Major Road Bikes Cycle Races
By Alastair Hamilton, Thu Dec 8th

The major professional road bikes riders ride the major cycleraces, and they are grouped together into the UCI Pro Tour andall the best races are included

The Best Riders Ride The Best Races.

The major cycle races in the world of bike racing are now allpart of the UCI Pro Tour Races, this is quite a big list, whichyou can find below. All of the twenty Pro Tour teams have toride them along with other teams invited by the organizers, whoare usually local teams or the best of the lower rankedContinental Tour teams. All the races have a complicated pointssystem that would take too long to explain here.

The Pro Tour Races are split into sections, which are: -

* The Spring Classics, * The Major Tours, * The Autumn Classics,* The Shorter Tours, * The World Championships,

And then there are the other important but not so famous races.

The Major Tours.

The BIG three, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and theVuelta a España, they are all three weeks long and are thehardest races on the calendar and are the major cycle races ofthe year. All three go over the biggest mountains in theirrespective countries and venture in to neighbouring ones,sometimes for a few days. Until recently all bike racers rodethe "Big Three", now they specialise and pick and chose theirobjectives. The organisers are not too happy about the UCI ProTour as they feel they are losing some of their power over theirown races and were only included at the last minute this yearand are still arguing over next year.

The Spring Classics.

The Spring Classics are the monuments of the one day races, allare held in the more northern European countries, apart from thefirst one, Milan-San Remo, but which is in the north of Italy inMarch and can get bad weather, like the others. The Tour ofFlanders, Gent-Wevelgem and Paris-Roubaix are all ridden overthe worst road conditions possible, with short sharp hills andcobbles, when it rains these roads turn into mud baths and areas easy to ride on as an ice rink. The others are more hilly andmore suited to Tour riders and the better climbers, all theseraces are a must to see as anything can happen, but it is alwaysa hard man

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who wins a major cycle race in the spring.

The Autumn Classics.

The Autumn Classics start just after the Tour de France, beforeand after the Vuelta a España and around the Worldchampionships. All these races have different characters and areheld in different countries around Europe. The best known arethe Classic San Sebastian in Spain, which is hard and hilly, theParis-Tours, which is mostly flat and to round off the season,the Giro di Lombardia, which is the last big race of the ProTour and is held, like Milan-San Remo, in the north of Italy.

The Shorter Stage Races.

These shorter stage races are dotted around the season andaround Europe, some are used as training races for the stars totune there form for the big stage races, but all are veryimportant and carry much prestige for all. Paris-Nice is thefirst and is always a good pointer to a riders form for theSpring Classics or the Giro d'Italia. Then the more hilly raceslike Pays Vasco, Tour de Romadie, Tour de Swiss and the DauphineLibere are a good build up for the Tour de France. They are allhard fought for wins in themselves and never easy.

The World Championships.

The World Championships are now held very late in the season(September) and the big stars of the Tour de France don'tusually ride, but for the single day specialists its still therace to win, and never won easily. The rainbow jersey is thejersey all riders dream of wearing for a year and will fighthard for it. The "Worlds" are the only races that riders competefor their country and not their sponsor, so there can be somestrange allegiances.

Other Races.

There are other races on the Pro Tour calendar that are veryimportant but not so well known, everyone wants to win thesealso, and in the end a win is a win. The Pro Tour teams can alsoride in the lower Continental Tour races, some of these are wellknown and very prestigious, they carry less UCI points but arehard fought over, there is never an easy win in Professionalcycle sport, especially in the major cycle races.

About the author:Alastair Hamilton publishes regularly technical articles on roadbikes ( http://www.bike-cycling-reviews.com/road-bikes.html ) tosome online magazines. Reach further reviews on bikecomponents and news athttp://www.bike-cycling-reviews.com.