Dan - a much less technical answer than I thought you would give.

Flash - riding a bike per se doesn't require much skill unless you are my 3.5 year old trying to learn. Even a professional time trial doesn't require much skill in my opinion, just supreme levels of fitness and when to attack, etc.

However, training, building, strategising and getting teams of 5-10 through numerous stages of a tour contains a large amount of skill. It's the team aspect of keeping in packs and protecting your main guys that I find skillful.

Not as much as cricket, tennis, gymnastics and golf but not bad mate.