Johan Museeuw is a retired Belgian professional road racing cyclist who was a professional from 1988 until 2004. Nicknamed The Lion of Flanders, he was particularly successful in the cobbled classics of Flanders and Northern France and was considered one of the best classic races specialists of the 1990s.
Paolo Bettini is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the former coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classics specialist of his generation, and probably one of the strongest of all times, he won gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics road race and in the 2006 and 2007 World Road Race Championships. He is nicknamed Il Grillo for his repeated sudden attacks and his sprinting style.
Óscar Freire Gómez is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer. He was one of the top sprinters in road bicycle racing, having won the world championship three times, equalling Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen, Eddy Merckx and Peter Sagan. In the later years of his career, he became more of a classics rider. He has won the cycling monument Milan–San Remo three times, four stages in the Tour de France and seven stages of the Vuelta a España, throughout a successful career.
The classic cycle races are the most prestigious one-day professional road cycling races in the international calendar. Some of these events date back to the 19th century. They are normally held at roughly the same time each year. The five most revered races are often described as the cycling monuments.
The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road cycling competition held from 1989 until 2004 and comprising ten one-day events.
Francesco Casagrande is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist. Casagrande was a professional cyclist between 1992 and 2005.
Züri-Metzgete was a European Classic cycle race held annually in Zürich, Switzerland, and continued as a non-professional mass participation event from 2007 until 2014. It was a race with a long history dating back to 1914, on a demanding course in the hilly region around Zürich. In its heyday the race was considered the sixth monument of cycling, alongside the five most prestigious one-day races on the calendar. It was the most prominent of the summer classics.
Rolf Sørensen is a former Danish professional road bicycle racer. He is currently working as a cycling commentator and agent. Born in Helsinge in Denmark, Sørensen moved to Italy at the age of 17, where he has lived since. He was a client of Francesco Conconi and Luigi Cecchini. He goes under the name Il Biondo due to his blonde hair.
Romāns Vainšteins is a former professional road bicycle racer from Latvia. He won the road race at the 2000 World Cycling Championship in Plouay, France. At the end of the 268.8 km (167.0 mi) race, he won the sprint for the line ahead of Zbigniew Spruch and defending champion Óscar Freire.
Davide Rebellin was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1992 and 2022 for twelve different teams, taking more than sixty professional wins. He was considered one of the finest classics specialists of his generation with more than fifty top ten finishes in UCI Road World Cup and UCI ProTour classics.
Michele Bartoli is a retired Italian road racing cyclist. Bartoli was a professional cyclist from 1992 until 2004 and was one of the most successful single-day classics specialists of his generation, especially in the Italian and Belgian races. On his palmarès are three of the five monuments of cycling—five in total: the 1996 Tour of Flanders, the 1997 and 1998 Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the 2002 and 2003 Giro di Lombardia. He won the UCI Road World Cup in 1997 and 1998. From 10 October 1998 until 6 June 1999, Bartoli was number one on the UCI Road World Rankings.
Mirko Celestino is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, specializing in the classic cycle races. His biggest career achievements to date include winning the monumental classic—Giro di Lombardia, the classic HEW Cyclassics and two-time winner of the semi-classic Milano–Torino. Since retiring from road racing, Celestino has been active in mountain bike racing, achieving a silver medal at the 2010 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships and a bronze medal at the 2011 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.
The 2004 UCI Road World Cup was the sixteenth and last edition of the UCI Road World Cup. There was no change in the calendar from the 2003 edition, meaning the final seven editions had the same calendar.
The 2003 UCI Road World Cup was the fifteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It had the same calendar of the 2000 edition.
The 2001 UCI Road World Cup was the thirteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup.
The 1997 UCI Road World Cup was the ninth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Italian classics specialist Michele Bartoli of the MG Maglificio–Technogym team.
The 1998 UCI Road World Cup was the tenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup, cycling's season-long competition of the ten top-tier one-day classics. It was won by Italian classics specialist Michele Bartoli of the Asics–CGA team. Italian team Mapei–Bricobi won the team competition and placed four riders in the individual top-ten.
The 2002 UCI Road World Cup was the fourteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It had the same calendar of the 2001 edition.
The 1999 UCI Road World Cup was the eleventh edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Belgian classics specialist Andrei Tchmil.
The 2001 Züri-Metzgete was the 86th edition of the Züri-Metzgete road cycling one day race. It was held on 26 August 2001 as part of the 2001 UCI Road World Cup. The race was won by Paolo Bettini of Italy.
Erik Zabel (GER) (Team Telekom)
