Earl breaks upper leg cycling some distance up (6)
I believe the answer is:
height
'distance up' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'earl breaks upper leg cycling' is the wordplay.
'earl' becomes 'e'.
'breaks' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters break into the word).
'upper' becomes 'high' (similar in meaning).
'leg cycling' becomes 't' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'e' placed into 'high' is 'heigh'.
'heigh'+'t'='HEIGHT'
'some' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for height that I've seen before include "Dimension upwards" , "Rising ground; extreme example" , "Hill, elevation" , "size up?" , "Vertical extension" .)