Damn, the news is just relentless this week. I'll let VN's Andy Hood do the 'splaining:
Other major European races, such as Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, Flèche Wallone and Paris-Tours, will fall under hors categorie designation and be limited to 50 percent participation of ProTour teams.
18 ProTour teams - two less than the 20 from past three seasons - will part of the cycling league, with guaranteed starts in the Tour de France but not in other major races not part of the redrafted ProTour.
A new world calendar will be introduced in 2008 that includes the remaining ProTour events, the world championships, a ProTour final and the Olympic Games, with the addition of new ProTour events such as the Tour Down Under in Australia, for a total of about 90 racing days.
New races will be developed in Russia and China. There was no mention of the Tour of California in the UCI's plans.