There is a beauty to sport. When I think of PE at school I will always recall the muddy rugby matches, the astro turf for football and as soon as summer arrived let us mark out the white paint for the athletics track.

It is unquestionably true that football is the dominant sport everyone talks about, a never-ending spectacle of goals, the national game I love, watch and discuss with friends and family, yet I do like to step away from the constant noise of football.

Rugby (Rugby Union to be specific) also appeals to me, the Summer and Winter Olympics when they arrive in the spotlight every four years do capture the attention of the world. I could also add darts, snooker, a bit of tennis on the odd occasion, but there will always be one sport which wins my appeal all the time – road cycling.

Cycling is not a mainstream sport and sadly it is not the best spectator sport either, nonetheless I mentioned the beauty of sport and in my opinion road cycling is one of the most beautiful sports. Writing from a personal perspective, definitely a biased perspective too, let me explain to you why. Why do I like a sport which sees lycra clad athletes on TV climb, sprint and time trial their way to glory?

It comes down to four key words – endurance, scenery, tactics and drama

Beginnings

I suppose the journey has to start somewhere and for any cycling fan it begins in the most obvious place, perhaps the most famous race everybody knows of – the Tour de France.

A three-week race to win the yellow jersey via Alps, Pyrennes and overexcited fans wearing all kinds of whacky costumes, 2012 was the year which captured my attention, the days of Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins becoming the first British man to win the Tour. A moment in sporting history, the subseqeunt success for Team GB at a home London Olympics, for many years since, British success has followed.

I’ve been a keen follower of road cycling for quite some time from the days of Chris Froome winning four Tour titles, Welshman Geraint Thomas claiming his own yellow jersey in 2018 (my favourite ever Tour) and even beyond just a three-week circus around France, road cycling has many more races to watch.

Indeed if I add more British success to the list I can include Mark Cavendish sprinting his way to become the record-breaking Tour de France stage winner (35 is the record), Tao Geoghegan-Hart winning the Giro d’Italia in 2020, Simon Yates claiming pink last year too, and even Tom Pidcock finished third overall at La Vuelta (Spain’s three-week grand tour).

These are the moments in road cycling I do not forget and into the modern day, cycling is seeing an era like no other. The majesty of Slovenian rider Tadej Pogačar becoming the all-round superstar who can win on any terrain, plus Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel is a class act.

More on the racing and the names in subsequent articles, but why cycling?

The colour

A kaleidoscope of colour, what is there not to like about a cycling race and the colours it brings! Team kits are an array of colour and the camera operators at the Tour de France yearn for THAT shot of a peloton passing through a carpet of sunflower fields.

Significant races also carry colour on the shoulders of winners. Winning the Tour earns you a yellow jersey, perhaps one of the most famous colours associated with a world sport, the Giro d’Italia sees the overall winner wear pink and at La Vuelta the overall winner wears red. Add to this the numerous competition jerseys you can win during a three-week race (prizes on offer for points and king of the mountains), and you have a splash of paint all round.

The road world championships each year sees the winner wear a rainbow jersey for a whole year, plus you could also add the colour of many world flags you’ll see on the roadside, not just of nations but of regions in Europe – my favourites being the flags of Yorkshire, Brittany, Flanders and the Spanish Basque Country.

Yet a mention must go to all the nationalities who turn up at the biggest races. Plenty of Brits head across the channel to watch the Tour, Welsh flags are in abundance, the Dutch bring orange delight and at the final Tour de France procession stage around Paris, one corner off the Rue du Rivoli always has Norwegian corner.

The scenery of a bike race must not go unmentioned either. The riders do not get to enjoy the scenescape of the Alps, Pyrennes, the Dolomites or Spanish Basque Country – but the TV helicopters treat us all too well!

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Technology and speed

Weather dependent tyre choices, tyre depth, enhanced nutrition, high performance clothing and the bicycle itself – the changes in technology have been a game changer for road cycling. Disc brakes have been one important change, but perhaps the most fascinating aspect of cycling that has always been of interest is aerodynamics.

What makes cycling so intriguing is how can you find any small advantage against your opponent? Lightweight or aero bikes have become the norm as designers have learned how to make a frame lighter. Bike racing is all about precious time, how can you complete a one-day or three-week race in the quickest overall time possible is the aim – so reducing drag is what appeals to would-be yellow jersey winners. Helmets have been designed to make riders more aerodynamic, time trial helmets becoming ever more crazy and weird in their design as riders tuck their head to reduce friction.

Tech will however never replace one method cycling fans love. When a bike rider descends a mountain in cold or rainy conditions, how do they keep warm? Shoving a newspaper up your chest will never be replaced by new advances in tech. An old school method, which is crucial for maintaining body temperature when no hard pedaling is needed, it avoids sickness or loss of energy. Expect this to happen atop a snowy mountain in the Giro.

Sacrifice, strategy and mentality

The brutal physicality of competing for three to six hours daily, covering hundreds of kilometres and often through extreme weather conditions – professional road riders are made of something else.

Events such as the Tour really do test human limits, up to 8,000 calories burned daily and it’s all over three weeks. What I admire most about the sport is the mental fatigue these athletes put themselves through where it can sometimes go horribly wrong due to a crash, road rash or broken bones. Yet if a rider crashes and endures battle scars they just wake up the next day and get on with the race!

Sacrifice is what team members do because this is a team sport afterall. While it appears to be individual (and yes there are instances during an individual time trial where solo performances are key), winners of the Tour de France cannot do it alone. Teammates (or in cycling we call them domestiques) sacrifice their own chances to protect their leader.

The sacrifice of a teammate to deliver their leader to a yellow jersey or a one-day race victory often means drafting in a peloton to protect them, fetching water bottles or chasing down attacks from rivals.

