ContentsContents 4 Going for Gold 6 Road Racing 8 Time Trial and Triathlon 10 On Track 12 Individual Sprint 14 Team Sprints and the Keirin 16 Pursuits and Points Races 18 The Omnium 20 Mountain Biking 24 BMX Racing 28 Gold Medal Greats 30 Glossary 31 Books and Web Sites 32 Index
Going for Gold The Olympics is international sports competition at its best Every four years in summer thousands of athletes known as Olympians gather in one city There they compete against the best athletes in their sport hoping to come home with an Olympic gold silver or bronze medal Modern Games The ancient Greek games were held in Olympia from 776 BC for more than a thousand years In the 1890s the games were revived when the first modern Olympic games were held in the Greek city of Athens in 1896 Today the host city and nation welcome tens of thousands of spectators while millions more watch on television Different Disciplines Male cyclists have taken part in the modern Olympics since 1896 Cycling for women was introduced in 1984 The different types of cycling competitions at the games range from track racing events held indoors to long distance road racing events Some competitions are for 4 Germany’s Sabine Spitz is delighted to win her first Olympic gold medal She won a bronze in the mountain bike competition in 2004 and gold at the 2008 games individual riders while others are team events In more recent years both mountain biking see pages 20 23 and BMX racing see pages 24 27 have been part of the Olympics
5 Gone from the Games A number of cycling events were held at some Olympics and have since disappeared At the 1896 Olympics there was a 12-hour race that began at 5 A M that only two riders finished Tandems bicycles ridden by two riders were first raced at the Olympics in 1908 The last Olympic tandem champions were Vladimir Semenets and Igor Tselovalnykov of the Soviet Union in 1972 Britain’s Jamie Staff displays his 2008 Olympic gold medal for winning the team sprint along with Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny France received silver and Germany won bronze At the 1896 Olympics in Greece all but two competitors in the 100 kilometer 62 14 mile road race had withdrawn by the halfway mark One of the two Léon Flameng fell but remounted his bike and became the first ever Olympic cycling gold medalist The track cycling events at the 2004 games were held at the Olympic Velodrome in Athens The arena seated more than 5,000 spectators in tiers around the 250 meter long track FEATS AND RECORDS At the 1988 Olympics East Germany’s Christa Rothenburger won a silver in the women’s sprint cycling with a silver and gold won in speed skating at the Winter Olympics earlier the same year
