Cycling for Beginners

One goal other than the Vegas and Auburn angle is to shine the spotlight on some of the more obscure sports I follow. Cycling is one of those sports and while it has been in the news for all the wrong reasons the last few days (more on that can be found at Podium Cafe or VeloNews), I write today to educate on the basics of the sport as the Tour of California and Giro d'Italia (Tour of Italy) continue their competitions and the Tour de France looms in July.

The remainder of this post will deal with the basic terminology so the races can be followed. The Tour of California is currently being broadcast live on Versus each day and the Tour de France will also be on Versus next month. The Giro d'Italia takes a little more work to find though streams can be found somewhere online. Podium Cafe is a good resource for finding these streams (and for cycling discussion)

Definitions
Tour - A Tour is a multi-day race lasting anywhere from 3 days to 3 weeks usually consisting of a variety of cycling disciplines. Of these tours, the most prestigous are the 3-week long Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España called Grand Tours (GT). The winner is the rider with the best time over the course of the entire race.