The 2004 UCI Road World Cup was the sixteenth and last edition of the

UCI Road World Cup The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long road cycling competition held from 1989 until 2004 and comprising ten one-day events. History The competition was inaugurated in 1989, and replaced the Super Prestige Pernod International. In the first ...

. There was no change in the calendar from the 2003 edition, meaning the final seven editions had the same calendar.

Davide Rebellin Davide Rebellin (9 August 1971 – 30 November 2022) was an Italian professional road bicycle racer, who last rode for UCI Continental team . He was considered one of the finest classics specialists of his generation with more than fifty top t ...

Gerolsteiner Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. KG (Gerolsteiner) is a leading German mineral water firm with its seat in Gerolstein in the Eifel mountains. The firm is well known for its Gerolsteiner Sprudel brand, a bottled, naturally carbonated mineral wat ...

took a commanding lead in the standings following an excellent Ardennes campaign, winning both the

Amstel Gold Race The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classic ...

and the Monument

Liège–Bastogne–Liège Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as ''La Doyenne'' ("The Old Lady"), is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium.Cycling Weekly, UK, 13 March 1993 First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five '' Monuments'' of the European professional ...

Paolo Bettini Paolo Bettini (born 1 April 1974 in Cecina, Livorno, Tuscany) is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the former coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classics specialist of his generation, and probably ...

's consistency through the season, however, saw the rider from

Quick Step-Davitamon Soudal–Quick-Step () is a Belgian UCI WorldTeam cycling team led by team manager Patrick Lefevere. The directeurs sportifs are Davide Bramati, Iljo Keisse, Klaas Lodewyck, Wilfried Peeters, Tom Steels and Geert Van Bondt. The team is nick ...

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. In the team competition,

T-Mobile Team T-Mobile is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic ( T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland ( T-Mobile Polska), the United States (T-Mobil ...

edged out

Rabobank Rabobank (; full name: ''Coöperatieve Rabobank U.A.'') is a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Utrecht, Netherlands. The group comprises 89 local Dutch Rabobanks (2019), a central organisation (Raboban ...

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 (; born 7 July 1970) is a German former professional road bicycle racer who raced most of his career with Telekom. With 152 professional wins and 211 wins in his career, he is considered by some to be one of the greatest German cycl ...

thought he had done enough to secure victory and raised his arms in celebration. As he did,

Óscar Freire Óscar Freire Gómez (born 15 February 1976) is a former Spanish professional road bicycle racer. He was one of the top sprinters in road bicycle racing, having won the world championship three times, equalling Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbe ...

Races

Final standings

Riders

Teams

References