Racing

The first documented cycling race was a 1,200 metre race held on May 31, 1868 at the Parc of Saint-Cloud

Saint-Cloud

Saint-Cloud is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris.Like other communes of the Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine or Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of the wealthiest cities in France, ranked 22nd out of the 36500 in...

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. It was won by expatriate Englishman James Moore

James Moore (cyclist)

James Moore was a bicycle racer. He is popularly regarded as the winner of the first official cycle race in the world in 1868 at St-Cloud, Paris, although there appears to be no verifiable contemporary evidence for this...

 who rode a bicycle with solid rubber tire

Tire

A tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...

s. The first cycle race

Road bicycle racing

Road bicycle racing is a bicycle racing sport held on roads, using racing bicycles. The term "road racing" is usually applied to events where competing riders start simultaneously with the winner being the first to the line at the end of the course .Historically, the most...

 covering a distance between two cities was Paris–Rouen, also won by James Moore, who rode the 123 kilometres dividing both cities in 10 hours and 40 minutes.

The longest established bicycle racing club in the United States is the Century Road Club of America. Incorporated 1891 in St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 and now New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

. The club has sponsored races and timed distance events since its inception. Its members have included more national and Olympic medal holders than any other American club including Fred Spencer and John Howard

John Howard (cyclist)

John Kennedy Howard is an Olympic cyclist from the United States, who set a land speed record of 152.2 miles per hour while motor-pacing on a pedal bicycle on July 20, 1985 on Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats...

.

See also

• History of the bicycle
  History of the bicycle
  Vehicles for human transport that have two wheels and require balancing by the rider date back to the early 19th century. The first means of transport making use of two wheels, and thus the archetype of the bicycle, was the German draisine dating back to 1817...
  
  
• List of doping cases in cycling
• List of professional cyclists who died during a race