How cycling is organised, from the UCI to the road.

This section explains how cycling is organised, not how to ride. Riding, bike handling, racing and riding in traffic are for a qualified cycle instructor or coach to teach in person, and repairs and adjustments belong with a qualified bike mechanic. What these pages offer is the structure around that: which bodies make the rules, how each discipline's races are run and scored, how licences and categories are defined, and what the law says about e-bikes and road use.

Every rule here is given as a named body's rule, with the regulation and the edition, and the article or rule number where the source gives one. Where sources disagree, each version is given with who says it, and anything we could not confirm is said to be unconfirmed. For the bikes and the kit, the equipment section covers the UCI's equipment rules, helmet standards and lights; the glossary explains the vocabulary.

Which rulebooks, which editions

The UCI publishes its Cycling Regulations in numbered parts, and it amends them often. These pages rely on the following, and say so on each page:

Rule texts change. The governing body's current edition, the race's own regulations and the officials on the day always have the final word.

The shortest possible version

• The UCI was founded in Paris on 14 April 1900 by the federations of Belgium, the United States, France, Italy and Switzerland. In September 2025 it counted 206 affiliated national federations, its own figure.
• The UCI says it governs 11 disciplines, from road and track to gravel, trials and indoor cycling. Cycling at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will award 22 titles in five of them.
• Under UCI Part 1, a licence is needed for any event organised, sanctioned or supervised by the UCI or its member federations, and UCI age categories are set by the year of the event minus the year of birth.
• US federal law defines the low-speed electric bicycle as a product; the familiar three e-bike classes come from state law, with California's AB 1096 of 2015 as the recorded example.
• In the Highway Code for England, Scotland and Wales, MUST rules are law and "should" rules are guidance. The 1.5 m passing distance and helmet wearing are guidance.

The pages in this section

1. What cycling is: the UCI's disciplines and the LA 2028 Olympic and Paralympic programme.
2. The UCI: founding, members with dates, governance, presidents and the 2025 Congress.
3. National federations: seven federations' founding stories and the disputed dates.
4. Road races explained: race classes, team types, team sizes and distances.
5. Stage races and jerseys: Grand Tour rules, bonuses, the 3 km rule and the jersey colours.
6. Track cycling: every track event, with the 2025 distance changes.
7. Cyclo-cross and gravel: course rules, bike limits and the gravel world championships.
8. Mountain biking: XCO, XCC, downhill, enduro, e-MTB and the other formats.
9. BMX, trials and indoor: BMX Racing and Freestyle, trials scoring, artistic cycling and cycle-ball.
10. Para-cycling: the four cycle types, the sport classes and LA28.
11. Licences and categories: the UCI licence, age categories and USA Cycling's upgrades.
12. E-bike classes and laws: US, EU and UK rules, each as the law states it.
13. Road rules for cyclists: the Highway Code's 2022 changes and US passing laws.
14. Learning to ride: Bikeability, CAN-BIKE, Ride Nation Schools and League Cycling Instructors.
15. How many people cycle: federation memberships and England's travel survey, all dated.

Race results are not on these pages. They belong to the events section.