A cylindrical roller bearing comprising: an inner ring including a raceway surface on an outer periphery thereof: an outer ring including a raceway surface on an inner periphery thereof; a plurality of cylindrical rollers rollably disposed between the raceway surface of the inner ring and the raceway surface of the outer ring; and a cage for circumferentially retaining the cylindrical rollers at predetermined intervals, wherein the cage includes a pair of annular portions which are separately placed in an axial direction and a plurality of cage bars which interconnect the annular portions, and the cylindrical roller is placed in a pocket surrounded by the adjacent cage bars and the pair of annular portions, wherein the cage is circumferentially provided with guide pieces at predetermined intervals, the guide pieces projecting from a peripheral surface of the cage bars to make sliding contact with the raceway surface of either of the inner ring or the outer ring for guiding the rotation of the cage and for removing an excess lubricant on the raceway surface, and wherein formed at axially opposite ends of the guide pieces are tapered faces inclined from the periphery of the cage bars substantially toward an axial center of a sliding contact portion in the guide pieces, and wherein the sliding contact portion has a shorter axial full length than an axial full length of the raceway surface, wherein, the sliding contact portion of the guide pieces that makes sliding contact with the raceway surface (2a, 3a) has a shorter axial full length than an axial full length of the cylindrical roller characterized in that portions of axially opposite ends of a rolling face of the cylindrical roller do not overlap the sliding contact portion of the guide pieces in the axial direction. an outer ring including a raceway surface on an inner periphery thereof; a plurality of cylindrical rollers rollably disposed between the raceway surface of the inner ring and the raceway surface of the outer ring; and a cage for circumferentially retaining the cylindrical rollers at predetermined intervals, wherein the cage includes a pair of annular portions which are separately placed in an axial direction and a plurality of cage bars which interconnect the annular portions, and the cylindrical roller is placed in a pocket surrounded by the adjacent cage bars and the pair of annular portions, wherein the cage is circumferentially provided with guide pieces at predetermined intervals, the guide pieces projecting from a peripheral surface of the cage bars to make sliding contact with the raceway surface of either of the inner ring or the outer ring for guiding the rotation of the cage and for removing an excess lubricant on the raceway surface, and wherein formed at axially opposite ends of the guide pieces are tapered faces inclined from the periphery of the cage bars substantially toward an axial center of a sliding contact portion in the guide pieces, and wherein the sliding contact portion has a shorter axial full length than an axial full length of the raceway surface, wherein, the sliding contact portion of the guide pieces that makes sliding contact with the raceway surface (2a, 3a) has a shorter axial full length than an axial full length of the cylindrical roller characterized in that portions of axially opposite ends of a rolling face of the cylindrical roller do not overlap the sliding contact portion of the guide pieces in the axial direction.