Cycling can be found in other sports as well. The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, the triathlon. In the triathlon family, cycling stages are included in duathlon (run-bike-run), winter triathlon (run-mountain-bike-ski), and aqua-bike (swim-bike).
Orienteering also could not avoid the use of the bicycle in its disciplines, so that bicycle orienteering, along with ski orienteering and running, has its niche in this applied sport.
Not many people know this, but bicycle orienteering is also in mountaineering, and more specifically, in the running sport of mountaineering, skyrunning. Among the types of sky racing is the high-altitude duathlon – SkyBike. In such a race, athletes not only overcome a vertical kilometer or other short high-altitude run, but also then ride a mountain bike.
There is also a SkyRaid long-distance team race, where athletes are free to combine running with cycling, skiing and climbing.
Tour de France is the most popular cycling race
Le Tour de France, unofficially called the “Grand Loop,” is the oldest and most respected multi-day cycling race held since 1903. In 2020, the event was held, despite the coronavirus pandemic, for the 107th time (but the dates were shifted).
Originally, the Tour de France was an advertising project of the French newspaper L’Auto. Back then, at the end of the 19th century, L’Auto was losing out in competition to another French publication, Le Velo. So, looking for a solution to boost the newspaper’s sales, the editors saw it in a multi-day bicycle race, because one-day races had proven to be an effective sales tool.
The first Tour de France had 6 stages (2,500 km) and attracted 60 riders. The editorial team did not go wrong: the number of subscribers to the publication grew from 25,000 to 65,000 people.
Every year the start point and route of the race change in order to give people from different parts of France a chance to see the global event live, but the finish point on the Champs-Élysées in Paris remains unchanged. The planned route with an altitude profile is published in advance on the official website of the multi-day event, because the race course is primarily interesting with huge altitude gains.
Do you know how many kilometers riders cover in the Tour de France? From 3 to 4 thousand kilometers, divided into 21 stages! That is the average length of one stage is not less than 140 km.
And since the race is divided into conditional sections, the winner is determined by the total time, which must be the least among all riders. Thus, not winning any stage, you can still become the winner of the whole tour, arriving at the finish line in the front rows.