The Tour de France is an annual men's multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally passing through nearby countries. Like the other Grand Tours, it consists of 21 day-long stages over the course of 23 days. It has been described as "the world’s most prestigious and most difficult bicycle race."
Bicycle touring is the taking of self-contained cycling trips for pleasure, adventure or autonomy rather than sport, commuting or exercise. Touring can range from single-day trips, to multi-day trips, to years. Tours may be planned by the participant or organised by a holiday business, a club, or a charity as a fund-raising venture.
The Race Across America, or RAAM, is an ultra-distance road cycling race held across the United States that started in 1982 as the Great American Bike Race.
Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held 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 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.
A cyclosportive, or often simply sportive, is a short to long distance, organised, mass-participation cycling event, typically held annually. The Italian term Gran Fondo is commonly used for these events in the United States, Australia and some other English-speaking countries.
Mountain bike racing is the competitive cycle sport discipline of mountain biking held on off-road terrain. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised the discipline relatively late in 1990, when it sanctioned the world championships in Durango, Colorado. The first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series took place in 1988. Its nine-race circuit covered two continents—Europe and North America—and was sponsored by Grundig. Cross-country racing was the only World Cup sport at this time. In 1993, a six-event downhill World Cup was introduced. In 1996, cross-country mountain biking events were added to the Olympic Games. In 2006, cross-country mountain biking events became part of the World Deaf Cycling Championships for the first time in San Francisco, USA.
The Cape Town Cycle Tour is an annual cycle race hosted in Cape Town, South Africa, usually 109 km (68 mi) long. It is the first event outside Europe to be included in the Union Cycliste Internationale's Golden Bike Series. South Africa hosts some of the largest, by number of entrants, sporting events in the world with three being the largest of their type. The Cape Town Cycle Tour, with as many as 35 000 cyclists taking part, is the world's largest individually timed cycle race. The other two are the world's largest ultra-marathon running event, the Comrades Marathon, and the world's largest open water swim, the Midmar Mile.
The Tour de Donut is an annual bicycle race held in Staunton, Illinois and Troy Ohio. In this unique bike event riders' times are reduced by five minutes for each doughnut they consume during two pit stops in the nearby towns.
The Cape Epic, full name Absa Cape Epic, is an annual mountain bike stage race held in the Western Cape, South Africa. It has been accredited as hors categorie by the Union Cycliste Internationale. First staged in 2004, the race typically covers more than 700 kilometres, and lasts eight days - a prologue and seven stages. The Absa Cape Epic attracts elite professional mountain bikers from around the world, who compete in teams of two. To qualify for a finish, teams have to stay together for the duration of the race. The race is also open to amateurs, who enter a lottery in order to gain a slot. A total of 650 teams take part. The times taken to finish each stage are aggregated to determine the overall winning team in each category at the end of the race. The course changes every year, but the race has always taken place in the Western Cape. The Absa Cape Epic was described by Bart Brentjens, 1996 Olympic gold medallist in mountain biking and a former Absa Cape Epic winner, as the "Tour de France of mountain biking".
Bikecentennial '76 was an event consisting of a series of bicycle tours on the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail across the United States in the summer of 1976 in commemoration of the bicentennial of America's Declaration of Independence. The route crossed ten states, 22 national forests, two national parks, and 112 counties between Astoria, Oregon, and Yorktown, Virginia, a distance of about 4,250 miles (6,840 km). The route was chosen to take cyclists through small towns on mostly rural, low-traffic roads.
The Tour of Somerville is an annual, three-day series of bicycle races held in and around Somerville, New Jersey during Memorial Day weekend. The featured Memorial Day event, the Kugler-Anderson 50-mile race for professional and elite cyclists is the oldest competitive bicycle race in the country, having first been run in 1940. The event has become known as "The Kentucky Derby of Cycling" and draws international Olympians and top cyclists from around the world. It was known as the predominant cycling race in America from the 1940s through the 1980s.
Mark Ian Macleod Beaumont BEM is a British long-distance cyclist, broadcaster and author. He holds the record for cycling round the world, completing his 18,000-mile (29,000 km) route on 18 September 2017, having taken less than 79 days. On 18 February 2010 Beaumont completed a quest to cycle the Americas, cycling from Anchorage, Alaska, US to Ushuaia in Southern Argentina, for a BBC Television series.
