Professional In the early days of professional
road bicycle racing there were many one-day road races and stages in
grand tours that were much longer than those of today.
Bordeaux–Paris in France was the longest one-day, annual professional bike race; it had a route of about and was run almost every year between 1891 and 1988. After 1988, the longest one-day professional bike race became
Porto–Lisboa in Portugal, which was about long. Porto–Lisboa was last held in 2004, and
Milan–San Remo in Italy has since then been the longest race at .
Paris–Brest–Paris was a professional bike race that covered a massive in France, and was only held every 10 years from 1891 until 1951, but has since continued as a
randonneuring event (see below). Cycling's grand tours used to include far longer stages than they do today. The longest ever
Tour de France stage was in the
1919 Tour and that year every one of the 15 stages was more than long. The longest ever stage in the
Giro d'Italia was in the
1914 Giro and that year 5 of the 8 stages were longer than . The
Vuelta a España did not begin until 1935 and the
first edition was when its longest-ever stage was held, which was . In modern grand tours, stages longer than are increasingly rare and the limit set by the
Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) for any individual stage during a stage race is 240 km.
Supported ultracycling races There are no longer any true ultra-distance bike races (i.e., that are longer than ) that are affiliated with cycling's main governing body, the UCI; most modern ultra-distance races are instead affiliated with the World Ultra-Cycling Association (WUCA). By far the best-known of these races is the
Race Across America (RAAM), a non-stop race across the United States that generally covers over . In this format of racing, the cyclists race individually (
drafting and group riding are not allowed) but each cyclist has at least one support vehicle and a team of support staff. This specific format of racing is often referred to as "ultracycling", which is why it would be incorrect to refer to all ultra-distance cycling as ultracycling. Many ultracycling races include a team category that operates in a relay format and so does not meet the criteria for an ultra-distance cycling race used here (in which individuals must ride the complete distance). Other ultracycling races include the Race ACross Europe (RACE), which is long. The oldest ultracycling race in Europe is the Glocknerman, an Austrian cycling event with a distance of that was first held in 1997. The Race Across The Alps is only long but contains over of climbing and so the organizers claim it to be the hardest one-day race in the world. The first
Race Across Russia was held in 2013 as a non-stop team relay event with a total distance of about between Moscow and Vladivostok. In 2015 it became the Red Bull Trans-Siberian Extreme with a solo category and the route was split into 15 separate stages, each between and long.
Road time trials 12-hour and 24-hour road cycling
time trials have been around for a long time and are still common. In these events, cyclists attempt to ride the maximum distance possible within the time limit. The current
24 hour record is over in a
velomobile. Christoph Strasser set the current 24 hour road record on a normal road bike at in Zeltweg, Austria on 16 July 2021 (see
List of cycling records). In 2014, the UMCA revived interest in the
highest annual mileage record, which was last set in 1939 by
Tommy Godwin at . This involves riding the maximum distance possible within a 12-month period. In early 2016, Kurt Searvogel broke the record, achieving a distance of in one year or per day. In 2017
Amanda Coker surpassed Kurt's annual mileage record with a new record of over in 365 days, and then continued on to break the record for fastest time to 100,000 miles, at approximately 420 days. Some ultra-distance time trials are held at permanent motorsport racetracks, such as Bike Sebring (
Sebring International Raceway),
Rad am Ring (
Nürburgring), Monza 12h Cycling Marathon (
Autodromo Nazionale Monza), Cycling Zandvoort 24h (
Circuit Zandvoort), 24h BiCircuit Festival (
Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya), and Revolve24 Endurance Cycling Challenge (
Brands Hatch and
The Bend Motorsport Park). These lack any road traffic and have smooth road surfaces.
