Bicycles in some form have been around for over 300 years. Around 1840 a crank-driven device was invented in Scotland, thus enabling the bicycle rider to keep both feet off the ground simultaneously and yet still being able to make forward progress. The pedal-and-chain bicycle had come along by the 1880s and that gave impetus to the sport of cycling in Europe, North America and Australia. Mountain biking originated in San Francisco, USA in the mid-1970s.

Following a vote at the IOC session in Singapore in July 2005, the discipline of BMX was added to the cycling program for the Beijing 2008 Olympics, at the expense of the 500m time trial for women and 1000m time trial for men. Therefore today there are now four cycling disciplines - track, road, mountain biking and BMX. Cycling events have been present at every staging of the Modern Olympics since Athens 1896. Women’s cycling was introduced in Los Angeles in 1984 and mountain biking made its Olympic debut at Atlanta 1996.  

With the advent of professional cyclists in Atlanta, Olympic cycling has gained in popularity with the inclusion of many household names such as Miguel Indurain of Spain, American Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich of Germany from the Tour de France.  It didn’t take long for the professionals to make an impact at the Olympics with Indurain winning the road time trial in Atlanta and Ullrich winning the road race and finishing second, one place ahead of Lance Armstrong, in the road time trial in Sydney.

The four different types of races on the Olympic program today have evolved mainly because of developments in the technology of bicycles.

The cycling discipline of BMX will make its debut at Beijing 2008. BMX stands for Bicycle Motorcross. The United States has the most riders in the world followed by Australia.

Two gold medals in BMX have been added to the Biejing program, Elite Men (19 Years and older) and Elite Women (19 Years and older). BMX events were added at the expense of the individual time trials on the velodrome. 

The UCI BMX World Ranking will determine the nations ranking and the number of athletes for each country. It is anticipated that there will be 32 men and 16 women compete at Beijing 2008. The maximum number of riders allowed to qualify from each country is 3 Male and 2 Female.

There is a men’s competition and women’s competition. Riders are seeded on a starting grid according to their current world ranking and after a mass start complete a specified number of laps of the course. The first rider to cross the finish line is the winner. The course is an undulating circuit designed to produce a specific winning time, and not a specific distance – parameters are as follows:

              Minimum      Optimum      Maximum
Men        2h:00           2h:15          2h:30
Women   1h:45           2h:00          2h:15

The number of laps is determined at the latest two hours before the start of the race to determine the optimum finish time. The decision depends on the track and weather conditions.

The road competition consists of the road race and individual time trial for both men and women.

Road Race
The road race is a mass start event and the first cyclist to cross the finish line at the end of the total distance is declared the winner. The men’s race is approximately 230km and the women cover approximately 120km.

Individual time trial
Men cover approximately 48km and women cover about 24km. Cyclists start at 90 second intervals and race against the clock. The cyclist with the fastest time is declared the winner.

Sprint (men and women)
The sprint is one of the oldest cycling events making its first appearance at World Championships in Chicago in 1893.

It is a classic short distance event in which two or more riders cover three laps. Only the final 200 metres is timed. The special requirements in the sprint are strength and speed. The key is tactics. Sudden and dramatic changes in speed, standstill attempts, and feints are typical ways to surprise an opponent. Riders obtain a seeding through the qualifying 200 metre flying time trial with 18 men and 12 women qualifying for the first round.  From quarter final stage onwards rivals match up in best of three heats to determine progress to the following round.

Keirin (men)
Keirin was created in the 1940’s and is the Japanese version of the traditional sprint event. Up to seven riders compete over 2000m. A special motorised bike called a derny leads the field for the first 1,400m starting at 30km/h and bringing the riders up to a speed of 50km/h. Cyclists manoeuvre for the best position before the derny leaves the track. It is then an all up frantic sprint for the finish line. The first two riders across the line in the qualifying heats go through to the first round with the losers contesting repechage heats. The two winners of each of three repechage heats go through to the first round. In the first round the first three riders in each of the two heats qualify for the medal final and the losers ride off for 7-12 place.

Team sprint (men)
The Teams Sprint pits two teams of three riders against each other and the clock over three laps of the track. The task of the starting rider is to get out of the gate cleanly and bring the team up to high speed as quickly as possible. After one lap the first rider peels off to allow the second rider to make the pace. This rider completes their effort with one lap to go and then it’s up to the final cyclist, traditionally a time trial specialist, to finish off. The leading rider must not swing up until a full lap is complete and must peel off between an area of 15 metres before and after their start line, otherwise the team will be disqualified.

The fastest eight teams go through from the qualifying round to the first round and from their the fastest two winning teams contest the race for gold and silver and the other two winners contest the race for bronze.

In the event of a false start the team is permitted another start. Only two starts are allowed.

Individual Pursuit (men 4km / women 3km)
The individual pursuit is an endurance event and is conducted as a knock out tournament. The goal is to ride the fastest time over the distance. The riders are seeded based on their times in the qualifying round. In qualifying all riders complete the distance to post a time but in the finals if a competitor overtakes his rival he is declared winner. The fastest two cyclists in the first round qualify for the gold medal race and the next two fastest contest the bronze medal final.

