One never knows what to expect in a road race: hair-raising descents, steep climbs, sharp turns, one can meet them all. This is usually the first stage of any junior level stage race and is used to determine the order of start for the time trial, which is generally the second stage.

This race can be either a point-to-point race or it can be a circuit race with laps of variable length (generally between 3 and 30 km).

Category	Maximal distance
Midget	none
Pee-Wee	10 km
Minor	25 km(before July 1) 35 km(after Jult 1)
Cadet	50 km (Before july 1) 60 km (After July 1) 70 km (After August 1)
Jr Boys	100 km (Before july 1) 120 km (After July 1)
Jr Girls	80 km
Sr Men	200 km
Sr Women	100 km
Master	150 km