In 2009 a number of prominent riders returned to professional cycling. Ivan Basso,

Floyd Landis Floyd Landis (born October 14, 1975) is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He finished first at the 2006 Tour de France, and would have been the third non-European winner in the event's history, but was disqualified after test ...

and Michele Scarponi had finished a suspension.

Bjorn Leukemans Bjorn (English, Dutch), Björn (Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, and German), Bjørn (Danish, Faroese and Norwegian), Beorn (Old English) or, rarely, Bjôrn, Biorn, or Latinized Biornus, Brum (Portuguese), is a Scandinavian male given name, or less oft ...

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 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

, saw their title sponsors drop out. The Spanish squad found a new sponsor in

Fuji Bikes Fuji Bikes is a brand of bicycles and cycling equipment currently owned by Advanced Sports International. The company is a descendant of , a bicycle manufacturer originally established in Japan in 1899. The company took its name and logo from M ...

and was granted another

ProTour The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI (International Cycling Union). Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, ea ...

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 The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th running of the race. The event took place from 5 to 27 July. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regu ...

-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.

Grand Tours

UCI ProTour

Other World Calendar events

''These races contribute, along with the Grand Tours and the UCI ProTour races, towards the

2009 UCI World Ranking The 2009 UCI World Ranking was the first edition of the ranking system launched by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), replacing the rankings previously part of the UCI ProTour, with which it would be merged in 2011 to form the UCI World Tour. ...

2.HC Category Races

The prefix ''2'' indicates that these events are stage races.

1.HC Category Races

The prefix ''1'' indicates that these events are one-day races.

National Championships

See

2009 national cycling championships The 2009 national road cycling championships began in January in Australia and New Zealand. Most of the European national championships took place in June. Jerseys The winner of each national championship wears the national jersey in all their rac ...