BMX, an abbreviation for bicycle motocross or bike motocross, is a cycle sport performed on BMX bikes, either in competitive BMX racing or freestyle BMX, or else in general street or off-road recreation.
The Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland.
Manchester Velodrome is an indoor Olympic-standard cycle-racing track in Manchester, England, which opened in 1994. Part of the National Cycling Centre, the facility has been home to British Cycling since 1994, coinciding with the nations rise to track cycling dominance at World and Olympic level. The velodrome was also home to UCI ProTeam Ineos Grenadiers, formerly known as Team Sky between 2010 and 2019, a period when the team won 6 Tour de France, 2 Vuelta a Espana and 1 Giro d'Italia with Great Britain riders.
Cycle sport is competitive physical activity using bicycles. There are several categories of bicycle racing including road bicycle racing, cyclo-cross, mountain bike racing, track cycling, BMX, and cycle speedway. Non-racing cycling sports include artistic cycling, cycle polo, freestyle BMX, mountain bike trials and cycleball. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) is the world governing body for cycling and international competitive cycling events. The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is the governing body for human-powered vehicles that imposes far fewer restrictions on their design than does the UCI. The UltraMarathon Cycling Association is the governing body for many ultra-distance cycling races.
Lee Valley VeloPark is a cycling centre in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London, England. It is owned and managed by Lee Valley Regional Park Authority, and it was opened to the public in March 2014. The facility was one of the permanent venues for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Cycling has been contested at every Summer Olympic Games since the birth of the modern Olympic movement at the 1896 Summer Olympics, at which a road race and five track events were held. Mountain bike racing entered the Olympic programme at the Atlanta Olympics, followed by BMX racing in 2008 and freestyle BMX in 2021. Before the 2020 Summer Olympics, all events were speed races, but the 2020 programme featured BMX freestyle for the first time.
Cycling Australia (CA), the trading name of the Australian Cycling Federation Inc, was the national governing body for bicycle racing in Australia, and represented the interests of affiliated cycling clubs and State federations. It covered the disciplines of road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross, and BMX.
The 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics venues were mostly located in the host city of London, though some other events required facilities located elsewhere. Between the successful bid and the Olympics and Paralympics themselves, several details and venues changed.
Cycling competitions at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from August 9 to August 23 at the Laoshan Velodrome, Laoshan Mountain Bike Course, Laoshan BMX Field and the Beijing Cycling Road Course.
Hadleigh Farm is an educational working farm and cross-country cycling venue located in Hadleigh, within the borough of Castle Point, in the county of Essex. The men's and women's mountain biking events of the 2012 Summer Olympics took place at Hadleigh Farm on 11 and 12 August.
Switzerland competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. Swiss athletes have competed at every Summer Olympic Games in the modern era, except when they boycotted the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne in protest of the Soviet invasion of Hungary. The Swiss Olympic Association sent a total of 103 athletes to the 2012 Games, 72 men and 31 women, to compete in 18 sports.
The Hadleigh Farm Mountain Bike International was a one off, mountain bike race, which acted as the test event for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The race was part of the London Prepares series of events. Catharine Pendrel and Julien Absalon won the races.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to cycling:
The men's cross-country cycling event at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place at Hadleigh Farm on 12 August.
Roger Rinderknecht is a Swiss racing cyclist who represents Switzerland in BMX and mountain bike racing. He was selected to represent Switzerland at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the men's BMX event where he reached the semi-finals. He had previously reached the semi-finals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Barbara Benkó is a Hungarian former cross-country mountain biker. Born in Budapest, Benko competed in the Women's cross-country at the 2012 Summer Olympics, held at Hadleigh Farm, finishing in 27th place.
Daniel McConnell is an Australian cross-country mountain biker. McConnell qualified for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He finished 30th in the men's cross-country event.
The cycling competitions of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro were held at four venues scheduled to host Eighteen events between 6 August and 21 August.
The cycling competitions of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo featured 22 events in five disciplines. The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
