia |
113 |
| 7 | Czech Republic |
94 |
| 8 | Luxembourg |
94 |
| 9 | Netherlands |
80 |
| 10 |  Russia |
86 |
- Riders from 23 nations have scored at least one (1) point on the 2008 UCI ProTour.
2008 ProTour Points System
| Place | Tour Down Under Tour of Flanders Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco Tour de Romandie Volta Ciclista a Catalunya Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré Tour de Suisse Deutschland Tour Eneco Tour Tour de Pologne |
Gent–Wevelgem Amstel Gold Race Vattenfall Cyclassics Clasica Ciclista San Sebastian GP Quest France-Plouay |
Eindhoven Team Time Trial | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Classification | |||||
| 1st | 50 | 40 | 10 | ||
| 2nd | 40 | 30 | 9 | ||
| 3rd | 35 | 25 | 8 | ||
| 4th | 30 | 20 | 7 | ||
| 5th | 25 | 15 | 6 | ||
| 6th | 20 | 11 | 5 | ||
| 7th | 15 | 7 | 4 | ||
| 8th | 10 | 5 | 3 | ||
| 9th | 5 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 10th | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Stage wins (if applicable) | |||||
| 1st | 3 | ||||
| 2nd | 2 | ||||
| 3rd | 1 | ||||
- 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
- "2008 UCI ProTour Races". UCI. Archived from the original on 2008-11-12. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- "Press release : UCI ProTour: 18 teams registered by the UCI". UCI. 2007-12-04. Archived from the original on 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
- "2008 UCI ProTeams". UCI. Archived from the original on 2007-10-28. Retrieved 2007-12-22.
- "2008 UCI ProTour Points scales". UCI. Retrieved 2009-08-04.