How does Olympic road cycling work?

Olympic track cycling events had their Olympic debut even more than 100 years ago. The exact year is 1896, from this date the countdown of modern Olympics begins.

Since a lot of years has passed since the introduction of these bike riding disciplines, cycling itself has changed a lot.

Previously, there were 6 cycling events, which were presented in 2 cycling disciplines. But nowadays, the scale of cycling events, like the Olympic Games, has grown several times. Now the games feature 5 cycling disciplines with 22 cycling events.

Here are the most classic and oldest cycling competitions, these are road race and track cycling.

What road cycling competitions are presented at Olympic Games?

Road race

Road racing has been represented at the Olympic Games for a long time. This sport requires a paved road. At these games, two cycling events exist for both genders, a road race and a single rider time trial.

The essence of the road race is that all cyclists start at the same time, and their main task is to be the first to reach the finish line. Women and men need to ride different distance lengths. The length of the distance varies every year, in 2024 in Paris at the Olympics, the length will be in the range from 130 km to 160 km for women, and for men from 250 km to 280 km. A rough layout of the road race at the 2024 Olympics will cover part of Paris, but the full layout is not yet known.

Road racing is an individual sport, but a cyclist can have a teammate who can monitor the breakaway and secure a draft. Such a teammate can be useful for a cyclist during a race.

Men’s and women’s race times vary. The women’s race will last approximately four hours and the men’s race will last over six hours.

Individual time trial

As for the individual time trial, the riders do not begin at the one moment, as the discipline is about time, not simultaneous racing. Only one rider with the shortest ride time is the winner and will get gold medal.

Men’s and women’s check-in distance for time trial is also different. For women, the length of the distance is in the range from 20 to 30 km, and for men, the length of the distance is in the range from 40 to 50 km.

For the Paris Olympics, the location of the cycling track for this race is not yet fully known. The average check-in time for women is approximately 45 minutes, and for men almost one hour.

History of road cycling at the Olympic Games

Road cycling was included in the list of Olympic Games back in 1896, when the Olympics took place in Athens. But for the first time, road cycling was introduced in the capital city of the Sweden at the Olympics 100 years ago. At that years, only men took part in road cycling competition.

Women’s road cycling was introduced in 80s in USA Olympics.

Road time trials were included in the mid-90s for men and women, in 1994 in Atlanta, when the first races were held.

Also in the past for men there were a men’s team road race, such races were present in two configurations: team time trial and 100 km.

What Olympic track cycling events are featured?

First of all, you need to start with what the track cycling competitions themselves look like. Track racing, which takes place in the competition, has a track along which the participants of the race ride, where turns are located at an inclination of 45 degrees. As for the length, it is 250 meters.

Track cycling is presented in large numbers at the Olympics, women’s events and men’s events are presented: team pursuit, team sprint, keirin, madison, omnium, sprint. Sprint events mostly include sprint, team sprint and team pursuit, the rest of the events are those that mostly require endurance.

Team sprint race

Team sprint has differences for women and men, women’s team sprint has two riders per team and men’s team sprint has three riders per team in sprint events of track cycling. Eight teams participate on average.

Teams ride start from different sides of the cycle track, after each one lap the leading rider leaves the race. This leaves one final rider per team, for men it is the third rider and for women it is the second rider. If the last rider finishes first in final sprint, then that rider is the winning sprints. So remaining riders compete at the end.

Three laps sprint race

Sprint track events require highly tactical race thinking from the cyclist. Two riders take part in the track cycling, one of which must win the gold medal.

Match sprint usually start slower and the cyclists speed up as they progress through the three laps, one lead rider going through the three laps wins.

Keirin

The history of such a sport as keirin began a little more than 70 years ago in Japan, and already in 2000 this type of track cycling became part of the Sydney Olympics. Six to seven riders participate in the race, who complete 8 laps. The cyclists follow the pacer, who sets the speed for the ride.

As you drive, the speed increases. After six laps, the pacer is no longer in control of the speed of the cyclists and the competition for the last two laps begins. Whoever completes the last two laps the fastest wins the race.

Team pursuit

Team pursuit is a sport in track cycling that requires four riders per women’s team pursuit or men’s team pursuit exists. As you can understand, men’s team pursuit and women’s team pursuit. In team pursuit, four riders start on opposite sides of the cycle track.

The length of the distance is 4 km, as always the main task in the team pursuit is to be the first to the gold medal final.

A very important element is the draft. Often in a team pursuit, the fourth rider in a line changes as the lead cyclist needs to conserve strength, which will keep all the energy of the team at an equal level during the team pursuit.

Omnium: scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race

Omnium is a very newest Olympic cycling discipline in track cycling events. This type of cycling was introduced at the Olympics in Japan in 2020.

This discipline is a multiple race event and consists of four stages, this sport can be described as a points race. All scores are needed for the grand total. The final score of this points race is made up of the following stages of track cycling: scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race.

Madison

A sport like Madison requires two riders per race. Each of them gets points in intermediate sprints, but can also lose them. This cycling is a team sport where riders accumulate points. Usually one race is 3000 meters long, that’s 120 laps. Women’s events were introduced in 2020, and men’s events also returned to the Olympics program in 2020 after a 12-year break.

Olympics story of track cycling

Already with the beginning of the first Olympiad, track bike riding appeared in the program. For example, in those days there was a 12-hour race, one rider had to drive the maximum number of laps. Men participated in these competitions.

Women started participating in track bike riding in 1988, it was the South Korea Olympics in Seoul.

Mountain bike

The international cycling federation has many multiple mountain bike events, but only one is represented at the Olympics, this is cross-country.

This type of cycling appeared at the Olympics in 1996, competitions are presented for women and men.

The most interesting part of mountain biking is that the cyclist rides on a mountain track that has a lot of obstacles.

On average, the length of the route is 4-7 kilometers. All participants start at the same time, the first rider who will overcome the entire distance on a mountain bike and receive his gold medal race.

BMX racing aka bicycle motocross

BMX is a very new sport, having entered the Olympic program in 2008. Both genders participate in the competition.

According to the rules, riders compete in eight rounds, usually the average time of one race is 30 seconds.