![\"Iain](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Iain-Treloar-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Gruber Images<\/p>\n
The cycling season is a lot. Too much, probably. From January to October, the intrepid professionals of the men\u2019s and women’s WorldTour are plying their trade on the roads of Australia, the Middle East, Europe, North America, Asia and sometimes some other places, too.\u00a0That’s 171 days of racing for the men and 85 for the women, and even within each tour there is often overlap, with two races happening at once.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s not just the geography, or the near-year spanning nature of the calendar: it\u2019s the impenetrability. There are Grand Tours of differing levels of prestige; there are Classics and Monuments (all Monuments being Classics, but not all Classics being Monuments); there are week-long tours.\u00a0There are races through deserts and jungles and farmland and huge cities, on surfaces ranging from pristine tarmac through to the nastiest cobbles imaginable. <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Z8A_0926-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
For the most recent episode of Escape Collective\u2019s newest addition to its podcast lineup, The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Pro Cycling considers what the pipeline looks like for new followers of the sport. Let\u2019s take the Tour de France as guaranteed: if this, as the sport\u2019s biggest bike race, is the entry point to the weird and wonderful world of professional cycling, what comes next?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seeing the sport through a fresh set of eyes<\/p>\n
Just as there are different tiers of bike races, there are different tiers of cycling fans, ranging from the casual to the deeply, deeply committed. Some of them (maybe you!) are all-in, all the time. Others are just dipping their toes in, and maybe finding that the sport doesn\u2019t do a very good job of bringing them along on the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re in the former camp, let\u2019s for a moment put aside all the years of pro cycling fandom that has led you to this point. Instead, imagine that a loved one is interested in the sport you adore, and you are tasked with putting together a pro-cycling tasting menu for them. If you’re in a timezone well removed from the Eurocentric heartland of the sport, what races are actually worth waking up early, or staying up late for? Which ones can you get by with a highlights package? Which are the ones you can skip altogether?\u00a0Why?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Z8A_7319.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
For what it\u2019s worth, here\u2019s where we ended up with for the men’s WorldTour (the women’s circuit deserves its own version):\u00a0<\/p>\n
This post is for paying subscribers only Already have an account? Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n Did we do a good job with this story?<\/p>\n \n \ud83d\udc4dYep
\n Subscribe now<\/a><\/p>\n
\n \ud83d\udc4eNope\n <\/p>\n