| Fifteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup | |
 | |
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Dates | March 22 – October 18 |
| Location | Europe |
| Races | 10 |
| Champions | |
| Individual champion |  Paolo Bettini (ITA) (Quick-Step–Davitamon) |
| Teams' champion | Saeco |
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 previous year winner, Paolo Bettini, was the big favourite of the competition and he begins with the win in the Milan-Sanremo with a great attack along Mirko Celestino and fellow teammate Luca Paolini escaping from the main group with the race's favourite, previous year winner and world champion, Mario Cipollini. However, an injury in the Gent–Wevelgem (not in the World Cup, between Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix) forced Bettini to miss all the other spring races.[1]
Peter Van Petegem with an historic double Tour of Flanders - Paris-Roubaix, took the lead of the competition.
In the summer races, Bettini came back strong with a back-to back wins in the HEW Cyclassics, preceding the Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich, and in the Clásica de San Sebastián, with an all-italian top five. Bettini was almost sure of his second World Cup with the third place in Züri-Metzgete.
The autumn races saw Bettini, Van Petegem e Boogerd, the top three in the classification after Zurich, taking low positions in Paris-Tours and in Giro di Lombardia. The final podium saw Bettini with a high margin over Boogerd and Van Petegem, divided by only a single point.
- ^ "www.cyclingnews.com – the world centre of cycling". Bike-zone.com. Retrieved 2012-10-23.