- Tour de l'Ain
Infobox Cycling race
name = Tour de l'Ain
current_event =
date = August
region = France
english = Tour of Ain
Race of Friendship
localnames = Tour de l'Ain
Prix de l'Amitié
nickname =
discipline = Road race
competition = UCI Europe Tour 2.1
type = Stage race
organiser =
director =
first = 1989
number = 20 (as of 2008)
last =
firstwinner = flagicon|FRA Serge Pires-Léal
mostwins =
mostrecent = flagicon|GERLinus Gerdemann Tour de l'Ain, also known as the Prix de l'Amitié , is an annual late season professional cycling stage race held mid-August. The first Tour de l'Ain was held in 1989 and was organized by Dante Lavacca, Armand Peracca and Maurice Josserand. From 1989 to 1992 it was an amateur event. In 1993 it became open to professionals. In 1999 Cyclisme Organisation took over the organizing of the event and in the 1999 edition for the first time the climb of the Grand Colombier was included. The race had a 2.5 UCI status but was in 2002 promoted to the 2.3 category. Since the inception of the UCI ProTour and the UCI Continental circuits in 2005, the race has been classed as a 2.1 category race. [cite web|url= http://www.tourdelain.com/organisation/historique.php|title=Historique du Tour de l’Ain|publisher=Tour de l’Ain|accessdate=2007-08-17] The race has a mountainous profile and is held in the
Jura Mountains with the 1,534 metre high Grand Colombier as a decisive climb in the four day stage race.Winners
*
2008 Linus Gerdemann flagicon|GER
*2007 John Gadret flagicon|FRA
*2006 Cyril Dessel flagicon|FRA
*2005 Carl Naibo flagicon|FRA
*2004 Jérôme Pineau flagicon|FRA
*2003 Axel Merckx flagicon|BEL
*2002 Christophe Oriol flagicon|FRA
*2001 Ivaïlo Gabrovski flagicon|BUL
*2000 Serguei Yakovlev flagicon|KAZ
*1999 Grzegorz Gwiazdowski flagicon|POL
*1998 Christian Gasperoni flagicon|ITA
*1997 Bobby Julich flagicon|USA
*1996 David Delrieuflagicon|FRA
*1995 Emmanuel Hubert flagicon|FRA
*1994 Lylian Lebreton flagicon|FRA
*1993 Emmanuel Magnienflagicon|FRA
*1992 Denis Leproux flagicon|FRA
*1991 Eric Drubay flagicon|FRA
*1990 Denis Moretti flagicon|FRA
*1989 Serge Pires-LéalReferences
External links
* [http://www.tourdelain.com/index1.php Tour de l’Ain Official Website]
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