Racing Qualities - Endurance, Sprinting, Climbing

Top Road racers need to be able to stay in the saddle for hours at a time (endurance), to accelerate to speeds of up to 50mph (sprint) and climb mountain passes up to almost 10,000 feet.

How to get involved

As with all sports, Road Racing beginners can find their feet in easier events. Under sixteen's ride on what are called closed road circuits they are courses off the public roads where they can race safely and learn the many tactical skills which make Road Racing so exciting. Scottish Cycling run events of this kind all round the country during the summer months.

Road Facts

• Road Racing's four biggest events are the tours of France, Italy (Giro D'italia) and Spain (Vuelta A Espana), and the World Championships.
• In 2008 Britain's Nicole Cooke became the first rider to win back-to-back Olympic Gold and Women's World Championship title in Road Racing.
• Lance Armstrong of the USA is currently the most famous Road Racer in the world. Cancer almost killed him in the mid nineties, but Lance battled back to fitness and amazingly won the Tour de France for the sixth straight  year in 2004

So that's road Racing - there's no better feeling than skimming over the tarmac, whether it's an evening club ride with your mates, or in the cut and thrust of a race.