The 2003 UCI Road World Cup was the fifteenth edition of the

UCI Road World Cup The UCI Road World Cup was a season-long Road bicycle racing, 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 Internati ...

. It had the same calendar of the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

edition. The previous year winner,

Paolo Bettini Paolo Bettini (born 1 April 1974 in Cecina, Tuscany, Cecina, Province of Livorno, Livorno, Tuscany) is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the former coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classic cycle ra ...

, was the big favourite of the competition and he begins with the win in the Milan-Sanremo with a great attack along

Mirko Celestino Mirko Celestino (born 19 March 1974 in Albenga) is an Italian former professional road racing cyclist, specializing in the classic cycle races. His biggest career achievements to date include winning the ''monumental classic''—Giro di Lombard ...

and fellow teammate

Luca Paolini Luca Paolini (born 17 January 1977) is an Italian former road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2000 and 2015. He started his sports career in the early 2000s by joining (2000–2002), UCI ProTeam directed by Patrick Lefevere. With ...

escaping from the main group with the race's favourite, previous year winner and

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Mario Cipollini Mario Cipollini (; born 22 March 1967), often abbreviated to "Cipo", is a retired Italian professional road cyclist most noted for his sprinting ability, the longevity of his dominance (his first pro win came in 1988, his last in 2005; 170 pro ...

. However, an injury in the Gent–Wevelgem (not in the World Cup, between Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix) forced Bettini to miss all the other spring races.

Peter Van Petegem Peter van Petegem (born 18 January 1970 in Brakel, Belgium) is a former professional road racing cyclist. Van Petegem last rode for Quick Step-Innergetic, in 2007. He lived in Horebeke. He was a specialist in spring classics, one of ten riders t ...

with an historic double Tour of Flanders - Paris-Roubaix, took the lead of the competition. In the summer races, Bettini came back strong with a back-to back wins in the HEW Cyclassics, preceding the Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich, and in the Clásica de San Sebastián, with an all-italian top five. Bettini was almost sure of his second World Cup with the third place in Züri-Metzgete. The autumn races saw Bettini, Van Petegem e Boogerd, the top three in the classification after Zurich, taking low positions in Paris-Tours and in Giro di Lombardia. The final podium saw Bettini with an high margin over Boogerd and Van Petegem, divided by only a single point.

Races

Single races details

''In the race results the leader jersey identify the rider who wore the jersey in the race (the leader at the start of the race).'' ''In the general classification table the jersey identify the leader after the race.''

Final standings

Source:

Individual

Points are awarded to the top 25 classified riders. Riders must start at least 6 races to be classified. The points are awarded for every race using the following system:

Teams

Points are awarded to the top 10 teams. Teams must start at least 8 races to be classified. The first 18 teams in world ranking must start in all races. The points are awarded for every race using the following system:

References

{{UCI Road World Cup UCI UCI Road World Cup (men)