The World Cup was made up of around ten one-day races chosen from the prestigious classics. An individual classification and a team classification were established. In the last editions, the first 25 in each round scored from 100 to 1 points. During these events, the provisional leader of the classification wore a distinctive jersey.
The competition was inaugurated in 1989, and replaced the Super Prestige Pernod International. In the first three years, the competition was sponsored by Perrier. The competition determined a winning individual, and a winning team.
In 1992, the Grand Prix de la Liberation disappeared from the World Cup events. The Grand Prix of the Americas becomes the Grand Prix Téléglobe (it will disappear from the World Cup events the following year). That same year, the final time trial was definitively replaced by the Grand Prix des Nations, contested in Palma de Mallorca . In 1993, the Grand Prix des Nations was contested at Lac de Madine. He will disappear from the World Cup events the following year. In 1994, the Wincanton Classic became the Leeds International Classic.
In 1995, a new event was added to the calendar: the Frankfurt Grand Prix. It will be its only year as a World Cup event, just like the Japan Cup in 1996.
In 1997, the Leeds International Classic became the Rochester Classic. The following year it was replaced by the HEW Cyclassics in Hamburg . From that year, the 10 classics making up the World Cup are therefore: Milan-San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel Gold Race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Hamburg Hew Cyclassics, Clásica de San Sebastián, Züri-Metzgete, Paris-Tours, Giro di Lombardia.
The World Cup disappeared with the creation of the ProTour and the continental circuits in 2005.
The record number of wins was Paolo Bettini's three consecutive wins in 2002, 2003, and the last edition in 2004. Three riders won the competition twice: Maurizio Fondriest (1991 and 1993), Johan Museeuw (1995 and 1996) and Michele Bartoli (1997 and 1998).
A ranking of the teams has also been set up. During each race, the places of the first three riders of each team are added together. The team with the lowest total receives 12 points in the team standings, the second team receives nine, the third team receives eight and so on until the tenth team scores a point.
From 1997, the team in order to be taken into account in the final general classification, must participate in at least eight of the 10 races.
Races
The races with grey background existed but was not in the World Cup calendar for that year
The final time trial (1990-1993) was an invitation event. The invited riders are the single Cup race winners, the first 10 of the general classification before the last race, the first 10 in the World Ranking and the reigning World Champion. Generally some riders forfeit their right to start and some others in the high classification of World Cup are invited.[6]
Jersey
After each race, the points gained for each rider were added to the current total. A special rainbow jersey was then presented to the leading rider in the overall ranking of the World Cup. He was obliged to wear this jersey in the further World Cup races as long as he held the lead in the overall standings. The jersey was issued for the first time in 1990 edition. It retained the same core design with minor modifications of logos and colors. Only in the first edition a grey-yellow jersey was awarded to the leader without the rainbow scheme.[7][8][9][10][11]
Most single races wins in a single season: Paolo Bettini (3 in 2003).
Most wins in a single World Cup race: Erik Zabel (4 Milan-San Remo).
Lead the general classification after all single races: Erik Zabel, 2000.
Andrei Tchmil finished four times on the podium, representing three different nations (third in 1994 for Moldova, second in 1995 for Ukraine, first in 1999 and second in 2000 for Belgium).
Johan Museeuw is the only rider that won the World Cup and the World Championship in the same year (1996).
Oscar Camenzind(SUI) is the only rider winning a World Cup race wearing the rainbow jersey of World Champion (1998 Giro di Lombardia, after winning the World Championship the previous week).
Gianni Bugno is the only rider that won the World Cup and a Grand Tour in the same year (and in career), winning 1990 Giro d'Italia.
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.
Roger De Vlaeminck is a Belgian former professional racing cyclist. He was described by Rik Van Looy as "The most talented and the only real classics rider of his generation". Nicknamed "The Gypsy" because he was born into a family of traveling clothiers, he is known for exploits in the cobbled classic Paris–Roubaix race, but his performances in other "Monument" races gave him a record that few can match. His record in Paris–Roubaix earned him another nickname, "Monsieur Paris–Roubaix".
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.
Andrea Tafi is an Italian former road bicycle racer who retired from his professional career in 2005. Tafi's propensity to perform best in the harder races earned him the nickname "Il Gladiatore".
Francesco Casagrande is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist. Casagrande was a professional cyclist between 1992 and 2005.
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 goes under the name Il Biondo due to his blonde hair.
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.
Hendrikus Andreas "Hennie" Kuiper is a Dutch former professional road racing cyclist. His career includes a gold medal in the Olympic road race at Munich in 1972, becoming world professional road race champion in 1975, as well as winning four of the five "Monument" classics. He rode the Tour de France 12 times, finishing second twice and winning the stage to Alpe d'Huez on two occasions. Kuiper, Ercole Baldini, Paolo Bettini and Remco Evenepoel are the only riders to have won both the Olympic road race and the world professional road race.
Maurizio Fondriest is a retired Italian professional road racing cyclist.
Alfons ("Fons") De Wolf is a retired Belgian road race cyclist, a professional from 1979 to 1990. He represented his country at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada.
André Dierickx is a Belgian former professional road racing cyclist who competed between 1969 and 1981. He competed in the individual road race at the 1968 Summer Olympics. He also won the La Flèche Wallonne in 1973 and 1975, the 1971 Tour de Luxembourg, the 1978 Tour of Belgium and the 1973 Züri-Metzgete among other races.
Claude Criquielion was a Belgian professional road bicycle racer who raced between 1979 and 1990. In 1984, Criquielion became the world road race champion in Barcelona, Spain on a gruelling course. He had five top-ten finishes in the Tour de France.
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 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 2000 UCI Road World Cup was the twelfth edition of the UCI Road World Cup. It was won by Erik Zabel. Zabel led the classification after all the single races, the only time this feat happened in World Cup history.
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.
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Paolo Bettini (ITA) (3)
