The series started with the Tour Down Under's opening stage on 17 January, and consisted of 14 stage races, 14 one-day races, and one team time trial (which only counted towards the team rankings).
The Tour of Hangzhou which was originally included in the list of races was postponed until 2013.
[1] The 18 UCI ProTeams competed in the World Tour, with UCI Professional Continental teams, or national squads, able to enter at the discretion of the organisers of each event.
The ProTeams, which were obliged to take part in all 29 events, were: GreenEDGE (known as Orica–GreenEDGE from May onwards) was a new team, while FDJ–BigMat regained ProTour status, which it lost for the previous season.
The national rankings as of the 21st event, Clásica de San Sebastián, were used to determine how many riders a country could have in the World Championships.