It is no wonder that cycling is often known as “Chess of Wheels”, where race tactics involve managing energy, controlling speed, deciding when to let a breakaway go, or to launch an attack.

The constant risk of a bike race such as high speed descents and unpredictable outcomes for just a split-second on the road can change the entire race outcome. It takes mental chunks out of a rider to deliver, which is why I like the adrenaline cycling provides, the riders literally putting their bodies on the line.

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Variety

Different terrains suit different types of rider, for example climbers do extremely well in the mountains, whereas sprinters dominate flat finishes. The action of a bike race over a week or three weeks offers variety. Made of up stages, for one stage you’ll get an individual time trial where each rider runs against the clock, another stage will see mountainous terrain (summit finishes are often the best) and a stage could be plain flat for the sprinters to literally sprint it out to be the fastest.

Cycling also has a type of rider known as a puncheur and rouleur. These are riders who I admire even more because a puncheur can accelerate on short sharp climbs but often cannot keep pace with the mountain goats nor stands any chance at winning a bunch sprint. A rouleur (also the name of a famous cycling magazine) is always versatile at maintaining a high speed over long distances, especially on flat or rolling terrain. The “workhorses” of the peloton, the power they deliver to a bike race is admirable.

Variety doesn’t just come in the form of riders, oh no! What makes cycling unique is the amount of racing we have on the yearly road calendar – cycling is more than just the Tour de France.

Three Grand Tours throughout the year sees the Giro d’Italia, the Tour de France and La Vuelta Espana act as the equivalent of grand slams in tennis – all three weeks in total and each offering every rider a chance to win a stage be it a sprint, a mountain challenge, a hilly puncheur’s paradise or a time trial.

What I have also always loved about cycling is it’s more than just three Grand Tours as well. Every September we have the Road World Championships, closer to home I’ve watched excellent racing at the Tour of Britain and across the season (February to October) there are numerous European stage races and one-day classics.

Five one-day races are full of prestige for the rider who wins at least one of them in their career. Milan Sanremo, the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Tour of Lombardy – are five of the most historic bike races ever.

Sanremo on the Ligurian coast in Italy comes down to fast attacks on two climbs in the final 30km called the Cipressa and Poggio di Sanremo, before a potential bunch sprint or solo attack to decide the winner.

Flanders and Roubaix both see riders’ arms rattle as they endure hell over cobblestones. Across the Flemish hills in Belgium, it’s a Sunday festival of cycling with plenty of excellent beer to drink for fans as riders tackle steep inclines and fearsome cobbled climbs such as the Oude Kwaremont, the Paterberg and Koppenberg. Not a Swedish cider, more an iconic cobbled wall where riders sometimes have to carry their bikes to the top!

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And in northern France, Paris-Roubaix is translated as L’Enfer du Nord – “The Hell of the North”. Numerous cobbled sectors across farmland, the Trouée d’Arenberg, Mons-en-Pévèle and Carrefour de l’Arbre are iconic kilometres of pavé riders have to traverse before a sprint finish at the Roubaix velodrome.

The season in April then switches to the Ardennes Classics based among its hills as Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne provide dramatic spectacle, one race named after a famous Dutch beer and the other featuring the Mur de Huy, an extremely steep wall to finish off the race.

Liège–Bastogne–Liège as the fourth of five Monuments concludes the Spring Classics among the French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium. It’s all about tackling hills before the final prestigious Monument race comes in the autumn, October plays host to the Tour of Lombardy in Italy, again all about climbing mountain passes before a usual descent and finish beside Lake Como. Lombardy literally concludes the road season before we do it all again!

But what if your main aim for the season is to win either a Giro, a Tour or a Vuelta? La Vuelta is often seen as the last chance saloon for climbers to earn a Grand Tour victory, but preparation for both the Tour of Italy and Tour de France comes in the form of European warm-up races. The best races I always enjoy to see which riders are in top condition are Paris-Nice, Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour of Catalunya and the Tour of the Alps.

Add to that two more races which do need a mention, two races which are crucial to prepare for the Tour de France. The Critérium du Dauphiné is a key warm-up race taking on tough Alpine mountains and the Tour de Suisse offers one week traversing various Swiss regions. If you want any chance at winning the yellow jersey in Paris, warming the legs up at the Dauphine or Suisse is a must.

Madness

There is no greater honour for a rider to win a stage at the Tour de France or wear the yellow jersey for just one stage, the same goes for the above races I’ve mentioned.

Cycling is a sport I enjoy because it is free to watch from the roadside when I go to the Tour of Britain and I’ll never forget seeing the Tour de France come to the UK in 2014, to Yorkshire and London (which the Tour will be doing again in 2027 in Scotland, the Lake District and Wales).

Riders become legends in this sport, a sport which has never had supreme amounts of money behind it. It’s a sport for pure fans who love every minute of bike racing every season, which brings me onto madness.

Fans make sport and cycling fans are some of the craziest you will ever find. The Beefeater Bend providing entertainment on an Alpine climb in France, nutters dressed just in mankinis, fancy dress often happens when you spot someone in a dinosaur suit and the Giro d’Italia or Tour de France would not be possible without Dieter Senft.

Otherwise known as “Didi the Devil”, the German cycling fan has dressed up as a devil since 1993 – for any cycling enthusiast he’s instantly recognisable!

Dramatic moments happen, when Chris Froome had to run up Mont Ventoux or Giro winner in 2017 Tom Dumoulin had to stop for a nature break while the rest of the pink jersey contenders did not wait for him, Slovakian Peter Sagan winning three World Champs in a row while also pulling wheelies at the top of Tour mountains and now from 2020 onwards cycling has a showman in Tadej Pogačar, who has won everything in cycling except for all five Monuments and La Vuelta.

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