In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the Grand Tours, and all three races are similar in format being three week races with daily stages. They have a special status in the UCI regulations: more points for the UCI World Tour are distributed in Grand Tours than in other races, and they are the only stage races allowed to last longer than 14 days.
Danilo Di Luca is a former Italian professional road racing cyclist, best known for winning the 2007 Giro d'Italia, but also for several positive doping tests, the last of which resulting in a lifetime ban from the sport.
Cofidis Solutions Crédits is a French professional road bicycle racing team sponsored by a money-lending company, Cofidis. It was started in 1996 by Cyrille Guimard, the former manager of Bernard Hinault, Greg LeMond and Laurent Fignon of the Renault-Elf-Gitane team of the 1980s. The team's sponsor has supported the team despite repeated problems such as doping scandals. After it was part of the UCI ProTour for the ProTour's first five seasons, from 2010 the team competed as a UCI Professional Continental team. The team joined the UCI World Tour for the 2020 season.
The 2005 ProTour was the first year of the newly introduced UCI ProTour system, in which the ProTour teams are guaranteed, and obliged to, participate in the series of ProTour races. In certain ways the ProTour replaced the UCI Road World Cup series of one-day races, which in 2004 was won by one-day specialist Paolo Bettini for the third time in a row. The beginning of the ProTour saw difficult negotiations with the organizers of the Grand Tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España.
Relax–GAM Fuenlabrada was a professional cycling team based in Spain. It participated in UCI Europe Tour and when selected as a wildcard to UCI ProTour events.
The 2007 Volta a Catalunya was the 87th edition of the Volta a Catalunya road cycling race, which took place from 21 May to 27 May 2007, in Catalonia. The race began in Salou with a team time trial and ended in Barcelona. The race was won by Russian Vladimir Karpets of the Caisse d'Epargne team, who won the race thanks to winning the team time trial, and second placings on the toughest mountain stage and the mountain time trial. The race also saw the first UCI ProTour victories for young British sprinter Mark Cavendish of the T-Mobile Team, when he took stages 2 and 6.
The 2009 Tour de Romandie cycling road race started on 28 April and finished on 3 May in Switzerland. It was the 6th event in the 2009 UCI ProTour, and the 12th event in the World Calendar.
The 2010 Vuelta a España was held from 28 August to 19 September and was won by Vincenzo Nibali. The race began in Seville and ended, as is tradition, in Madrid.
The 2010 UCI ProTour is the sixth series of the UCI ProTour: a series of 16 races in which the ProTour teams, considered the elite teams of the sport, participate alongside a number of invited "wildcard" teams. As in 2009, there is no competitive element to the ProTour of itself, but all its events contribute towards the 2010 UCI World Ranking. The first race was the 2010 Tour Down Under on 19–24 January, and the series will end with two new events, bringing the tour to North America for the first time, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal on 10 September and 12 September respectively.
The 2011 Santos Tour Down Under was the 13th edition of the Tour Down Under stage race. It took place from 18 to 23 January in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and was the first race of the 2011 UCI World Tour. The Tour was preceded by the Cancer Council Classic race, on Sunday, 16 January, that consisted in a circuit of 30 laps around the Rymill Park in Adelaide's East End, totaling 51 kilometres (32 mi).
The 2011 Tour of the Basque Country, was the 51st running of the Tour of the Basque Country cycling stage race. It started on 4 April in Zumarraga and ended on 9 April in Zalla and consisted of six stages, including a race-concluding individual time trial. It was the eighth race of the 2011 UCI World Tour season.
The 2012 Liège–Bastogne–Liège was the 98th running of the Liège–Bastogne–Liège, a single-day cycling race. It was held on 22 April 2012 over a distance of 257.5 kilometres, starting in Liège and finishing in Ans, via Bastogne in the Ardennes region of Belgium. It was the thirteenth race of the 2012 UCI World Tour season.
The 2013 Tour de Romandie was the 67th running of the Tour de Romandie cycling stage race. The race consisted of six stages, beginning with a prologue stage in Le Châble on 23 April and concluded with another individual time trial, in Geneva, on 28 April. It was the fourteenth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season.
The 2013 Tour of Beijing was the third running of the Tour of Beijing stage race. It started on 11 October in Beijing's Shunyi District and ended on 15 October at the Bird’s Nest Piazza after five stages. It was the 29th and final race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season. Beñat Intxausti of the Movistar Team won the race after his mountain–top–finish victory on stage 4.
The 2014 Tour of the Basque Country was the 54th edition of the Tour of the Basque Country. It started on 7 April 2014 in Ordizia and ended on 12 April in Markina-Xemein, and consisted of six stages, including a race-concluding individual time trial. It was the ninth race of the 2014 UCI World Tour season.
The 2014 Tour de Suisse was the 78th running of the Tour de Suisse cycling stage race. It began on 14 June with an individual time trial in Bellinzona and ended on 22 June in Saas-Fee; in total, the race consisted of nine stages. It was the seventeenth race of the 2014 UCI World Tour season. Rui Costa won the race for the third year in a row. Tony Martin led for almost all of the race, having gained an early advantage in the opening stage time trial. However, Costa was able to gain enough time on the climb at the end of the final stage to overhaul the deficit and in doing so set a record for the most consecutive victories in the race.
The 2016 Tour Down Under was a road cycling stage race that took place between 19 and 24 January in and around Adelaide, South Australia. It was the 18th edition of the Tour Down Under and was the first event of the 2016 UCI World Tour. The defending champion was Rohan Dennis.
The 2016 Tour de Romandie was a road cycling stage race that took place in the Romandie region of Switzerland between 26 April and 1 May 2016. It was the 70th edition of the Tour de Romandie cycling stage race and the 14th event in the 2016 UCI World Tour. The defending champion was Team Katusha's Ilnur Zakarin.
The 2017 Vuelta a España was a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race that took place in Spain between 19 August and 10 September 2017. The race was the 72nd edition of the Vuelta a España and the final Grand Tour of the 2017 cycling season. The race started in Nîmes, France, and finished in Madrid. It was the first time the race has started in France and only the third time it has started outside Spain, after 1997 (Portugal) and 2009 (Netherlands).
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Italy 
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