2005 UCI ProTour

2005 UCI ProTour
First edition of the UCI ProTour
Details
DatesMarch 6 – October 15
LocationEurope
Races28
Champions
Individual champion Danilo Di Luca (ITA) (Liquigas–Bianchi)
Teams' championTeam CSC
Nations' champion Italy
2006 →

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.