overview
Cycling has been shown to reduce mortality and provide significant health benefits, primarily through cardiovascular improvements and adaptations.

Given the discrepancy between cycling's benefits for cardiovascular fitness and previous findings that cycling may not be beneficial to bone health, Hugo Olmedillas and his colleagues systematically A literature review was performed. They concluded that road cycling does not appear to provide any significant benefit to bone formation. I think it's because

Exercise programs can be supplemented with impact loads to maintain bone health. However, a slightly increased risk of soft tissue injury should also be considered.

Encyclopedia Britannica
cycling
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cycling
sport
Alternate titles:
bicycle racing, bicycling, biking
By Samuel Abt Article History
Summary
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cycling, use of a bicycle for sport, recreation, or transportation. The sport of cycling consists of professional and amateur races, which are held mostly in continental Europe, the United States, and Asia. The recreational use of the bicycle is widespread in Europe and the United States. Use of the bicycle as a mode of transportation is particularly important in non-Western nations and in flatter countries, some of which, like the Netherlands, have a widespread system of bicycle paths.

Miguel Indurain
Miguel Indurain
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Key People:
Clara Hughes Lance Armstrong Chris Hoy Bradley Wiggins Chris Froome
Related Topics:
Tour de France six-day race pursuit racing cyclo-cross Tour Down Under
Early history of the sport
Cycling as a sport officially began on May 31, 1868, with a 1,200-metre (1,312-yard) race between the fountains and the entrance of Saint-Cloud Park (near Paris). The winner was 18-year-old James Moore, a British exile from Paris. On November 7, 1869, the first intercity race took place between Paris and Rouen. Moore won again, running the 135 km (84 miles) in 10 hours and 25 minutes. Within a few years, road racing had become popular in continental Europe, but poor road conditions made it unsuitable in England, where the sport revolved around track or time trials.

In the United States, the first recorded race was in Boston on May 24, 1878, two years after professional baseball began and thirteen years before basketball was invented. Most of the early American races were held on tracks, and pacemakers were used in long races, sometimes at high speeds to get ahead of competitors. By the 1890s, there were about 100 gravel, cement, or wooden runways across the country, mostly in major cities. More than 600 professionals traveled the national circuit, stretching from Boston to San Francisco, and held competitions in cities such as St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Denver and Los Angeles. The sport he received great publicity on June 30, 1899. It was then that one of his drivers, Charles M. Murphy, drove Long his Island Railroad train behind him on wooden tracks, a mile (1 mile) he ran in 57.8 seconds, giving him a mileage. I gave it a nickname. -Min Murphy.

In the 1890s, particularly demanding racing flourished in the United States.
Six days of racing, 142 hours of non-stop competition (because the races typically start at midnight and finish six days later at 10pm), with prize money up to $10,000 and riders from the international field. This format of racing changed from one-man teams to two-man teams in 1899, and the six-day race remained popular into the 1930s. These races are no longer held in the United States, but Belgium, Italy, France and Germany continue to draw large crowds.