Unlike motorsports or one hundred meter dashes, cycling holds a unique blend as a sporting event, as cycling basically entails the combination of both man and machine, in winning through a race course, giving a different type of rush in racers and spectators alike. For form racing events like those sanctioned by NASCAR, or races where runners literally run to the finish line, cycling requires a combined effort between bikes and bikers, in successfully winning a race track course, short or long.

The Bicycle and Its Involvement

When the modern bicycle was finally developed after precursor inventions, prototypes if you may, little did its creators think that it would be used in races like the Tour de France, let alone that people would start racing with them just as they were invented. From the Draisine introduced in 1818 by Baron Karl von Drais, the course of push bikes to the now-known design of bicycles has indeed gone a long way, leading to many practical applications of the bicycle, as well as to the more sporting use of bicycles.

The base premise behind cycling sports would entail bikers on their “rigs” competing for first place. Basically, when talking about cycling, riding bicycles would be the most basic, but not limited to, as other human powered vehicles could also be involved in the mix. Other human powered vehicles like unicycles, quadricycles and tricycles, are also known to have category races. The bicycle would be the most common and most popular, thus the connotation between it and cycling.

Cycling Sports and Events

Officially, cycling sports are governed by an international sanctioning body, responsible for overseeing the various rules and regulations being put into a racing event. For upright bicycles, the Union Cycliste Internationale based in Switzerland is the governing body, while the International Human Powered Vehicle Association would be the body responsible for overseeing cycling spots involving other human powered vehicles.

The first generation of bicycles to participate in races were known as the boneshaker style bicycles, which happened a few years after the introduction of the bicycle itself. The 1890s is considered to be the “Golden Age of Cycling”, where various racing events took place in Japan, Europe and in the United States. In 1899, a racer nicknamed Mile-a-Minute Murphy became the first man to cover a one mile distance using a bicycle within one minute. Imagine how fast bicycle racers could go today.

As bicycle races came up and about, eventually, the United States’ active interest in bicycle races weathered away, leaving Continental Europe to actively sponsor cycling races, annually. Of all the races, the Tour de France is the most world renowned.

From its start in 1903, the Tour de France still holds the active attention of the sports world, with superstar bikers like the American Lance Armstrong making headlines. Sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale, the Tour de France has its share of rules and racing events, which could range from time-trials to one-day road races.

The “More” In Cycling Sports

As cycling sports come, there is more to these classes of races than just bikers working with their bikes, fulfilling the need for speed, or fulfilling the need for active challenges. Bicycles are actually statements in themselves, informing the world that the pollution mankind doles out to the environment could be lessened if people just took time in riding their bikes to work. Also, bicycles are great ways into gaining a more healthy physique, allowing bikers to get to places, at the same time staying fit.

With cycling sports, what the world witnesses would not only be the best bikers racing for first place, but also the active promotion of just how much one could spare the environment from pollution if he or she took the time to ride a bike.