The Tour Divide is an annual mountain biking ride traversing the length of the Rocky Mountains, from Canada to the Mexican border. Following the 2,745-mile (4,418 km) Great Divide Mountain Bike Route, it is an ultra-distance cycling ride that is an extreme test of endurance, self-reliance and mental toughness. The ride format is strictly self-supported, and it is not a stage race - the clock runs continuously from the start until riders cross the finish line, usually more than two weeks later.
A Gran Fondo is a type of long-distance road cycling ride originating in Italy in 1970, and roughly translates into English as "Big Ride". Italian Gran Fondos are officially defined and certified by the Italian Cycling Federation as a bicycle event at least 120 kilometres (75 mi) long, and are individually chip-timed races with prizes for the fastest riders in each category. The starts are done en masse, and the format allows for riders of every level to participate, much like a marathon, where most participants are competing against the clock instead of other participants. Traditionally a large meal is served to the participants at the end of the event, and roads are shut down.
Tour d’Azerbaïdjan – is a 2.1 multi-stage bicycle race of the UCI Europe Tour, which takes place in Azerbaijan around May. Each day, participants start on a new phase of the race. The race is held in 7 regions of Azerbaijan and finishes in the capital, Baku. Other large cities the race moves through are: Oguz, Chamakh, Maraza, Ismayilli, Gabala, Sheki.
The Lesotho Sky is a 6-day mountain bike stage race that takes place in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The event has been sanctioned by the Lesotho Cycling Association since 2011. It has been accredited as category 1 by the Union Cycliste Internationale. The event first took place in 2011 covering 430 km over the 6 days. More recently the route has shortened to 340 km with a time trial through the capital of Maseru to start. The Lesotho Sky is a small event but attracts professional and amateur riders from around the world. Riders are required to ride in teams of 2 that must stay within 2 minutes of each other throughout the event. The times taken for each team to finish each day are added together and the shortest total time is the winner.
The Transcontinental Race (TCR) is an annual, self-supported, ultra-distance cycling race across Europe. It is one of the world's toughest ultra-endurance races. The route and distance varies for each edition between about 3,200 and 4,200 km, with the winners generally taking 7 to 10 days. Interest in the race grew rapidly from 30 people starting the first edition of the race in 2013 to over 1,000 people applying for a place in the fourth edition in 2016, 350 of whom were successful; since then, these numbers have been reasonably stable.
The Trans Am Bike Race (TABR) is an annual, self-supported, ultra-distance cycling race across the United States. The route is about 4,200 miles (6,800 km) long and uses the TransAmerica Bicycle Trail that was developed by the Adventure Cycling Association for the Bikecentennial event in 1976. The route runs from the Pacific coast in Astoria, Oregon to the Atlantic coast in Yorktown, Virginia, passing through ten states. The inaugural race was in 2014, which 25 people completed, the fastest of whom took less than 18 days.
The definition of ultra-distance cycling is far more vague than in ultra running or in ultra-triathlon. Any bike race longer than a century ride, which is 100 miles (160 km), is sometimes considered to be ultra-distance cycling. However, such events are relatively common, so using a longer distance to define the category is more useful, such as any race that is longer than 200 kilometres (120 mi), 300 kilometres (190 mi) or even a double century, 200 miles (320 km).
The IncaDivide Race is a yearly, self-supported, ultra-distance cycling race across the territory of the Incas in South America and organized by the french organization BikingMan. The first edition took the participants through Ecuador and Peru in 2017. This is the first self-supported race to take place in South America. The inaugural edition route was about 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi) long and went along some sections of the Qhapaq ñan, the legendary inca road network that was built by the Inca civilization. The main challenge of the race lies in its high altitude route and the challenging weather conditions of the Andes. All cyclists have to cycle across the Andes Cordillera with high passes above 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) on remote andean tracks and random road conditions. The inaugural race was held the 1st of July 2017. 17 athletes attempted to complete it but only 6 could reach the finish line. The fastest rider took less than 17 days to cycle from Quito to Cuzco.
