A guide to Road Cycling at Glasgow 2018
All you need to know before some of Europe's best cyclists take to the roads of Glasgow and beyond at the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.
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Many of Europe's top cyclists will swap the mountains of France for the streets of Glasgow to compete in the Road Cycling schedule at the Glasgow 2018 European Championships.
There will be two events on the road for men and women - a Road Race and Time Trial.
Only male and female riders under the age of 23 contested the European Championships until elite men's and women's races were added, for both road race and time trial, in 2016.
Here's all you need to know before the action gets under way in Glasgow.
Road Race
This will be a mass start event. The women's race is on 5 August, with the men's on 12 August.
Many road races, especially if the course is flat, will end in a sprint finish, in which teams attempt to get their quickest rider in the right position to launch a final sprint for the line, usually in the last few hundred metres.
These riders will have a lead-out of several team-mates who peel off as they tire, with the last known as the lead-out sprinter. The final man has conserved energy by riding in the slipstream of his team-mates.
In Glasgow, countries may work together if a solitary rider or group of riders attempts a breakaway to ensure the field is brought back together for the sprint finish.
The men's and women's races will start and finish at Glasgow Green. Both will use the same looped 14.4km course around the city centre, taking in many of Glasgow's iconic landmarks.
The men's race will consist of 16 loops, totalling 230km. The women's will be nine loops, totalling 130km.
Time Trial
Time trials test riders against the clock over a set distance rather than against each other.
Riders set off separately, usually at intervals of one minute or more, with the higher ranked riders starting last, usually with a longer interval between them. If a rider catches a rival they are not allowed to work together.
The time trial in Glasgow is on 8 August, with the women's race in the morning and the men's in the afternoon. Both start at the Riverside Museum and finish at Glasgow Green.
The men's course is 45km. The route goes through Glasgow and loops around Strathblane and Lennoxtown before heading back towards Glasgow.
The women's course is 32km and does not include the Strathblane-Lennoxtown loop.
