2004 UCI Road World Cup
Encyclopedia
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
2003 UCI Road World Cup
The 2003 UCI Road World Cup was the fifteenth edition of the UCI Road World Cup.-Races:-Riders:-Teams:...

, meaning the final seven editions had the same calendar.

Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin is an Italian road bicycle racer, currently riding for the Italian Miche-Guerciotti team. He served a 2-year suspension for testing positive for Mircera at the 2008 Olympic Games...

 of Gerolsteiner
Team Gerolsteiner
Gerolsteiner was a German road bicycle racing team in the UCI ProTour. It was sponsored by the mineral water company Gerolsteiner Brunnen and Specialized....

 took a commanding lead in the standings following an excellent Ardennes
Ardennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...

 campaign, winning both the Amstel Gold Race
Amstel Gold Race
The Amstel Gold Race is a road bicycle race held in the southern part of the province of Limburg, Netherlands. Since 1989 it has been among the races included in season long rankings tables, as part of the UCI Road World Cup , the UCI ProTour , UCI World Ranking and from 2011 the UCI World Tour...

 and the Monument Liège–Bastogne–Liège. Paolo Bettini
Paolo Bettini
Paolo Bettini is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the 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...

's consistency through the season, however, saw the rider from Quick Step-Davitamon overhaul Rebellin to claim his third consecutive World Cup crown and the outright record for competition victories. Bettini's excellent form in August had much input into the final standings: three second places in the three races gave Bettini 210 points compared to the 112 points Rebellin accumulated in this time placing Bettini just 6 points behind in second place. On the August weekend without a World Cup race, Bettini won the Gold medal in the Olympic Games road race
Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's road race
Men's Road Race at the 2004 Summer Olympics .In a race that showed numerous break away attempts, it wasn't until Paolo Bettini and Sérgio Paulinho broke away from the group with a couple of laps remaining and opened up a comfortable gap on the final lap that an idea of the medal positions could be...

.

In the team competition, T-Mobile Team
T-Mobile Team
HTC-Highroad is a professional cycling team competing in international road bicycle races. Their current title sponsor is HTC Corporation, a Taiwanese manufacturer of smartphones. High Road Sports is the management company of team manager Bob Stapleton. Past title sponsors include Columbia...

 edged out Rabobank
Rabobank (cycling)
Rabobank is a professional bicycle racing team, sponsored by the Rabobank. The team consists of three sections: ProTeam , Continental , and Cyclo-cross...

 by a single point after Rabobank had led going into the final round.

The season opener at Milan – San Remo is particularly well remembered. In a sprint finish on the Via Roma, Erik Zabel
Erik Zabel
Erik Zabel is a former German professional road bicycle racer who last raced with Milram. With over 200 professional wins he is considered by some one of the greatest German cyclists and best cycling sprinters of history...

 thought he had done enough to secure victory and raised his arms in celebration. As he did, Óscar Freire
Óscar Freire
Óscar Freire Gómez is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer, riding for the UCI ProTeam Rabobank. He is one of the top sprinters in road bicycle racing, having won the world championship a three times, equalling Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx...

 was able to overtake him at the line and claim an improbable victory.

Races

Date Race Country Winner Team World Cup leader Leader's team
#1 March 20 Milan – San Remo
#2 April 4 Tour of Flanders
Tour of Flanders
The Tour of Flanders is a Flanders Classics road cycling race held in Belgium every spring, a week before the Paris–Roubaix road race. It is part of the UCI World Tour and one of the so-called monuments of the European professional calendar. It is the most important cycling race in Flanders...

#3 April 11 Paris–Roubaix Alessio-Bianchi
Alessio-Bianchi
Alessio-Bianchi was an Italian professional cycling team which excisted from 1998 to 2004. It was created in 1998 as Ballan. In 1999 Italian wheels manufacturer Alessio came in as co-sponsor, and in 2000 as main sponsor...

#4
2004 Amstel Gold Race
The Amstel Gold Race 2004 was the 39th edition of the annual road bicycle race "Amstel Gold Race", held on Sunday April 18, 2004 in the Limburg province, The Netherlands. The race stretched 251.1 kilometres, with the start in Maastricht and the finish in Valkenburg...

April 18 Amstel Gold Race
Amstel Gold Race
The Amstel Gold Race is a road bicycle race held in the southern part of the province of Limburg, Netherlands. Since 1989 it has been among the races included in season long rankings tables, as part of the UCI Road World Cup , the UCI ProTour , UCI World Ranking and from 2011 the UCI World Tour...

#5 April 25 Liège–Bastogne–Liège
#6 August 1 HEW Cyclassics
#7 August 7 Clásica de San Sebastián
Clásica de San Sebastián
The Donostia-Donostia Klasikoa - Clásica San Sebastián-San Sebastián is a cycle race that has been held every summer since 1981 in San Sebastián, Spain...

#8 August 22 Züri-Metzgete
#9 October 10 Paris–Tours
#10 October 16 Giro di Lombardia

Riders

Rider Team Points
1 340
2 327
3 252
4 251
5 140
6 131
7 105
8 96
9 72
10 68

Teams

Team Points
1 69
2 68
3 47
4 47
5 45
6 41
7 37
8 33
9 26
10 25
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