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In 2009 a number of prominent riders returned to professional cycling. Ivan Basso, Floyd Landis and Michele Scarponi had finished a suspension. Bjorn Leukemans was without a team for over a year due to doping-related allegations, which were proven to be ungrounded. Most notably, seven time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong returned after a three-and-half year break, starting his season as a -rider in the Tour Down Under. The teams and , both who were connected to some major doping cases in 2008, saw their title sponsors drop out. The Spanish squad found a new sponsor in Fuji Bikes and was granted another ProTour license as . However, race organizer ASO did not invite the team for their races, and they did not participate in the Tour de France. New teams in the ProTour are from the United States and (built from the former ) from Russia. One notable new ProContinental team, started from scratch, is the , which managed to sign 2008 Tour de France-winner Carlos Sastre and Norwegian sprinter Thor Hushovd. Like another new ProContinental team, from the Netherlands, Katusha and Cervélo immediately proved successful in the early months of the season. This year's World Championships will be held in Mendrisio, Switzerland. The UCI ProTour ranking, which was heavily devalued in 2008 due to the withdrawal from the ProTour by the three Grand Tour organizers, was replaced by the UCI World Ranking, based on a new ''World Calendar'' - effectively combining the existing 14 ProTour races with the Monuments and Grand Tours that are currently organized as "Historic" races. ==World championships== The World Road championships were held in Mendrisio, Switzerland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2009 in men's road cycling」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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