The 2009 USA Cycling Professional Tour is the third year of this elite men's professional road bicycle racing series organized by USA Cycling.
Christian Vande Velde (272 points) and the Garmin/Chipotle Pro Cycling Team (711 points) are the defending champion of the overall individual and team titles, respectively. [1]
The 2009 USA Cycling Professional Tour consists of the following 13 one-day races and stage races: [2]
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.
David Zabriskie is a retired professional road bicycle racer from the United States, who competed as a professional between 1999 and 2013. His main strength is individual time trials and his career highlights include stage wins in all three Grand Tour stage races and winning the US National Time Trial Championship seven times. Zabriskie is known for his quirky nature, including singing before stages and the interviews he does with fellow riders in the professional peloton which are posted on his web site.
Christian Vande Velde is a retired American professional road racing cyclist of Belgian descent, who rode professionally between 1998 and 2013. Vande Velde competed for the U.S. Postal Service, Liberty Seguros, Team CSC and Garmin–Sharp squads. He has been a cycling analyst for NBC Sports since 2014. He is the son of cyclist John Vande Velde.
Felt Racing is an American bicycle brand based in Irvine, California. Felt produces road, track, cyclocross, electric bicycles, and cruiser bikes. All design is completed in the United States and the majority of production comes from Asia. The company also has a strong reputation in the time trial/triathlon bike area and for several years provided bicycles to UCI teams in the Tour de France. Felt still supports several professional level race teams including Hincapie Racing and Team Twenty 16.
Thomas Dekker is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist. His career highlights included winning Tirreno–Adriatico in 2006 and Tour de Romandie in 2007. He won two Dutch National Time Trial Championships and represented his country at the 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece.
EF Education–EasyPost, is an American professional cycling team. Founded in 2003, they have competed in the UCI World Tour since 2009. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, United States, the team maintains an equipment and training facility in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. In 2018, EF Education First, an international education company — founded in Sweden but headquartered and incorporated in Switzerland — purchased a controlling equity stake in Slipstream Sports, the sports management company behind the team. The founder and CEO is American Jonathan Vaughters and the head sporting director is Briton Charly Wegelius.
Christopher Sutton is an Australian former professional cyclist from Australia, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2015 for the Cofidis, Garmin–Slipstream and Team Sky squads.
The 2008 Giro d'Italia was the 91st running of the Giro d'Italia, one of cycling's Grand Tours. It began in Palermo on 10 May and ended in Milan on 1 June. Twenty-two teams entered the race, which was won by Spaniard Alberto Contador of the Astana cycling team. Second and third respectively were Italians Riccardo Riccò and Marzio Bruseghin.
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 Armed Forces Cycling Classic refers to a weekend of road bicycle racing events held annually in June in Arlington County, Virginia. The weekend consists of several amateur events, and two professional races in the criterium format, the Clarendon Cup and the Crystal City Cup. The main sponsor for the race is Boeing. The race is conducted under the rules of the governing bodies of professional cycling, the Union Cycliste Internationale and USA Cycling.
The 2010 USA Cycling Professional Tour is the fourth year of this elite men's professional road bicycle racing series organized by USA Cycling.
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
The 2012 season for the Garmin–Sharp cycling team began in January at the Tour Down Under. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
The 2012 Tour of Utah was the ninth edition of the Tour of Utah. Once again, the race was included on the UCI America Tour, with a UCI 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 7–12, 2012 as a six-day, six-stage race, with some major differences to the prior editions, such as the elimination of the prologue and the inclusion of a team time trial instead of an individual time trial. The 2012 Tour of Utah was one of five UCI-ranked stage races in the United States in 2012 and one of three that attracted multiple ProTeams to compete.
Alex Howes is an American former professional road racing cyclist, who competed as a professional in 2007 and from 2012 to 2022, spending his entire career with Garmin–Barracuda. Howes turned professional on a full-time basis in 2012. In 2023 he became a cycling coach at Team EF Coaching and a gravel racer.
The 2013 season for the Garmin–Sharp cycling team began in January at the Tour Down Under. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
The 2013 USA Pro Cycling Challenge is the third edition of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge stage race. Once again, the race was included on the UCI America Tour, with a UCI classification of 2.HC. As such, the race was only open to teams on the UCI Pro Tour, UCI Professional Continental and UCI Continental circuits. The race took place between August 19–25, 2013 as a seven-day, seven-stage race, traversing the state of Colorado. The 2013 USA Pro Cycling Challenge was one of six UCI-ranked stage races in the United States in 2013, and one of two that attracted multiple UCI ProTeams to compete.
The 2014 season for the Garmin–Sharp cycling team began in January at the Tour de San Luis. As a UCI ProTeam, they were obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.