J.K. Starley, an English inventor and industrialist, modified the original bicycle design – an enormous front wheel, a small rear wheel, and the rider teetering high above the ground – in 1885. Starley, whose company would eventually go on to design motorcycles and cars, added a chain and gearing system to the bicycle and made the two wheels similar sizes. His adjustments allowed for the evolution that led to the modern, sleek design that racing bicycles use today.

The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics introduced a new Olympic sport to the world: BMX, short for bicycle motorcross.  BMX became the fourth type of cycling competition. Mountain biking, road, and track comprise the other three events. Like BMX, the mountain bike event has a recent Olympic debut, at the 1996 Atlanta Games. In a mountain biking competition, bikers race over courses of undulating dirt trails littered with obstacles in an event that usually lasts two hours. Mountain bikers make all repairs to their bikes themselves, versus road and track cycling, where racers receive outside assistance from a support team.

Road cycling debuted at the first modern Olympics in 1896 with cyclists racing 87 km (54 mi); they sped over two laps of the same course used for the marathon. The oldest of the cycling competitions, road cycling is the type of event that typically comes to mind when considering bicycling races. In the competition, both men and women (women joined the sport in the 1984 Los Angeles Games) race in four different events over distances that vary from 20 km to 250 km. In addition to distance races, there are time trials where riders burst out of the gate at 90-second intervals and compete against the clock – rather than against each other – over a course mapped out on existing roads.

In track cycling, racers compete on a smooth oval-shaped track called a velodrome that banks 42 degrees around the turns. On the track, cyclists compete for medals in several different types of events: time trials, sprints, individual pursuits, and team pursuits. Time trials, like road cycling, see riders racing the clock rather than other competitors. Sprints pit two racers against each other in a three-lap affair. Individual pursuits are won by catching your competitor who starts on the opposite end of the track. Team pursuits are similar to individual pursuits except teams of three compete.

Chicago, considered the best city in the country for cyclists, plays home to several path-lined parks supported and maintained by the city's park district. With support from the current and past mayors, a web of bike paths stretches over Chicago's lakefront property. Bike paths also exist on busy city streets, and the city's buses and trains are outfitted with bike racks to promote cycling in the heart of downtown. Several groups exist in the city to host social, leisurely bike rides and competitions for local cyclists.

To view more Cycling photos, please visit our Flickr page.