Both the road races and time trials at the 2028 Olympics are expected to end in uphill finishes.

The organisers revealed this week that both events will finish outside Los Angeles's Griffith Observatory, one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks, located on the south side of Mount Hollywood, 346m above sea level.

Although the exact route is yet to be unveiled, it is thought the events will end with a 7% incline that lasts around 2km.

The men’s and women’s road races, scheduled for 22 and 23 July, will start at Venice Beach Boardwalk, and are expected to venture into the Santa Monica Mountains, before heading to Griffith Park.

The time trials, to be held on 19 July, will begin and end in the ‘Griffith Park Zone’, with a start at LA Zoo and a finish at Griffith Observatory.

August’s Paralympic events, too, will be held in the same area of the city; the road races, time trials and mixed team relay will all start and finish at LA Zoo.

“In the Griffith Park Zone, Olympic and Paralympic champions will cross iconic finish lines set against recognizable landmarks and stunning views overlooking Los Angeles,” The LA28 organisers said in a statement.

The UCI confirmed the news on Wednesday morning, writing that the "elevated position" of Griffith Observatory "indicates that the athletes will have an uphill finish in their bid for the individual time trial and road race Olympic titles".

The full details of the courses will be published later this year.

At the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the road races were held on a hilly circuit around the city’s Montmartre area, with a flat run-in to the line beneath the Eiffel Tower. Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel won the men’s race solo, while the USA’s Kristen Faulkner attacked late from a breakaway to claim the women’s gold medal.

The time trials in Paris took place on flat 32.4km courses around the city centre, and were won by Evenepoel and Australia’s Grace Brown, also beneath the Eiffel Tower.

As previously announced, the track cycling events at the LA Olympics will take place at the Carson Velodrome, BMX racing and freestyle at the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, and mountain biking at the City of Industry.

Members of the Canadian women’s track squad have expressed their concern and frustration after Cycling Canada pulled the women’s team pursuit from its 2028 Los Angeles Olympics program.

The federation said it will not field a women’s team pursuit squad at this October’s UCI Track World Championships in Shanghai, China, nor will it look to qualify one for LA. It will continue, however, to fund the men’s team pursuit squad throughout the Olympic cycle.

The decision has drawn indignation from members of the women’s program, who have described it as “gut wrenching and infuriating”.

“What has happened this past week is not something I am willing to stand for,” wrote Fiona Majendie, a reserve member of the squad at the Paris Olympics in 2024, on Instagram.

“People will always try and put a ceiling on you. Cycling Canada is not only putting a lid on the women’s program right now, they are burying it beneath the ground, and they are destroying years of equality as well as the future of the sport in Canada for all our developing juniors,” Majendie continued.

“To rip away our chance to qualify for the Olympics is both gut wrenching and infuriating.”

In a statement shared with Cycling Weekly, Cycling Canada CEO Mathieu Boucher explained the decision was “performance-based [...] informed by objective, evidence-based analysis. While difficult, it was made in the best interest of the program’s long-term success.”

Boucher said the squad’s results since Paris 2024 “were not trending towards medal winning potential” in LA. He added that recent performances, both in competition and training, “did not indicate these gaps were likely to be closed in time” for the 2028 Games.

The Canadian women’s team pursuit squad won bronze medals at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In Paris two years ago, they placed eighth, while the men’s squad were seventh.

More recently, the women’s squad finished ninth at the UCI Track World Championships in Santiago, Chile last October. The men’s squad were 11th.

No Canadian man has won an Olympic medal in track cycling since Curt Harnett took bronze in the men’s sprint in 1996.

Last week, members of the women’s track squad addressed an open letter to Cycling Canada, funding provider Sport Canada and not-for-profit organisation Own the Podium, voicing their concerns of a “disparity in access to high-performance opportunities based on gender”, in particular an “unequal pathway to Olympic participation”.

The squad requested a formal review of the decision to curb the program, and asked for it to be reinstated in time for the 2026 UCI Track World Championships in October.

“None of this happened because the athletes stopped caring or stopped working hard enough,” wrote Lily Plante, a squad member for the last six years, on Instagram.

“Like many others on this team, I sacrificed financially, physically, mentally, and personally to represent Canada on the international stage. I paid thousands of dollars out of pocket to race across the world, qualify spots for Worlds, and keep this program alive because I believed in what it could become.

“Behind every result were athletes doing everything they could with what they were given. And that’s exactly why this hurts so much,” Plante continued.

Ariane Bonhomme, a two-time Olympian who won four team pursuit titles at the Pan American Championships with the squad, said she retired in January, aged 30, after receiving an email saying her Sport Canada funding was being withdrawn.

