Organizers of cycling's top three stage races pulled out of the UCI ProTour circuit Friday after talks with the sport's governing body collapsed.

Organizers of the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España said in a statement issued Friday that the UCI's plans for the 2006 series imposed too many restrictions.

Race operators and the UCI have been at odds over how races are organized and funded.

Organizers said the ProTour limits their ability to select teams for their races and that extending a temporary accord reached for 2005 made ''no sense.''

The three tours will go ahead as scheduled in 2006, but not as part of the ProTour setup.

The UCI said the tours' move would not change the organization of next year's races, but warned in a statement that any ''unilateral decision'' about how races are run violated the sport's rules.

Under the ProTour format, teams pay for the right to take part in races and lock in their plans in advance.

''We've said the ProTour didn't suit us from the moment it was launched,'' Patrice Clerc, head of Amaury Sports Organization, which operates the Tour de France, told reporters in Paris. ''It runs contrary to the idea that the best athletes are atop the sports pyramid.''

In an effort to encourage teams to participate in their races, the Tour organizers said they would pay 100,000 euros (US$117,850) to every team that agrees to participate in all three events in a one year. The team that performs best in all three Tours will win 600,000 euros (US$707,100).

''All the sporting teams tell us that it's expensive for them to participate in all three Tours,'' said Giacomo Catano, administrator of RCS Sport, which operates the Giro. ''Putting money on the table brings an added value for the teams.''

The UCI said that changes to the granting of awards or prizes in international races were not permitted without the governing body's approval.

As for doping, the operators also proposed that a team in which a single rider is found guilty of using banned substances during a race will lose all its points collected in the event, Clerc said.

The UCI, with agreement from the Tour organizers, set its 2006 calendar in September, saying all 20 teams in the ProTour series would again be obliged to take part in each of next year's events.

Together, the three tour operators - Amaury, RCS Sport and Unipublic, which runs the Vuelta - are behind a total of 11 races, including Paris-Nice and the Tour of Lombardy.The Associated Press

Bruyneel has high hopes for American cycling
Even with Lance Armstrong retiring after his seventh consecutive Tour de France triumph, the future of American cycling is on stable wheels, according to the manager of the Discovery Channel team.

Johan Bruyneel, guiding a nine-day training camp that concludes in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, told a radio station at a charity event there on Wednesday that U.S. riders are likely to continue finishing well in Europe, thanks in part to the "Lance effect."

"Look at the Tour de France result this year. Four of the top 10 were Americans," Bruyneel said, according to a team website posting. "That means a lot and yes that is in part due to the 'Lance effect.'

"We've had many top Americans come through our team and learned a lot from Lance and they in turn moved on to other teams to become the leaders. If you look at individual riders, American cycling is one of the dominating nations."

Twelve riders, including Armstrong, are taking part in the session, a first workout on the road to next year's Tour de France, the first since 2000 without Armstrong defending a championship.

Discovery newcomers Vladimir Gusev, Jurgen Van Goolen, Egoi Martinez and Australian Trent Lowe were able to work with Armstrong and other team veterans.
Agence France Presse