road race

American

[rohd rays] / ˈroʊd ˌreɪs /

noun

a race that is performed on paved roads.

State Street will be closed from noon to 5 p.m. for the running of the Governor’s Cup road race.
Last year’s champion driver appears to have lost this year’s Bordeaux-Paris road race.

Etymology

Origin of road race

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

road race

Brandon McNulty won the men’s road race at the world championships in Montreal, becoming the first American to win the title in 33 years.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026

Now he’s hoping to add another in the road race to go with the Olympic gold medal he won on the streets of Paris in 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026

She earned her medal in the women's road race near Nagoya in Japan on Tuesday.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

Elsewhere, reigning European road race champion Demi Vollering was eighth, while Backstedt's British team-mate Anna Morris finished 16th.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2026

Look at the number of motor-cars now that followed the riders from town to town in a road race.

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023