Bicycling/Road

Road Bicycling is one of the most popular sports in a number of European countries. The top countries in this sport are Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United States and Switzerland.

There are several types of races:

• one-day races: All riders start together, and the first to pass the finish wins.
• time trials: Every rider starts apart, and the rider with the fastest time wins.
• multi-stage tours: Several one-day races, often including one or more time trials, at consecutive days. The rider with fastest total time wins. There is often also a points classification, in which a rider scores points by being in the top of each day's result.

The most famous Cycling race is the Tour de France, a multi-stage tour over three weeks through France, traditionally ending in Paris. Similar long multi-stage tours are held in Italy (the [Giro d'Italia]?) and Spain (the [Vuelta a España]?). The most important one-day races form the World Cup: Milan-Sanremo (Italy), Ronde van Vlaanderen (Belgium), Paris-Roubaix (France), Liége-Bastogne-Liége (Belgium) and Amstel Gold Race (Netherlands) in Spring, Clasica San Sebastian (Spain), HEW-Cyclassics Cup (Germany), Championship of Zürich (Switzerland), Paris-Tours (France) and Giro di Lombardia (Italy) in Autumn.