Unsupported ultracycling & bikepacking road races Some races have recently become popular that recall the early era of professional bike racing in which riders were unsupported and raced day and night. Among the most popular of these is the
Transcontinental Race, which covers approximately across Europe and was inspired by the off-road US event
Tour Divide. As in other ultra-cycling events there is a mass start, but in bikepacking races drafting is not allowed and all support is forbidden. There are no support vehicles and riders must find all of their supplies, accommodation, etc. from commercial sources along the route or bring it with them. Most events will, however, allow "trail magic" from strangers through kind actions, gifts, and other forms of encouragement so long as the "magic" does not move the bike. Other popular examples in this category include the
Trans Am Bike Race of , and the
IncaDivide, an event with a shorter distance of but that takes riders above in the
Andes mountains of
Peru. The latter is part of the
BikingMan series, an ultra bikepacking race series that first took place in 2019 in Oman, France, Laos, Peru, Portugal and Taiwan with a standard distance of . In Europe, the
Transiberica, the
Three Peaks Bike Race, the
Race Around Ireland, and the
Race Around Poland, all established in 2018, are major free-route unsupported races, covering distances from 1,500 up to 3,000 km. Around South East Asia, the
Bentang Jawa, Race Across Java,
Lintang Flores and JavaBali are ultra challenges in Indonesia. In Malaysia,
Peninsular Divide offers an All-Road category offers 1500km distance of 93% paved 7% unpaved and elevation gain between 14000-18000m. Unsupported rides are sometimes done as completely solo attempts outside of organized rides but are still well-publicized. These often involve riding point to point (including city to city), for example Vegas In 24.
Randonneuring Randonneuring events (also called brevets or audaxes) are generally non-competitive rides where racing is not the focus; they are ridden more as personal challenges. They also differ from most ultracycling and bikepacking races in that group riding and drafting is allowed, with limits. Supplies and accommodation are often provided by the organizers at intermediate checkpoints, but the use of support vehicles is not allowed outside of the checkpoints. The most famous of this type of event is
Paris-Brest-Paris in France, in which over 5,000 people attempt to complete the long route in under 90 hours. The randonnee version evolved from the professional bike race (see above) and is held every four years. There are many similar events of between and around the world, including
London–Edinburgh–London in the UK and the Cascade 1200 in the USA. For a more complete list, see the page on
randonneuring. There are also many more shorter-distance randonneuring rides, which are typically , , or long.
Cyclosportives/Gran fondos Cyclosportives (also known as gran fondos) are mass-participation cycling events. They are far less serious than pure bike races, but times are recorded and prizes are often awarded to the fastest people. The organizers normally provide full support in terms of marking the route and providing feed stations. The event that proclaims itself to be the "longest Granfondo in the world" follows almost the same route as the professional
Milan–San Remo bike race and is long. However, there are several similar events that are longer.
Bordeaux–Paris was a professional race until 1988 and returned in 2014 as a cyclosportive with a route of about .
Styrkeprøven Trondheim–Oslo is a long race and cyclosportive in Norway. The Tour du Mont Blanc is a long cyclosportive over mountainous terrain through France, Switzerland, and Italy. Slightly longer still is the Wysam 333 in Switzerland at . There is also the Mallorca 312, which is a long ride around the island of Mallorca, the Dragon Devil version of the
Dragon Ride Wales cyclosportive in the UK is long, and the
Vätternrundan cyclosportive that does a tour of the Swedish lake is long. In New Zealand, there is the
Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. The standard cyclosportive option involves a single lap of the lake, which is long, but there are also options to do two laps in one day for , with no support on the first lap, or start one day earlier and do four laps, , which is more of a randonneuring-format event. Every second year there is also an 8 lap option, long, but a following support vehicle is required for that version making it more of an event.
Century rides In the US, organized
century rides of are common, with the format falling between a cyclosportive and a randonnee. There are also many organized double centuries of , one of the more popular ones being the
Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic, and at least one event even offers and options, the Los Angeles Wheelmen Grand Tour.
Other road cycling records There are a few classic long-distance cycling routes for which time records are kept even though riders normally do not race simultaneously. These include
Land's End to John o' Groats in the United Kingdom, which is about . On the longer end of the spectrum, there is Cairo to Cape Town in Africa, which is about . This record is currently held by Scottish endurance cyclist
Mark Beaumont. The longest record of this format is the
around the world cycling record, which requires the cyclist to cover by bike plus other requirements. In 2024, American ultra-endurance cyclist
Lael Wilcox set the women's record for an unsupported circumnavigation of the globe by bicycle in 108 Days, 12 hours and 12 minutes. In 2012 and 2014, a mass-start event called the World Cycle Race was organized based on these rules. ==Gravel biking==