The Tour Down Under is a cycling race in and around Adelaide, South Australia, and is the opening event of the UCI World Tour and features all 17 UCI WorldTeams. It also runs as a UCI Women's 2.1 event and features a one-day circuit race as a 'prelude' to the main race.
The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI. Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series. It was initially the basis of a season long competition for rankings points, created for 2005 to replace the UCI Road World Cup series, which ended at the end of the 2004 season. The ProTour was the subject of continuing disputes involving the UCI, cycling teams, and the organizers of the world's most prominent bicycle races, and in 2009 and 2010 the ranking element of the ProTour was superseded by the UCI World Ranking. For 2011, the ProTour and World Ranking were fully merged into the UCI World Tour. ProTour status for teams – relabelled UCI ProTeams – will continue as the highest level of registration, and will carry the right and obligation to participate in all World Tour races.
The UCI Continental Circuits are continental circuits for a series of road bicycle racing competitions since 2005. The five circuits are a tier below the UCI World Tour. Both the World Tour and the Continental Circuits comprise a series of races in which various cycling teams compete regularly. It was introduced by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to provide an adequate and realistic context in order to encourage the expansion of cycling, everywhere in the world.
Sport Lisboa e Benfica, commonly known as Benfica, was a professional road bicycle racing team based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Edward Clancy is an English professional track and road bicycle racer who rides for the Vitus Pro Cycling Team team. On the track his specialist discipline is the team pursuit, in which he is the reigning Olympic and European champion.
Mikhail Borisovich Ignatiev is a former Russian professional track and road bicycle racer. He recently rode for UCI ProTour team Team Katusha–Alpecin, as well as participating in various track events. He is known as a time trial specialist, and also has a reputation for making the breakaway in road races and trying, often with success, to solo to victory.
Marta Bastianelli is an Italian professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team Team Virtu Cycling.
The 2008 UCI ProTour is the fourth year of the UCI ProTour system. Following protracted disagreement between the organisers of the Grand Tours and the UCI, all races organized by ASO, RCS and Unipublic were withdrawn from the ProTour calendar. This removed all three Grand Tours, four of the five monuments and four further races. 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.
Yuri Viktorovich Trofimov is a Russian road bicycle racer who last rode for UCI Continental Team Rádio Popular–Boavista. Previously, he raced for Bbox Bouygues Telecom (2008–2010), Team Katusha (2011–2015), Tinkoff (2016) and Caja Rural–Seguros RGA (2017).
Charlotte Becker is a German professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's road race, but finished over the time limit. She also competed on the track in the women's team pursuit for the national team. She signed for Team Hitec Products for the 2015 road cycling season.
An Post–Chain Reaction is a UCI continental professional cycling team registered in the Republic of Ireland, based at the Sean Kelly Academy in Merchtem, Flanders. The team participates on the UCI Europe Tour. The squad is managed by Kurt Bogaerts and Sean Kelly with directeur sportif Andy Vanhoudt. The team disbanded at the end of the 2017 season, after they failed to find sponsorship. It hopes to compete in the 2019 season, if sponsorship is secured.
The 2008 Volta a Catalunya road cycling race took place from May 19 to May 25, 2008 in Catalonia, Spain. Gustavo César took overall victory, becoming first rider of non-ProTour team to win a ProTour race general classification.
In 2009 a number of prominent riders returned to professional cycling. Ivan Basso, Floyd Landis and Michele Scarponi had finished a suspension. Bjorn Leukemans was without a team for over a year due to doping-related allegations, which were proven to be ungrounded. Most notably, seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong returned after a three-and-half year break, starting his season as a Astana-rider in the Tour Down Under.
Katusha–Alpecin is a Swiss road bicycle racing team which competes at UCI WorldTeam level using Canyon bikes. The team was created in 2008 by Igor Makarov within the framework of the previously established Russian Global Cycling Project, which was intended to help cycling in Russia to move to a qualitatively new level. In 2017 the team took an international direction, still supported by Igor Makarov’s company ARETI International Group, clothing company Katusha Sports and German shampoo manufacturer Alpecin. The team has competed as a UCI ProTeam/WorldTour team since 2009. Joaquim Rodríguez, Alexander Kristoff, Daniel Moreno, Simon Špilak, Filippo Pozzato, Luca Paolini, Ilnur Zakarin, and Tony Martin are some of the most successful riders who have been riding for Katusha.
The UCI World Tour is the premier men's elite road cycling tour, sitting above the various regional UCI Continental Circuits. It refers to both the tour of 38 events and, until 2019, an annual ranking system based upon performances in these. The World Ranking was launched in 2009, and merged fully with its predecessor the UCI ProTour in 2011. UCI WorldTeams must compete at all events that were part of the tour prior to the 2017 expansion.
The 2009 UCI World Ranking is the first edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), replacing the rankings previously part of the UCI ProTour. The series started with the Tour Down Under's opening stage on 20 January, and consists of 13 stage races and 11 one-day races, culminating in the Giro di Lombardia on 17 October. All events except the Tour Down Under took place in Europe.
Olga Sergeyevna Zabelinskaya is a Russian-born Uzbekistani professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team Cogeas–Mettler–Look. While competing for Russia, she won three Olympic medals, before changing allegiances to Uzbekistan in 2018.
Lisa Brennauer is a German cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's Team WNT–Rotor Pro Cycling. She competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics on the track in the women's team pursuit for the national team. On 24 September 2014 Brennauer became World Time Trial Champion at the World Championships in Ponferrada, Spain. In November 2015 she was announced as part of the Canyon–SRAM team's inaugural squad for the 2016 season.
Servetto–Piumate–Beltrami TSA is a professional cycling team based in Italy, which competes in elite road bicycle racing events such as the UCI Women's World Tour.
