Bicycle racing is a competition sport in which various types of bicycles are used. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, time trialling, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, bike trials, and cycle speedway. Bicycle racing is recognised as an Olympic sport. The Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for cycling and international competitive cycling events.

Bicycle races are popular all over the world, especially in Europe. The countries most devoted to bicycle racing are Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland, although the United States has international standing, as do Australia, Luxembourg, and the UK.

The first bicycle race is popularly held to have been a 1,200 meter race on the 31 May 1868 at the Parc de Saint-Cloud, Paris. It was won by expatriate Englishman James Moore who rode a wooden bicycle with iron tires. The machine is now on display at the museum in Ely, Cambridgeshire, England.

Martyn Ashton (born 2 December 1974) is a mountain bike trials rider and team manager. He has been riding professional trials since 1993 and is often described as a mountain biking legend. He has been credited with turning it from a niche form of riding into the sport it is today.

Ashton started out as a motorcycle trials rider, and began riding mountain bike trials later on. He has been the front man for The Bike Tour since 2002, and has been the British Biketrial Champion four times and has been the World Expert Biketrial Champion. Ashton is the High Jump World Record Holder. In 2008, Ashton entered the Mountain Biking UK 'Hall of Fame'.

Ashton not only rides trials, he has also designed the exhibition stages and has been designing products for his own Ashton Bikes range since 2002. He has appeared in TV shows, magazine covers and MTB videos, and also has his own column Hop Idol in the MBUK magazine. Ashton lives in Port Talbot, Wales.

Ashton broke his back in 2003 when he compressed a vertebra and fractured it during a fall, having misjudged a landing, but he soon returned to riding.