A cycle could as well be chosen to be a wavelength, as in De Broglie relation, which involves momentum instead of energy; in that case the number of cycles per second becomes a speed.
This word cycle as used in science, actually ends up being either a period (a time duration) or a wavelength (a length in space), which amounts to a lack of definition; science's cycle amounts to an undefined entity, with no measuring unit, rendering the Hertz (so called unit) abstract that is non phyical.