“The decline of this program has nothing to do with the strength, talent, or commitment of the riders. It has everything to do with how the program has been managed over the past several years,” Bonhomme said.

Canada’s women’s endurance squad funding for the LA Olympics will instead go towards the individual events – Omnium and Madison – as well as the wider development pathway.

“We remain committed to the development of the women’s team pursuit program,” Cycling Canada CEO Boucher said.

“We are taking deliberate steps to strengthen athlete development moving forward. Targeted investments, in collaboration with the cycling ecosystem, will support future growth through key opportunities, including the Junior Track World Championships (August 2026), the Apeldoorn Next Gen Track event (January 2027), the Pan American Championships (February 2027), and the Milton World Cup (April 2027).”

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Katie Archibald has called time on a 13-year racing career that has made her one of the most decorated track cyclists of all time, it was announced on Tuesday.

The 32-year-old, who joined the Great Britain Cycling Team (GBCT) aged 19, won more than 50 medals across her career, including two Olympic golds, seven world titles and a record 21 European titles.

She retires as the reigning Madison world champion and European team pursuit champion, both honours she has won since beginning training to become a nurse last year.

“After 13 years competing on the international stage, and a lifetime competing against my big brother, I’ve decided to retire from the former,” Archibald said.

“Being part of the GBCT has meant being part of something bigger than myself, and it’s been a true honour to race my bike alongside the best in the country.”

Raised in Milngavie, Scotland, Archibald’s competitive introduction to cycling came in grass track in 2011, before she moved to the wooden boards of Edinburgh’s outdoor Meadowbank Velodrome.

Her first major medal was bronze in the points race at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Two years later, she won her first Olympic title in the team pursuit at the 2016 Rio Games; her second in 2021 was history-making, as she and Laura Kenny became the first female Olympic Madison champions, after the event was introduced to the Games in Tokyo. That victory is considered to be one of the most resounding ever, with more than double the points of second place.

Archibald missed her title defence at the Paris Olympics in 2024 due to a broken leg. She had previously said she wanted to compete at the Commonwealth Games this summer, and the LA Olympics in 2028.

In quotes shared by British Cycling, Archibald said the “draw of the ‘real world’” had been pulling her for a while, but she had been too afraid to leave cycling.

“Now is the right time simply because I’m not scared anymore,” she said. “I can’t claim to know why that is, but for some reason I only have a craving to live the life I’ve been saving for a rainy day, and no fear that I’ll miss the sunshine. It’s simply time.

“In the early stages of my career, I was sure I would never willingly walk away. I’ve been born in the right place at the right time with a talent that’s let me make a job of something people do for fun – that’s wild. I felt that giving this up before it was ripped from my hands would be irrational.

“At some point, though, I realised no one was going to rip it from my hands. I realised the decision would have to be mine, and I’ve found that truth quite hard to handle.”

Last September, Archibald began training as a nurse alongside her role within the GB squad. She completed her first placement earlier this year, and said she has “fallen completely in love with the whole thing”.

“When I let my friends and teammates know I was retiring from sport, they assumed it was because I wasn’t coping doing both,” she said. “The truth is, though, that there’s still a lot of ‘student’ in ‘student nurse’. I’ve had plenty of free time to train, and most of my classmates have jobs and families and commitments more taxing than mine.

“I really want to stress that the nursing training isn’t forcing me into retirement. At the same time, this thing that I’m just enamoured with is making me excited for the future, and that makes this transition less scary.”

Archibald leaves a legacy as one of the greatest endurance riders in track cycling history, and a leading figure in Great Britain’s success over the last decade.

Having represented Australia on the world stage at four Olympics and three Commonwealth Games, winning multiple medals along the way, track rider Matthew Glaetzer has made public his decision to retire from cycling to join the fire service in his home state of South Australia.

Now 33, Glaetzer enjoyed a glittering career at the top of the sport with the Australian Cycling Team, and has stood on the podium at the Summer Olympics twice, winning two bronze medals at the Paris Games in 2024, for the team sprint and the keirin.

His Olympic odyssey began at the London Games in 2012, when Glaetzer was part of the Australian team sprint selection that finished fourth in the bronze medal final, losing out to Germany. Further frustration followed in Rio in 2016, when he came away with two fourth place finishes, in the team sprint and sprint, and again at Tokyo 2020, where Australia finished fourth in the team sprint and Glaetzer placed fifth in the keirin.

