The 2012 national road cycling championships began in New Zealand with the time trial event (both men and women) on January 6. On January 7 the Women's Road Race.
The winner of each national championship wears the national jersey in all their races for the next year in the respective discipline, apart from the World Championships and the Olympics, or unless they are wearing a category leader's jersey in a stage race. Most national champion jerseys tend to represent a country's flag or use the colours from it. Jerseys may also feature traditional sporting colours of a country that are not derived from a national flag, such as the National colours of Australia on the jerseys of Australian national champions.
Philippe Gilbert is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer, who is best known for winning the World Road Race Championships in 2012, and for being one of two riders, along with Davide Rebellin, to have won the three Ardennes classics – the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège – in a single season, which he accomplished in 2011. Gilbert also finished the 2011 season as the overall winner of the UCI World Tour.
Svein Tuft is a Canadian former road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2005 and 2019 for the Symmetrics, Garmin–Transitions, SpiderTech–C10, Mitchelton–Scott and Rally UHC Cycling teams. Tuft was the winner of the 2006–07 UCI America Tour, and was a thirteen-time champion at the Canadian road cycling championships: twice in the road race, and eleven times in the time trial.
Valery Kobzarenko is a Ukrainian former professional track and road bicycle racer. He turned professional in 2004 with Acqua & Sapone and retired at the end of the 2013 season.
Francisco Pérez Sanchez is a Spanish professional cross-country mountain biker for Wild Wolf Trek Pro Racing, and a former road bicycle racer for several teams including UCI ProTeam Movistar Team. Pérez is a strong climber.
Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano is a Colombian former professional road bicycle racer.
The Italian National Road Race Championships are a road cycling race held annually, which decides the Italian cycling champion in the road racing discipline, across several categories of rider.
The Spanish National Time Trial Championship is a time trial race that takes place inside the Spanish National Cycling Championship, and decides the best cyclist in this type of race. The time trial championships in Spain have not been held for as long as the Spanish National Road Race Championships, which first took place in 1897. The first race winner of the time trial championship was Abraham Olano in 1994. Jonathan Castroviejo holds the record for the most wins in the men's championship with five titles, followed by Iván Gutiérrez and Luis León Sánchez, with both riders winning four titles. The women's record is held by Teodora Ruano with 7 wins. The current champions are Raúl García Pierna and Margarita Victoria García.
Taylor Carpenter-Phinney is an American retired professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2009 and 2019 for the Trek–Livestrong, BMC Racing Team and EF Education First teams. Phinney specialized in time trials on the road as well as the individual pursuit on the track, winning the world title in the discipline in 2009 and 2010.
Aitor Pérez Arrieta is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer who currently rides for the Gios Deyser-Leon Kastro team. Pérez has also ridden for UCI ProTour teams Caisse d'Epargne–Illes Balears, Footon–Servetto–Fuji and Lampre–ISD.
The 2011 season for the Geox–TMC cycling team, its last, began in February at the Gran Premio della Costa Etruschi and ended in October at the Tour of Hainan. With new financial backers and a greatly improved roster over their meager 2010 season, the team had hoped to retain UCI ProTeam status in the offseason. Instead, they rode as a UCI Professional Continental team, meaning that they had to be selected by the organizers of any UCI World Tour event if they were to compete. This included each of the season's Grand Tours. The team's manager and license-holder was former Liège–Bastogne–Liège winner Mauro Gianetti. Though both Geox and TMC expressed desire to replace him with former Mapei manager Álvaro Crespi, since the team did not attain ProTeam status, nothing came of this during the season. Crespi held an official role with the team as a consultant.
Movistar Team (Continental Team) (UCI Code MOT) was a Colombian UCI Continental cycling team.
Nathan Peter Haas is an Australian cyclist. He competed as a professional road racer until the end of 2021. He started competing full time in gravel events 2022.
The 2012 season for Movistar Team began in January at the Tour Down Under. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.
Rafael de Mattos Andriato is a Brazilian former professional road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2012 and 2022.
Lasse Norman Leth; né Norman Hansen; is a Danish professional road and track racing cyclist, who currently rides for Danish club team Team CO:PLAY–Giant Store. During his track cycling career, he has won five medals at the Summer Olympic Games, ten medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships and six medals at the UEC European Track Championships.
The 2012–2013 cyclo-cross season consists of three international series conducted in the bicycle racing discipline of cyclo-cross:
Mathieu van der Poel is a Dutch professional cyclist who rides for the UCI WorldTeam Alpecin–Deceuninck. He competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain biking and road racing disciplines of the sport.
Brandon Alexander McNulty is an American cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam UAE Team Emirates. In the 2016 UCI Junior World Time Trial Championships McNulty became the fourth American junior world champion after Greg LeMond, Jeff Evanshine, and Taylor Phinney, winning the time trial by 35 seconds.
Andrea Piccolo is an Italian professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam EF Education–EasyPost.
The 2021 national road cycling championships were held throughout the year and were organised by the UCI member federations. They began in Qatar with the men's time trial event on 26 January.
His elegant, almost languid pedalling style did carry him to the time trial crown, however, and he is hopeful of repeating the feat in 2012.
