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Germany won bronze At the 1896 Olympics in Greece all but two competitors in the 100 kilometer 62 14 mile road race had withdrawn by the halfway mark One of the two Léon Flameng fell but remounted his bike and became the first ever Olympic cycling gold medalist The track cycling events at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
Road Racing The first official cycling competition was a 1 2 kilometer 75 mile road race through Paris in 1868 Men have competed in a road race at every modern Olympics The first Olympic road race for women was won by U S cyclist Connie Carpenter-Phinney in 1984 Nicole Cooke roars with delight as she wins gold in the women’s road race at the 2008 Olympics The British rider completed the course in 3 hours 32 minutes 24 seconds Road Courses Road races are held on smooth-surfaced roads but they vary in distance from one games to another At Beijing in 2008 women raced over 78 5 miles 126 4 km and men over 152 5 miles 245 4 km A race begins with all riders massed at the start Ahead of them is the toughest of competitions in varying weather conditions In the 2008 men’s race 53 of the 143 starters dropped out Samuel Sanchez of Spain won the race in 6 hours 23 minutes and 49 seconds Streamlined Riders Road racing bikes are light but must weigh at least 14 9 lbs 6 8 kg Handlebars with brakes and gear levers extend forward so that riders can adopt a streamlined position that lets the 6
A road race for teams was held at every Olympics from 1912 to 1956 At the 1948 Olympics the Belgian team won but as there were few officials around they just got on a bus and went home They finally received their Olympic gold medals in 2010 7 air move smoothly around them Cyclists also ride directly behind one another this can save as much as a quarter of their energy for a powerful sprint to the finish line at the end of the race Road racers tend to work in groups The main group of cyclists is known as the peloton At various stages in a race a lone rider or small group may break away trying to put crucial distance between themselves and the peloton Stage Races Many of the best riders from professional road racing teams enter the Olympics Away from the games they compete in a wide range of races from short criterium events through cities and towns to races that last for many days and stages The most prestigious of all stage races are the three Grand Tour competitions the Giro d’Italia the Vuelta a España and the most famous of all the Tour de France The 2010 Tour de France had 20 stages and covered 2,237 miles 3,600 km of road Superstar No cyclist has ever won the road race and the time trial see page 8 at the same Olympics In 2000 Jan Ullrich of Germany came close winning the road race and coming second in the time trial Ullrich has also won the Tour de France and Vuelta a España The leading riders in the 2004 Tour de France enter the final stages of the race in Paris Lance Armstrong center wears the yellow jersey given to the leader He later won the race FEATS AND RECORDS The 1996 Olympic men’s road race lasted almost five hours but had a gripping finish with the first two riders recording exactly the same time 4 hours 53 minutes and 56 seconds The Swiss rider Pascal Richard beat Rolf Sorensen by less than the width of a wheel
