The Tour of Flanders, also known as De Ronde, is an annual road cycling race held in Belgium every spring. The most important cycling race in Flanders, it is part of the UCI World Tour and organized by Flanders Classics. Its nickname is Vlaanderens Mooiste. First held in 1913, the Tour of Flanders had its 100th edition in 2016.
Liège–Bastogne–Liège, also known as La Doyenne, is a one-day classic cycling race in Belgium. First run in 1892, it is the oldest of the five Monuments of the European professional road cycling calendar; usually coming as the last of the spring classics. It is held annually in late April, in the Ardennes region of Belgium, from Liège to Bastogne and back.
The Amstel Gold Race is an annual one-day classic road cycling race held in the province of Limburg, Netherlands. It traditionally marks the turning point of the spring classics, with the climbers and stage racers replacing the cobbled classics riders as the favourites.
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.
A team time trial (TTT) is a road bicycle race in which teams of cyclists race against the clock.
L'Étape du Tour de France is an organised mass participation cyclosportive that allows amateur cyclists to race over the same route as a Tour de France stage. First held in 1993, and now organised by the Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), it takes place each July, normally on a Tour rest day.
Fabian Cancellara, nicknamed "Spartacus", is a Swiss cycling executive, businessman and former professional road racing cyclist who last rode for UCI ProTeam Trek–Segafredo. He was born in Wohlen bei Bern, Switzerland. Cancellara began road cycling after falling in love with an old bike at the age of thirteen. After that, he began to take the sport more seriously and won two consecutive World Junior Time Trial Championships in 1998 and 1999. At age nineteen he turned professional and signed with the Mapei–Quick-Step team, where he rode as a stagiaire. He is known for being a quality time trialist, a one-day classics specialist, and a workhorse for his teammates who have general classification aspirations.
The Tour of Flanders, formerly the Tour of Flanders for Women, is an annual road bicycle racing event in Flanders, Belgium, held in early April. It is held on the same day as the men's race, on much of the same roads but at a shorter distance. Dutch riders Mirjam Melchers, Annemiek van Vleuten, Belgian Lotte Kopecky and German Judith Arndt hold the record with two wins each. Lotte Kopecky won the most recent edition in 2023.
The men's road race, a part of the cycling events at the 2008 Summer Olympics, took place on August 9 at the Urban Road Cycling Course in Beijing. It started at 11:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8), and was scheduled to last until 17:30 later that day. The 245.4-kilometre (152.5 mi) course ran north across the heart of the Beijing metropolitan area, passing such landmarks as the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square and the Beijing National Stadium. After rolling over relatively flat terrain for 78.8 km (49.0 mi) north of the Beijing city center, the route entered a decisive circuit encompassing seven loops on a 23.8 km (14.8 mi) section up and down the Badaling Pass, including ramps as steep as a 10 percent gradient.
The women's road race was one of the cycling events at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. It took place on 10 August 2008, featuring 66 women from 33 countries. It was the seventh appearance of an Olympic women's road race event and featured a longer course than any of the previous six races. The race was run on the Urban Road Cycling Course, which is 102.6 kilometres (63.8 mi) total. Including a second lap around the 23.8 km (14.8 mi) final circuit, the total distance of the women's race was 126.4 km (78.5 mi), less than half the length of the men's race.
The 2010 Tour of California was the fifth running of the Tour of California cycling stage race. It was held from May 16–23, and was the first edition of the race held in the month of May, after the first four occurred in February. It was rated as a 2.HC event on the UCI America Tour. It began in Nevada City and concluded in the Agoura Hills.
The 2010 Tirreno–Adriatico was the 45th running of the Tirreno–Adriatico stage race. It started on 10 March and finished on 16 March. The race started in Livorno and ended San Benedetto del Tronto. The race was won by Stefano Garzelli after gaining 2 seconds in intermediate sprints in the last stage which tied him for first with Michele Scarponi; Garzelli held the tiebreaker, combined stage finishes.
The 2010 Giro d'Italia began on 8 May, and stage 11 occurred on 19 May. The race began in Amsterdam in the Netherlands with an individual time trial and two flat stages before transferring to Italy. The transfer made an uncommonly early rest day in a Grand Tour, coming just three days into the three-week race. Many crashes occurred in the stages in the Netherlands, leading to some unexpected big time gaps before the transfer to Italy. Three different riders led the race after the three days in the Netherlands.
The Women's road race took place at 10 October 2010 at the Indira Gandhi Arena. The race started at 9:00 and covered 112 km.
The 2015 UCI Road World Championships took place in Richmond, Virginia, United States from September 19–27, 2015. It was the 88th Road World Championships. Peter Sagan won the men's road race and Lizzie Armitstead won the women's road race.
The 2014 UCI Road World Championships took place in Ponferrada, Spain, from 21 to 28 September 2014. The cycling championships consisted of 12 events for elite, under-23 and junior cyclists. It was the 81st UCI Road World Championships and the seventh time that Spain had hosted the championships; they were previously held in Lasarte in 1965, Montjuïc in 1973, Barcelona in 1984, Benidorm in 1992, San Sebastián in 1997 and Madrid in 2005.
The men's road race, one of the cycling events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, took place on 28 July at 10 a.m. in central and southwest London and north Surrey, starting and finishing on The Mall.
The men's road race was one of 18 cycling events of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The race started and finished on 6 August at Fort Copacabana and was won by Greg Van Avermaet of Belgium. It was Belgium's first victory in the men's individual road race since 1952 and second overall, tying France and the Soviet Union for second-most behind Italy (five). Belgium matched Italy for most total medals, at seven. Jakob Fuglsang won Denmark's fourth silver medal in the event; the nation had yet to win gold. Rafał Majka's bronze was Poland's first medal in the event since 1980.
The Men's road race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, as part of the cycling programme, took place on 3 August 2014 over a distance of 168.2 km. The race was won by Geraint Thomas of Wales.
The 2015 Tour de Romandie was the 69th edition of the Tour de Romandie stage race. It took place from 28 April to 3 May and was the fourteenth race of the 2015 UCI World Tour. The race took place around the Romandy region of Switzerland, starting in Lac de Joux and finishing in Lausanne. The race included six stages, with a team time trial at the beginning and an individual time trial at the end with four hilly or mountainous stages in between. The queen stage was the fifth stage, which finished on the climb above Champex.
