Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common competition formats are mass start events, where riders start simultaneously and race to a set finish point; and time trials, where individual riders or teams race a course alone against the clock. Stage races or "tours" take multiple days, and consist of several mass-start or time-trial stages ridden consecutively.
Cyrille Guimard is a French former professional road racing cyclist who became a directeur sportif and television commentator. Three of his riders, Bernard Hinault, Laurent Fignon, and Lucien Van Impe, won the Tour de France. Another of his protégés, Greg LeMond, described him as "the best (coach) in the world" and "the best coach I ever had". He has been described by cycling journalist William Fotheringham as the greatest directeur sportif in the history of the Tour.
Sean Yates is an English former professional cyclist and directeur sportif.
Gordon "Gord" Fraser is a Canadian former professional road racing cyclist. As a rider he specialised in sprinting.
Antonin Magne was a French cyclist who won the Tour de France in 1931 and 1934. He raced as a professional from 1927 to 1939 and then became a team manager. The French rider and then journalist, Jean Bobet, described him in Sporting Cyclist as "a most uninterviewable character" and "a man who withdraws into a shell as soon as he meets a journalist." His taciturn character earned him the nickname of The Monk when he was racing.
Patrick Lefevere is a Belgian former professional cyclist, who currently serves as the general manager of UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step. According to the ranking site Cycling Ranking he is the most successful cycling manager in history.
A directeur sportif is a person directing a cycling team during a road bicycle racing event. It is seen as the equivalent to a field manager in baseball, or a head coach in football. At professional level, a directeur sportif follows the team in a car and communicates with riders, personnel and race officials by radio.
Dalmacio Langarica Lizasoain was a Spanish professional road racing cyclist during the 1940s and 1950s and a directeur sportif in the 1970s.
Mauro Gianetti is a Swiss former professional road cyclist and later directeur sportif. Gianetti was employed as team manager for the Saunier Duval–Prodir cycling team throughout its existence between 2004 and 2011.
Maximilian Sciandri is a retired British road racing cyclist of Italian descent. He competed as an Italian national up to February 1995, then took British citizenship. He won the bronze medal in the men's individual road race at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA. He was a professional rider from 1989 to 2004. Sciandri subsequently worked for the BMC Racing Team as a Directeur sportif from 2011 to 2018, having previously ridden for team manager Jim Ochowicz at the Motorola team in the 1990s. Prior to joining BMC he worked with British Cycling, helping to establish their base in Quarrata, and developing riders such as Mark Cavendish and Geraint Thomas. In October 2018 it emerged that Sciandri would join the Movistar Team as a directeur sportif from the 2019 season.
Nicolas Portal was a French directeur sportif and professional road bicycle racer. He was born in Auch, France.
Peter Post was a Dutch professional cyclist whose career lasted from 1956 to 1972. Post competed in road and track racing. As a rider he is best remembered for Six-day racing, having competed in 155 races and won 65. Because of this success he was known as “De Keizer van de Zesdaagse” or “The Emperor of the Six Days”. In road racing his main achievements were winning the 1964 Paris–Roubaix and becoming national road race champion in 1963. He was on the podium three times at the La Flèche Wallonne but never won. Post’s other nickname was “de Lange” or “Big Man” because he was tall for a cyclist. After retiring from racing he had success as a Directeur sportif. Peter Post died in Amstelveen on 14 January 2011.
Peugeot team was a French professional cycling team that promoted and rode Peugeot racing bikes.
Markel Irizar Aranburu is a Spanish former professional road racing cyclist, who rode professionally between 2004 and 2019 for the Euskaltel–Euskadi, Team RadioShack and Trek–Segafredo teams. During his professional career, Irizar took two victories – a stage win at the 2010 Tour du Poitou-Charentes and the general classification at the 2011 Vuelta a Andalucía.
Rachel Elisabeth Heal is an English former racing cyclist, who currently works a directeur sportif for UCI Women's Continental Team EF Education–Tibco–SVB.
Tom Southam is a British former competitive cyclist from Penzance, Cornwall who competed professionally between 2003 and 2011. He represented Great Britain in five World Championships and rode in several UCI ProTour events. Southam currently works as a directeur sportif for World Tour team EF Pro Cycling.
Adrien Niyonshuti is a Rwandan former professional bicycle racer, who rode professionally for Team Dimension Data from 2009 to 2017. In 2021, he worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Skol Adrien Cycling Academy. In 2023, he will be leading the Benin National Cycling team to prepare for the UCI Championships to be held on the continent in 2025.
Martyn Irvine is a Northern Ireland-born former cyclist, who competed professionally between 2008 and 2017 for the Pezula Racing, Planet X, RTS Racing Team, UnitedHealthcare, Madison Genesis and Aqua Blue Sport teams, and rode at the 2012 Olympic Games. He was also a directeur sportif for the Aqua Blue Sport team.
Colin Andrew Sturgess is an English former road and track cyclist, who last worked as a directeur sportif for UCI Continental team Ribble Weldtite. On the track, he won a gold and a bronze medal in the individual pursuit at the world championships in 1989 and 1991. He competed at the 1988 Summer Olympics in the 4 km individual pursuit and finished in fourth place. On the road, he won the British National Road Race Championships in 1990. In 2010 he was inducted to the British Cycling Hall of Fame.
Scott Guyton is a New Zealand former professional cyclist, who currently works as the directeur sportif and general manager of UCI Continental team Bolton Equities Black Spoke. Guyton competed at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, in the men's individual road race, and at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, in the men's individual road race.
