Caution: all events for road cycling are held under the rules and regulations of the UCI. This article is therefore not a formal guide into road racing rules and definitions. It aims to be a supplemental ‘overview’ of racing. Please go to www.uci.ch found on my links page for in-depth detail of events, races and regulations.

What is a road race?

A typical mass start road race

A road race is simply a bicycle race that is held on the roads.

A ‘mass start’ road race is where riders set off in a large group called a ‘peloton’. Riders in a mass start event will use ‘tactics’ to win the race.

A road race can also be a ‘solo effort’ called a time trial. Riders in a time trial race against the watch rather than use tactics to win a race.

Road races can be team events or individual events. The duration of a race can be from one day through to many days long. Because of the varying distances and consequent nature of the races, events are classed as either: a one-day road race, a criterium, an individual time trial, a team time trial or a stage race. I try to define these races later.

All these classes of road races have their own sets of rules. The governing body of all cycling is the UCI – Union Cycliste Internationale (International Cycling Union). The UCI is based in Switzerland.

Those who race must abide by UCI equipment rules in each type of road race. A few main examples are that you cannot take part in a road-racing mass start event with a mountain bike; nor can cyclists enter mass road races with triathlon bars. And there are rules about bike frame, size, type and even the rider’s position on the bike that’s allowed for particular events. A helmet is now an obligatory requirement and must satisfy safety standards. So racers need to be aware of these many UCI regulations.

Do men race against women?

In general ‘no’, although women may be allowed into some men’s races. Such races will have a separate female results list or ‘classification’. Please see my section on Women’s Cycling for more details.

Jeannie Longo-Caprelli

At all levels now, women have their own calendar of races, separate from the men. The reason why women race separately from men is that women and men are biologically different from each other. It would therefore be unfair that women be compared and classed with men. That having been said there have been outstanding sports performances by elite females who have out-performed most of the males. Although these outstanding women, like Jeannie Longo-Caprelli, may outclass 95% of the male population, they will almost certainly never beat the top elite men in their sports.

Please note that ‘elite’ is used to mean ‘senior’ when racing internationally. This is not to be confused with the term ‘elite’ when it is referred to World-class athletes. There are of course other cyclist categories: junior men and women, Under 23 men and women, and masters racers. This article refers to senior men and senior women only, - simply to give you a general view of racing.

What is a season?

The “season” is the period of time in the year from when racing starts, to when racing finishes. For obvious reasons, cycle racing is normally conducted in the warmest months of the year.

In the Northern hemisphere the traditional months to start racing are March and April. The end of season is normally September.

Female international riders can start their season in February and finish in mid October. The professional men can start racing in January and finish in November. These serious racers may travel to warmer parts of the world such as the Southern Hemisphere to get a head start with their racing. As you can see, the ‘season’ for a top racer can be very long!

What types of road races are there?

There are one-day road races, criteriums, individual and team time trials and stage races.

The One-Day road race is a mass start event that is held on one-day only. It can be an individually entered race or a race that requires you to be in a team. There is a limit of 200 riders in all road races, although even the top female races would struggle to reach more than 120.

The one-day road race can be up to 140km for senior women riders and up to 250km for senior male riders. Some of the men’s “classic” one-day road races like Paris-Roubaix or Milan-San Remo are actually longer than this.

In the one-day event, the course can go from point A to point B, or it may ‘lap’ a ‘circuit’. Laps should be a minimum of 12kms long. The course can include any type of terrain as long as the race is suitable for the traditional road-racing bike.

The criterium is a mass start road race run on a circuit closed to traffic and is won by either of the following methods: classification in the finish of the last lap, or, classification of the number of laps covered and the number of points gained during intermediate sprints.

Criterium race - fast and furious in this French village - successful escape from the pack that is only just around the last corner!

The criterium road race comes under the rules of the one-day road race, although distances chosen by organisers tend to be quite a bit shorter then the maximum distance allowed. Circuits or laps can be from 800m to 10km depending on the distance of the race.

Traditionally, “crit” (short for criterium) races are held in towns. The courses are tight and run through the town streets. This makes for exciting racing both for participants and onlookers. The race therefore demands excellent handling skills because of the high speed of racing combined with having to constantly negotiate corners.

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