updated 11:47 a.m. ET Dec. 12, 2005

PARIS - Organizers of cycling’s top three stage races pulled out of the International Cycling Union’s Pro Tour circuit Friday after the collapse of talks with the sport’s governing body.

Organizers of the Tour de France, Italy’s Giro and Spain’s Vuelta said the union’s plans for the 2006 series imposed too many restrictions.

Tour operators and the union have been at odds over how races are organized and funded. The tours will go ahead as scheduled in 2006 but not as part of the Pro Tour setup.

The organizers said the Pro Tour limits their ability to select teams for their races, adding in a statement 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 Pro Tour setup.

In response, 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 rule book.

Under the Pro Tour format, teams would pay to participate in races and lock in their plans years in advance.

“We’ve said the Pro Tour didn’t suit us from the moment it was launched,” Patrice Clerc, head of Amaury Sports Organization, which operates the Tour de France, said in Paris.

The Pro Tour organizers said they would pay $117,850 to every team that enters all three events in a single year.

The union, with agreement from tour organizers, had set its 2006 calendar in September, saying all 20 teams in the Pro Tour series would again be required to take part in each event.

Together, the three Tour operators — Amaury, Giro’s RCS Sport and Unipublic, which runs the Vuelta — are behind a total of 11 world circuit races including the Paris-Nice and the Tour of Lombardy.

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