The 2007 USA Cycling Professional Tour is the inaugural year of a professional road bicycle racing series organized by USA Cycling.
Levi Leipheimer and the Discovery Channel team won the overall individual and team titles respectively. Leipheimer finished the season with 381 points over teammate George Hincapie, Germany's Bernhard Eisel, Juan José Haedo of Argentina and Slovenia's Janez Brajkovič. The now-defunct Discovery Channel team earned the team title with 810 points over Team CSC, Slipstream–Chipotle, T-Mobile Team and Navigators Insurance.
The 2007 USA Cycling Professional Tour consists of the following 15 one-day races and stage races:
U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team was a United States-based professional road bicycle racing team. On June 15, 2004, the Discovery Channel signed a deal to become sponsor of the team for the 2004–2007 seasons and its name changed to Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team. From 2005 until 2007, the team was one of the 20 teams that competed in the new UCI ProTour. As part of the sponsorship deal, Lance Armstrong, the team's undisputed leader, provided on-air appearances for the Discovery Networks TV channels. The deal did not affect the rights of secondary sponsor OLN, later known as NBCSN in the US, to air major cycling events such as the Tour de France, although the two channels are competitors.
Ivan Basso is an Italian former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 1999 and 2015 for seven different teams. Basso, nicknamed Ivan the Terrible, was considered among the best mountain riders in the professional field in the early 21st century, and was considered one of the strongest stage race riders. He is a double winner of the Giro d'Italia, having won the race in 2006 for Team CSC and 2010 for Liquigas–Doimo.
Thomas Danielson is an American retired professional road racing cyclist who competed professionally between 2002 and 2015 for the Mercury Cycling Team (2002), the Saturn Cycling Team (2003), Fassa Bortolo (2004), Discovery Channel (2005–2007) and Cannondale–Garmin (2008–2015). He had been suspended twice for doping in his career.
Astana Qazaqstan Team is a professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by the Samruk-Kazyna, a coalition of state-owned companies from Kazakhstan and named after its capital city Astana. Astana attained UCI ProTeam status in its inaugural year, 2007. Following a major doping scandal involving Kazakh rider Alexander Vinokourov, team management was terminated and new management brought in for the 2008 season. The team was then managed by Johan Bruyneel, former team manager of U.S. Postal/Discovery Channel team. Under Bruyneel the ethical nature of the team did not improve, although Astana in this period was very successful.
A cycling team is a group of cyclists who join a team or are acquired and train together to compete in bicycle races whether amateur or professional – and the supporting personnel. Cycling teams are most important in road bicycle racing, which is a team sport, but collaboration between team members is also important in track cycling and cyclo-cross.
Levi Leipheimer is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He was twice US national champion, winning the time trial title in 1999 and the road race in 2007, and is an Olympic medalist. Leipheimer was born and raised in Butte, Montana and resides in Santa Rosa, California. He is the patron of the widely attended King Ridge GranFondo, a mass participation ride in Sonoma County.
Yaroslav Popovych is a Ukrainian former professional cyclist, who rode professionally between 2002 and 2016.
The 2006 Tour of California was the inaugural edition of a professional road cycling stage race that made its debut on February 19, 2006. Sponsored by the biotechnology company Amgen, the eight-day, 700 mile (1,126 km) race started in San Francisco, winding its way down the California coast to finish in Redondo Beach. With eight of the twenty European UCI ProTour teams in attendance, the inaugural Tour of California proved to be one of the largest cycling races in the United States since the demise of the Coors Classic in 1988.
The Amgen Tour of California 2007 was the second edition of an eight-day, 650-mile (1,045 km) stage race that raced through the California redwoods, wine country and the Pacific Coast. The road bicycle racing event was held February 18, 2007. The 2007 Tour of California was part of the 2006–2007 UCI America Tour and the inaugural 2007 USA Cycling Professional Tour.
The 2007 Tour of Missouri is the inaugural edition of a professional road bicycle racing stage race held in Missouri that made its debut on September 11, 2007, with six days of racing. Run by same organizers as the Tour de Georgia and the Amgen Tour of California, the Tour of Missouri is being billed as the third highest profile domestic race in the United States. The Tour is part of the 2006–07 UCI America Tour and the inaugural 2007 USA Cycling Professional Tour.
The 2008 USA Cycling Professional Tour is the second year of this elite men's professional road bicycle racing series organized by USA Cycling.
The 2009 USA Cycling Professional Tour is the third year of this elite men's professional road bicycle racing series organized by USA Cycling.
The Tour of the Gila is a cycling stage race for both men and women located in New Mexico, United States. It is sponsored by the component maker SRAM. The "Gila" began in 1987. Beginning in 2012, the men's Gila has been added to the UCI America Tour as a UCI classification 2.2 stage race, which permits UCI ProTeams to enter if they so choose; beginning in 2015, the women's Gila has also been added to the women's UCI international tour as a UCI classification 2.2 stage race.
The 2008 season for the Astana cycling team began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October with the Giro di Lombardia. As a UCI ProTour team, they were automatically invited and obliged to attend every event in the UCI ProTour.
Team RadioShack was a professional road bicycle racing team, with RadioShack as the title sponsor, the creation of which was announced on July 23, 2009. Lance Armstrong co-owned and led the team, which raced in the Grand Tours and the UCI ProTour. The team was managed by Capital Sports and Entertainment, an Austin, Texas sports and event management group that also manages the Trek-Livestrong U23 development cycling team and that ran the former Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.
The 2010 USA Cycling Professional Tour is the fourth year of this elite men's professional road bicycle racing series organized by USA Cycling.
Daniel Oss is an Italian cyclist, who competes in gravel cycling for the Specialized Gravel team.
The USA Pro Cycling Challenge, also known as USA Pro Challenge, was an annual multi-day professional road bicycle racing stage race that first took place in Colorado in 2011. Originally announced on August 4, 2010 by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and Lance Armstrong as the Quiznos Pro Challenge, the event carried on the state's cycling legacy, which was most notably highlighted by the Coors Classic that ran from 1980 to 1988. On February 4, 2011 Richard E. Schaden, former owner of Quiznos and the event's co-chairman, announced the investment of an initial $10 million to secure the initial growth and longevity of the race. The USA Pro Cycling Challenge was one of only three current 2.HC rated races in the United States, and was considered one of the most important pro cycling races in the U.S. After the 2015 edition, Schaden was unable to find a title sponsor for the 2016 edition, and subsequently left as an investor. The organizers were hoping to find a new investor to bring the race back for a 2017 edition, but the race folded after the 2015 edition.
The 2011 Tour of Utah was the eighth edition of the Tour of Utah. For the first time, the race was included on the UCI America Tour, with a classification of 2.1. As such, the race is only open to teams on the UCI Pro Tour, UCI Professional Continental and UCI Continental circuits. The race took place between August 9–14, 2011 as a six-day, six-stage race, similar to the prior two years. The race joined the 2011 Tour of California and the 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge as the only three UCI-ranked stage races in the United States