This week, Cyclingnews takes a deep dive into the UCI's WorldTour and the global reforms of professional cycling first introduced in 2005, and the impact it has had on the sport. First, we look at the history of cycling and what separates it from other sports and makes creating a season-long series challenging. Later this week, we will recap the evolution of the WorldTour, the impact it has had on teams, races and riders, and the globalization of the sport of cycling.
Although professional cycling's great races were devised independently in the early part of the 20th century, and although the calendar of major events developed organically, attempts at creating a season-long 'narrative' have existed since at least the immediate post-war period.
The Challenge Desgrange-Colombo, which ran between 1948 and 1958, tabulated results from the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and major Classics in a bid to crown the season's most consistent rider. The competition was run by newspapers L'Équipe, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Het Nieuwsblad and Les Sports, and the roll of honour was notable. Briek Schotte was the first winner, followed a year later by Fausto Coppi, but after three consecutive wins by the Classics specialist Fred De Bruyne, disagreements between the members of the organising committee – sound familiar? – ultimately led to the demise of the series.
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The following year, however, French distillery Pernod stepped into the breach. Having already sponsored a season-long competition for the best French rider, Pernod expanded the series internationally in 1959, and the Super Prestige Pernod was born.
A cursory glance at the roll of honour shows that the Super Prestige Pernod was a remarkably reliable indicator of the best rider in any given year. Jacques Anquetil claimed four titles in the 1960s before Eddy Merckx carried off the prize on seven consecutive occasions. Freddy Maertens' brief imperial phase in the mid-1970s was marked by two titles, while Bernard Hinault won four years running from 1979 to 1982.
Even Greg LeMond, later blamed for pioneering the notion of focusing exclusively on the Tour de France, won the Super Prestige in 1983. Sean Kelly, meanwhile, struck informal alliances with Classics rivals in the final weeks of 1985 to win the second of his three titles, before his run was interrupted in 1987 by his fellow countryman Stephen Roche's treble of Giro d'Italia, Tour and Worlds.
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