What is Road bicycle racing?
[[File:Tour de France, Paris 27 July 2014 (135).jpg|thumb|Cyclists racing at the Tour de France, Paris 27 July 2014]] '''Road bicycle racing''' is a [[sport]] where people race on [[bicycles | bicycle]] along paved [[roads]]. Usually riders start the race at the same time. The winner is the first to the finish line at the end of the route. Road bicycle racing is popular in [[Belgium]], [[Colombia]], [[Denmark]], [[France]], [[Germany]], [[Italy]], [[Luxembourg]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Portugal]], [[Spain]] and [[Switzerland]]. More recently, countries such as [[Kazakhstan]], [[Australia]], [[Venezuela]], [[Russia]], [[Slovakia]], [[South Africa]], [[New Zealand]], [[Norway]], the [[United Kingdom]], [[Ireland]], [[Poland]] and the [[United States]] have also become very good at racing. Road bicycle racing began as a sport in 1868.<ref name=McGurn>''On Your Bicycle'', James McGurn, John Murray 1987</ref> The first world championship was in 1893. Cycling has been part of the [[Olympic Games]] since 1896. At the beginning the sport was popular in France, Spain, Belgium, and Italy. Some of the first races were [[Liège–Bastogne–Liège]] (started in 1892), [[Paris-Roubaix]] (1896), the [[Tour de France]] (1903), the [[Milan – San Remo]] and [[Giro di Lombardia]] (1905), the [[Giro d'Italia]] (1909) and the [[Tour of Flanders]] (1913). Nowadays there are many other races, but these historic races remain the most famous and many cyclists want to win them. {{TOC limit | 2}} ==Road race types== [[Image:Tour of gippsland final stage.jpg|thumb|The Tour of Gippsland – a stage race in Australia– climbing through the scenic area of the Omeo Shire]] ===Single-day races=== Single day races are held on one day. The race can be any distance from a few kilometres to over 200km. The race route may go from one place to another, or be a number of laps of a circuit. Some routes take the riders from a starting place and then finish with several laps of a circuit. This helps create excitement for the crowd at the finish. ===Time tr