Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España, the three major European professional cycling stage races, together make up the Grand Tours of road bicycle racing. Held over a course of three weeks, the Grand Tours encompass two rest days towards the beginning of the second and third weeks. Of the three Grand Tours, the Tour de France is the oldest and most reputed, thus also making it the most widely-attended sporting event in the world. The Grand Tours are men's events and no such equivalent exists in the women's road cycling circuit.
