Cycle sport is a competitive physical activity that involves riding bicycles. There are various disciplines of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sports include artistic cycling, cycle polo, freestyle BMX, and mountain bike trials. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is the world's governing organization for competitive cycling and international cycling competitions. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is the regulating organization for human-powered vehicles, with significantly fewer design constraints than the UCI. Many ultra-distance cycling races are governed by the UltraMarathon Cycling Association.
Bicycle racing has been designated as an Olympic sport. Bicycle races are popular over the world, particularly in Europe. Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland are the countries most dedicated to bicycle racing. Other countries with international standing include Australia, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Colombia.
Road bicycle racing:
Road bicycle racing features both team and individual competition, and races are conducted in many ways. They vary from the one-day road race, criterium, and time trial to multi-stage events like the Tour de France and its sister races which make up cycling's Grand Tours.
The races are usually held from spring through October. Many Northern Hemisphere riders spend the winter competing or training in nations such as Australia. Professional races range from three-week "Grand Tour" stage races like the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta an Espaa to multi-day stage races like the Tour de Suisse and Tour of California, as well as single-day "Classics" like the Tour of Flanders and Milan-San Remo.
Track cycling:
Cycling on a track has been around since 1870. The cyclists competed on wooden indoor tracks that were similar to current velodromes. Unlike road racing, which is affected by weather, indoor tracks allow the sport to be played all year.
It refers to races held on banked tracks or velodromes. Individual and team pursuits, two-man sprints, and numerous group and mass start races are examples of events. Competitors use track bicycles without brakes or freewheels.
Cyclo-cross:
Cyclo-cross began as an off-season activity for road racers to diversify their training during the cold months. Races are typically held in the autumn and winter (the international or World Cup season runs from September to January) and consist of many laps of a 2-3 km (1-2 mi) course that includes pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills, and obstacles that require the rider to dismount, carry the bike, and remount all in one motion. Senior races often last between 30 minutes to an hour, with the distance fluctuating depending on the weather. The sport is strongest in traditional road cycling countries such as Belgium (Flanders in particular) and France.
Mountain bike:
Mountain bike races are placed off-road and entail a moderate to a high degree of technical riding. There are various types, including cross-country, enduro, and downhill racing, as well as 4X or four-cross racing.
BMX:
BMX is an off-road sport. BMX races are single-lap sprints on purpose-built off-road tracks, often on single-gear bicycles. Riders negotiate a dirt track filled with jumps, banked and flat turns.
Gravel racing:
Gravel racing is one of the most recent bicycle racing categories to emerge in the twenty-first century. Unbound Gravel, for example, is a top gravel race that began in 2006. Road events with gravel stages, such as the Tour of the Battenkill and Boulder-Roubaix (named after Paris-Roubaix), were forerunners to gravel racing in its modern form. The defining aspects of gravel racing are large lengths, sometimes 100 to 200 mi (160 to 320 km), and mass starts that include all classifications of racers, akin to Gran Fondo rides. Gravel racing bicycles and courses vary greatly, from road bicycles with wide tires used on smooth gravel roads to mountain bike-style bicycles used on tricky courses.
