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 2020. Before the 2020 Summer Olympics, all events were speed races, but the 2020 programme featured BMX freestyle for the first time.
Cervélo Cycles is a manufacturer of racing and track bicycles. Cervélo uses CAD, computational fluid dynamics, and wind tunnel testing at a variety of facilities including the San Diego Air and Space Technology Center, in California, US, to aid its designs. Frame materials include carbon fibre. Cervélo currently makes 5 series of bikes: the C series and R series of road bikes, the latter featuring multi-shaped, "Squoval" frame tubes; the S series of road bikes and P series of triathlon/time trial bikes, both of which feature airfoil shaped down tubes; and the T series of track bikes. In professional competition, cyclists have ridden Cervélo bicycles to victory in all three of road cycling's grand tours: the Tour de France; the Giro d'Italia; and the Vuelta a España. In 2023, Cervélo achieved a historic sweep of all three grand tours in a single year.
The UCI Road World Championships are the annual world championships for bicycle road racing organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). The UCI Road World Championships consist of events for road race and individual time trial, and as of 2019, a mixed team relay.
Cycle racing is a popular sport in Belgium. It is governed by the Royal Belgian Cycling League since 1882, which became a founding member of the International Cycling Association in 1892 and later of the Union Cycliste Internationale in 1900. Since 2002, the Royal Belgian Cycling League is composed of the Wielerbond Vlaanderen (WBV), which governs the cycle racing in Flanders and of the Fédération Cycliste Wallonie-Bruxelles (FCWB), which governs the cycle racing in Wallonia and Brussels. Belgium has been one of the major countries in different categories of cycle racing over the years, including road cycling and cyclo-cross. The best Belgian cyclist of all times, Eddy Merckx, nicknamed the Cannibal, has won all of the three grand tours and all of the five monuments of cycling. He also won the UCI Road World Championships three times and set the hour record, among other achievements.
The men's track time trial, a part of the cycling events at the 1928 Summer Olympics, took place at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam. Sixteen cyclists from 16 nations competed. Each nation was limited to one competitor. The distance was 1 kilometre. The race was won by the Danish rider Willy Hansen in 1 minutes, 14.4 seconds. Gerard Bosch van Drakestein of the Netherlands took silver, while Dunc Gray of Australia earned bronze. It was the first medal for each of the three nations in the men's track time trial; none had competed in 1896.
Mathieu van der Poel is a Belgian-born Dutch professional cyclist who rides for the UCI WorldTeam Alpecin–Deceuninck. He competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain biking and road racing disciplines of the sport.
Christophe Laporte is a French professional cyclist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. A sprinter and classics rider, Laporte has taken more than 30 victories during his professional career, including wins in 2023 at Gent–Wevelgem, Dwars door Vlaanderen and the road race at the UEC European Road Championships. He has also won a stage at the 2022 Tour de France, a silver medal in the road race at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships and a bronze medal in the road race at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Wout van Aert is a Belgian professional road and cyclo-cross racer who rides for UCI WorldTeam Visma–Lease a Bike. Van Aert won three consecutive men's races at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Filippo Ganna is an Italian track and road cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers. He is a record-breaking six-time world champion in the individual pursuit, winning a total of nine medals at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships, and part of the Olympic gold medal-winning team in the team pursuit at the 2020 Summer Olympics. He also won the men's individual time trial at the 2020 and 2021 UCI Road World Championships, and four stages in the 2020 Giro d'Italia and two stages in the 2021 Giro d'Italia, setting the record for most consecutive time trials won at the Giro with five. He is the current world record holder in individual pursuit and of the hour record, which he unified with the best human effort since the distinction was first made in 1997.
Daniel John Bigham is a British racing cyclist, who has predominantly competed successfully in individual and team endurance track events, winning gold medals at national, European and world championships.
Remco Evenepoel is a Belgian professional cyclist and Olympic gold medalist who rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step.
Anna Louise Henderson is a British professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's World Tour Team Visma–Lease a Bike. She took a silver medal in the time trial at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
The men's individual road race event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 24 July 2021 on a course starting at Musashinonomori Park in Tokyo, and ending at the Fuji Speedway in Shizuoka Prefecture. 128 cyclists from 57 nations competed, with 85 completing the course.
The men's road time trial event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place on 28 July 2021 around the Fuji Speedway in the Shizuoka Prefecture. 39 cyclists from 31 nations competed in the race, with everyone bar one rider eventually finishing.
The Men's time trial of the 2020 UCI Road World Championships was a cycling event that took place on 25 September 2020 in Imola, Italy. Rohan Dennis was the defending champion. Italy's Filippo Ganna won the event, with Wout van Aert in second place, and Stefan Küng finishing in third.
The Men's time trial of the 2021 UCI Road World Championships was a cycling event that took place on 19 September 2021 in Flanders, Belgium. It was the 28th edition of the championship, for which Filippo Ganna of Italy is the defending champion, having won in 2020. Ganna retained his title after beating Belgian riders Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel.
Joshua Michael Tarling is a Welsh track and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers. A World Junior champion in the time trial, he won the elite time trial at the 2023 European Road Cycling Championships at the age of 19.
Bernard Benyamin Van Aert is an Indonesian road and track cyclist. He won the silver medal in the omnium at the 2022 UCI Track Cycling Nations Cup. Van Aert competed in omnium event at the 2024 Summer Olympics, placing 20th overall.
The men's individual road race event at the 2024 Summer Olympics took place on 3 August 2024 on a course that started at Pont d'Iéna in Paris. Gold medal winner Remco Evenepoel had won the men's time trial event on July 27, making him the only male cyclist to win both the road race and the road time trial at the same Summer Olympic Games. The 273 kilometer course through the streets of Paris was the longest Olympic road race to date.
