Sportive

on the road

Have a look here http://www.cyclosport.org/

Bronzie

They are what you could call "challenge rides" where the challenge is not so much to win (as in a normal road race) but to complete the event in a reasonable time (most events have Gold, Silver and Bronze standard times to categorise the finishers).

Typically, it's a timed event over a fair distance (80+ miles) and possibly demanding terrain (upto 5000m vertical climbing) - the UK events are not races as such (because in the UK "races" can only be held either on closed roads or with the aid of leading vehicles and static marshals to warn oncoming traffic which would be impractical with a large field and long route). That said, plenty of riders do ride them flat out and treat them as races.

Events in Continental Europe are at another level altogether, with events like "Etape du Tour" (an actual stage of each years Tour de France) being held on closed roads with a field of 8,000 riders and crowds on top of the mountains to cheer friends and family on. These are treated much more like races, with Italian events (called Gran Fondos there) attracting top quality "amateur" riders competing for decent prize money.