The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road bicycle racing competition comprising ten one-day events. 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
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).
The competition was run in parallel to the UCI Road World Rankings, which included all UCI sanctioned events. Both were replaced at the end of the 2004 season with the inauguration of the UCI ProTour and UCI Continental Circuits.
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Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
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—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)