Irish cycling 'braced for best year in two decades'

In the lead-up to the FBD Insurance Rás which starts on Sunday May 23 and runs until Sunday May 30, breakingnews.ie gives you a run-down of the basics of professional cycling.

Like most sports, the professional cycling calendar is organized around a random-seeming sequence of big and small events, events which are all sanctioned by the sport's iron-fisted Vatican, the Lausanne Swiss-based Union Cycliste International (UCI). Those races can be divided into three categories, each of which exists as its own specialty.