After repeatedly coming so close to the Olympic podium only to narrowly miss out, Glaetzer, described earning his first bronze medal in Paris as being “like a gold to me”.

Those fourth-place finishes and bronze medals at the Olympics only tell half the story, though, with Glaetzer having overcome serious health issues to achieve a monumental amount during his 15-year cycling career.

After exhibiting prodigious talent as a junior, Glaetzer joined the senior Australian Cycling Team at the age of 18 in 2011, at the UCI Track World Championships, where he earned a bronze. He would go on to win multiple more medals at the World Champs, including three golds and four silvers, and he has five gold and two bronze Commonwealth Game medals on his mantlepiece too.

And all this despite a shock thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2019. Glaetzer returned to racing just a month after undergoing surgery for the condition, incredibly getting on the podium at the UCI Track World Cups in Cambridge and Brisbane, and winning selection for the Australian team for Tokyo 2020.

Now, though, he has decided to head in a completely new direction. “After more than a decade on the world stage, it’s time to close this chapter,” Glaetzer announced on Instagram on Wednesday.

"As many would know, I have been working towards a new career as a firefighter and this year I have been fortunate to commence full-time employment in that role,” he told media. “With this transition, I’m formally announcing that I am retiring from the sport to which I have dedicated the past 15 years of my life.”

American track, gravel and road cyclist Taylor Phinney has announced his return to racing, seven years after retiring from the sport.

The 2009 individual pursuit track world champion is returning to the discipline, aiming for a spot on the US pursuit team ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

"What started as a return to gravel racing has delicately snowballed into a full on Olympic dream," Phinney wrote on Instagram on Tuesday.

"The track was where I first found love and success in this sport, it was even the first discipline to break my heart when my specialty event, the individual pursuit, was removed from the Olympic program, which prompted me to swiftly abandon the track and go all in on the road," the post continued.

Phinney’s transition to the road had resulted in both triumph and catastrophe. At the 2012 Giro d'Italia, he became the third American to wear the maglia rosa after winning the opening TT stage. A trio of US national TT titles soon followed, but his promising charge was temporarily curtailed by a crash at the 2014 US national championships. There he sustained two breaks in the lower left leg and a knee injury after crashing into a guardrail.

After a dominant year, winning the Tour of Dubai and collecting a stage victory in the Tour of California and the US time trial, he was taken out of the Tour de France squad and into a year of rehabilitation. His official retirement announcement came five years later, when he was just 29: "I feel like my body sort of made this choice for me," he said at the time. "I've now been injured longer than I've not been injured as a professional athlete."

Phinney’s latest comeback began back in November, when training for the team first began. Pushed by his Tour de France Femmes-winning wife, Kasia Niewiadoma, and by his own family’s Olympic legacy. The last time the Olympic Games were held in LA was in 1984, when his mother, Connie Carpenter-Phinney, won gold in the road race. "The seed started to grow and before I knew it all I could think of was closing this final loop in my cycling career," he wrote.

While the transition back into a team environment has been smooth so far, the 35-year-old admitted that he’s got a lot of hard work in the gym ahead of him.

"Regardless of whether I make the official team for LA28 or not, I’m honored to be in the running and will look forward to making some World Cup teams to elevate the team to its highest potential and Olympic qualifying position!"

Other sporting federations could give the thumbs-up to cyclo-cross and cross-country running for participation in the 2030 Games if their governing bodies don't seek remuneration for it, according to reports in Belgian media.

The multiple world governing bodies of the Winter Olympic Federations group, including those presiding over skating, skiing and biathlon, had already voiced objections to the inclusion of the new sports, on the grounds that they lacked the requisite 'snow and ice' ingredients.

However, those federations have now said they could agree to the involvement of cyclo-cross and cross-country in the 2030 Winter Olympics, which will be held in the French Alps, on the proviso that neither the UCI nor the IAAF (International Athletics Federation) sought to claim any money for it, reports Het Nieuwsblad.

Doing so would see the fees distributed by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to participating federations potentially diluted, suggesting that objections to the expansion of the Games are rooted more in money than in maintaining the 'snow and ice' tradition.

The previous statement from the Winter Olympic Federations in November labelled the attempt to include the news sports "piecemeal proposals" that would "dilute the [Winter Olympics] brand".

“The Winter Olympic Federations are firm in our belief that such an approach would dilute the brand, heritage, and identity that make the Olympic Winter Games unique — a celebration of sports practiced on snow and ice, with distinct culture, athletes, and fields of play,” said the group of sports, which include skiing, skating, biathlon, curling, luge, bobsled and skeleton.