A cool head is needed in a pursuit as coaches and cyclists must determine how fast to ride to make it through to the next round and still have fuel in the tank for the medal race. Body position is also important, as an aerodynamic position will limit the amount of air resistance that in turn increases the cyclist’s speed.

In the event of a false start from the gate a rider is permitted another start. Only two starts are allowed.

Points race (men 40km / women 25km)
This is an event where the final placings are determined according to accumulated points won by riders during sprints or by taking laps on their opponents. Points (5,3,2,1) are awarded to the first four across the line in the intermediate sprints held every ten laps and at the finish.  20 points are given to a rider who laps the main field and any rider who drops a lap on the main field loses 20 points.

At the end of the race if two or more riders are equal on points the places in the final sprint determine who wins.

The Points Race is a numerical challenge for riders who must know where they are placed throughout the race to enable them to develop tactics to win. Speed, endurance, concentration and the ability to react quickly are the hallmarks of a successful points’ racer.

Madison 50km (men)
The Madison, or ‘Américaine’, is derived from six-day-races which began in 1899 in New York’s Madison Square Gardens. Teams comprising two riders work together to amass sprint points or try to take a lap. Sprints are held every twenty laps with points awarded for sprints are 1^st – 5pts, 2^nd – 3pts, 3^rd – 2pts and 4^th – 1pt sprints.

Only one member of the team is racing at any one time while his team-mate rides around the top of the track banking until it is his time to race. The race is conducted as a ‘tag team’ format where the racing rider must touch his incoming team-mate to effect the changeover. This is usually done by way of a ‘hand sling’ where the racing cyclist grabs his team-mate’s hand and slings him into the race.

To win the Madison, distance covered (laps taken) scores higher than points won and in the event of a tie at the end the places in the final sprint determine who wins.

Team pursuit (men)
Four endurance cyclists comprise a pursuit team and their success relies on how well they work together. The rider on the front of the quartet must keep the pace as high as possible but must not ride so fast that he drops any of his following team mates. The cyclists within a team must ride as close as possible to the rear wheel of the rider in front of them to gain every possible aerodynamic benefit. The front rider will swing up the track at the end of his “turn” and must smoothly rejoin his team in the fourth wheel position. The pace is then set by the rider now on the front of the quartet.

The time is taken on the front wheel of the third rider across the line and it is often the case that only three riders will finish.

In the qualifying round each team rides alone on the track against the clock with the fastest eight teams going through. In the first round and finals, one team starts on each side of the track and they race each other and the clock. The fastest two winning teams of the first round contest the race for gold and silver and the other two winners race for bronze. In the finals the winner is determined by either catching the other team or recording the fastest time. A team is deemed to have been caught is the team chasing comes with one metre of the back wheel of the rider at the back of the rival team.

In the event of a false start the team is permitted another start. Only two starts are allowed.

NOTE:
Individual time trial (men 1km / women 500m)
With the inclusion of two BMX events on the program for Beijing 2008, the time trials for men and women have been dropped from the cycling schedule.

Australia has a long and proud tradition in Olympic cycling and in terms of medals won per events contested, the sport is one of the most successful for this nation.

Australia’s first Olympic medallist in cycling was Edgar “Dunc” Gray who finished third in the 1000 metres time trial, more commonly known as the kilometre or 'kilo', at Amsterdam 1928 and went on to win the same event at Los Angeles 1932. Russell Mockridge won the time trial in Helsinki in 1952 and then joined with Lionel Cox to finish first in the tandem. Mockridge, who eventually died prematurely in a road racing accident, is still arguably Australia’s greatest all-round cyclist. Ian Browne and Tony Marchant repeated the win in the tandem at Melbourne 1956.

Australian cyclists won three silver medals at Munich 1972 yet it wasn’t until Los Angeles 1984 that the next gold medal was won in the team pursuit. Michael Turtur, Kevin Nichols, Dean Woods and Michael Grenda teamed up to defeat the Americans who were buoyed on by hometown support and the technological superiority of their racing bikes. Woods again made the podium four years later in Seoul placing second in the individual pursuit and bronze as a member of the team pursuit. Also in 1988 Martin Vinnicombe won the silver in the 1000m time trial.

Kathy Watt won the women’s road race in Barcelona in 1992 and in doing so became the first Australian to win an Olympic gold medal on the road. Watt’s silver medal in the individual pursuit later that week made her the first Australian to win two individual cycling medals at the same Olympics. Australia’s next cycling gold medal came in the Madison at Sydney 2000 when Brett Aitken and Scott McGrory combined for an emotion-charged victory.

Athens 2004 saw a “gold-rush” for Australia with a record six gold medals. Ryan Bayley in winning the men’s sprint and the keirin became to first Australian to win two individual cycling gold medals, and at the same Olympics. Other gold medals were garnered by Anna Meares with a world record time in the 500m time trial, Sarah Carrigan who emulated Kathy Watts’s win in the women’s road race, the all-conquering teams pursuit squad and Graeme Brown with the versatile Stuart O’Grady in the Madison.

Besides the thirteen gold medals, Australia has won 15 silver and 13 bronze medals. Bradley McGee (1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze) has won the most Olympic cycling medals for Australia. To reinforce Australia’s performances as a leading cycling nation at the Olympics there have also been 21 fourth placings. 

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