In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour is one of the three major European professional cycling stage races: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a España. Collectively they are termed the Grand Tours, and all three races are similar in format, being three-week races with daily stages. They have a special status in the UCI regulations: more points for the UCI World Tour are distributed in Grand Tours than in other races, and they are the only stage races allowed to last longer than 14 days, and these differ from major stage races more than one week in duration.
Image: Jacques Anquetil 1966
Image: Felice Gimondi 1966
Image: Eddy Merckx Molteni 1973
Image: Bernard Hinault 1978 (cropped)
Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and spectators. The two most common competition formats are mass start events, where riders start simultaneously and race to a set finish point; and time trials, where individual riders or teams race a course alone against the clock. Stage races or "tours" take multiple days, and consist of several mass-start or time-trial stages ridden consecutively.
A breakaway of riders during the 2021 Giro d'Italia
The Tour of Gippsland – a stage race in Australia – climbing through the Omeo Shire
Cyclists drafting behind one another, forming a paceline
The 1991 Giro d'Italia. The Giro is one of three Grand Tours.
