Topic summary
Road bicycle race
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Road bicycle racing.
History
Road racing in its modern form originated in the late 19th century. It began as an organized sport in 1868. One of the first known races being Paris-Rouen. The sport was popular in the western European countries of France, Spain, Belgium, and Italy, and some of those earliest road bicycle races remain among the sport's biggest events. These early races include Liège–Bastogne–Liège (established 1892), Paris–Roubaix (1896), the Tour de France (1903), the Milan–San Remo and Giro di Lombardia (1905), the Giro d'Italia (1909), the Volta a Catalunya (1911), and the Tour of Flanders (1913). They provided a template for other races around the world.