The ProTour is set to lose the big three
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Organisers of cycling's three major races have split from the International Cycling Union's ProTour.
Arguments over how professional cycling should be run have led the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Tour of Spain to leave the 25-race ProTour.
Teams will now be offered 100,000 euros each for competing in all three Tours, with the winners picking up the Grand Tour trophy and 600,000 euros.
The ProTour was designed to encourage top riders to compete all year.
"Maintaining for 2006 the agreement we had for 2005, makes no sense," said Patrice Clerc, the president of Tour de France organisers.
"The situation was only a transition aimed at reaching a global agreement on the Pro-Tour, which the UCI are now saying they will not come up with."
Clerc added: "We are thinking about re-launching the Trophee des Grands Tours set up during the 1980s. The prize money would be two million euros."
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