Late winter — early spring, depending on the region of the world, is the beginning of professional road cycling races season, inspiring millions of amateurs who alternate their own training and bikepacking trips with watching races on TV. Well, like me, for example.
However, given the variety of cycling competitions in different formats, it is easier to get lost in the calendar than to understand it by missing your favorite or most important race of the season. Just try to answer the question yourself: which comes first: Amstel Gold Race or Paris-Roubaix? And what kind of races are these, anyway?
To prevent this from happening to you, read this guide to the UCI World Tour calendar with major pro road bike races. Bookmark it on your browser — you’ll still need it, the season is almost a full year and will last until November. In the end, you will also find an exact competition calendar with dates and other useful information. But first: what is this Tour?
Outdoor writer from the Italian Alps and Finnish Karelia
— The UCI World Tour is the main event or rather a season in professional road cycling, which takes place every year for 9 months from January to November around the world, but mainly in Europe as the central (and simply the best) region for the sport. If you are skiing or surfing, it’s like the Freeride World Tour and World Surf League.
UCI stands for Union Cycliste Internationale (International Cycling Union), which is the main world cycling organization that holds the Tour, but also almost all other competitions. Check your bike and you will find its emblem on it, which means it is approved for competition. UCI is headquartered in the small town of Aigle in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.
In 2023 the UCI calendar consists of 35 races of different formats, durations, and importance. The figure is not constant and varies from year to year with the removal of some events and the addition of others. For example, the Classic Brugge-De Panne race moved to the World Tour from the lower division (which I will also mention at the end of the guide) in 2019, and the RideLondon-Surrey Classic in the UK has dropped off the calendar, and so on.
Read next my guide to the UCI World Tour calendar with major pro road bike races on the Windy.app blog of the leading pro weather forecast app for wind sports and outdoors.
Text: Ivan Kuznetsov
Cover photo: John Cameron / Unsplash