A decision was originally set to be made on the new sports this month, but has since been pushed back until June.

IOC member Lord Coe, who is a supporter of introducing the two new sports along with UCI president David Lappartient, said back in October that "there’s a good chance it’ll happen. And I think it’s come at the right moment, because [IOC president] Kirsty Coventry is certainly prepared to think differently about the programme....”

Great Britain national cyclo-cross coach Matt Ellis told Cycling Weekly at the time: "From a GB perspective it's massively exciting – It would, I believe, dramatically change everything."

Top British rider Cameron Mason added: "I know what [Olympic inclusion] means. I know what money comes with it, I know what resources come with it and I know the hype that comes with. Even from the view of the public, I know what it brings," he said. "For a niche sport like cyclo-cross, there's [even] more to be gained from it, because it's just an unknown sport in the UK."

Four-time Olympic medallist Jack Carlin has announced his retirement from cycling at the age of 28.

The track sprinter was part of Great Britain’s squad for 10 years, and went to the Tokyo and Paris Olympic Games, winning silver in the team sprint and bronze in the individual sprint at both.

Carlin’s decision to retire comes as he feels he’s not willing to “give that 100%” to be competitive for the current Olympic cycle to Los Angeles 2028.

Following the Paris Olympics last summer, he said in a press conference this week: “I took a bit of time away to try and find that fire and urge to go again for another four years… and the motivation never came back to really feel like I could throw myself back into it for another long period of time, to give it my all.

“Looking back at my career, you can win or lose things by thousands of a second, and if I wasn’t going to give that 100%, which I don’t feel I have to give, I don’t think it’s worth doing. I think I’d be doing myself a disservice, the people around me a disservice, and also the jersey a disservice.”

Born in Paisley, on the outskirts of Glasgow, Carlin grew up playing football, but fractured both of his ankles when he was 14. He then got into riding mountain and road bikes, before realising he “wasn’t very good in the wet and cold, which isn’t ideal for Scotland, and I’m not very good up hills, so the second the warmth of the [Sir Chris Hoy] Velodrome opened in 2012, it was a no brainer for me.”

Inspired by the Commonwealth Games in his home city in 2014, the Scot joined the GB senior academy two years later, still a teenager, and has since collected four Olympic medals, six World Championships medals, six European Championships medals, and three Commonwealth Games medals, all either silver or bronze.

His final competitive appearance came in the keirin final of the Paris Olympics last August, in which he crashed and injured his hip.

“I am content and truly happy with my career. It’s been 10 years within a high performance role at [British Cycling], and I’ve achieved so much within that and I’m content with that. I thought at that point, ‘What else is there to chase, when I don’t have 100% of me to give to it anymore?’” he said.

“If I was to look back and say to 18-year-old Jack, ‘Listen, you’re going to walk away in 10 years’ time with four Olympic medals around your neck…’ I think I would have bit your hand off for that.”

It’s remembering his younger self that Carlin begins to imagine the legacy he hopes to leave in the sport.

“I sold my Xbox for rollers when I was a kid. My parents sold one of the cars for a set of wheels so that I could actually compete with others that might have had more money to give to their kids. But what my parents gave me, and what I’ve learned from them, is they gave me a lot of their time, they gave me a kind of unwavering self belief, even when I didn’t have it sometimes,” he said.

“I think if I can inspire a kid from a similar background to me to really try and give it a go, and inspire others to help those people achieve what they want to achieve, the way I got helped, that would be massive.”

The Commonwealth Games return to Glasgow next year. Although the event was once an enticing prospect for Carlin, it is one he has ultimately decided to forego.

“I’m totally hanging up my helmet,” he stressed. “I’m not 100% in it anymore. If I want to represent my country and have that jersey on my back, have the honour of having that jersey on my back, whether that’s Scotland or GB, I want to make sure that I’m giving it everything I can… and I decided I wasn’t ready to do that.”

Carlin’s coach and former team-mate Sir Jason Kenny said the Scot’s retirement leaves a “performance gap” in the GB sprint squad.

“I know all his former team-mates and support staff would join me in wishing him all the best with his future endeavours,” Kenny said, “along with his golf handicap!”

A pro-doping alternative to the Olympics has been condemned as “irresponsible” and “immoral”, with leading athlete commissions raising concerns about the possibility of deaths.

The Enhanced Games, a sporting event that allows competitors to take performance-enhancing drugs, is scheduled to take place for the first time next May in Las Vegas, USA. It will include three sports in its first year – sprinting, swimming and weightlifting – with cycling slated to follow in year three.

In a joint statement published on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) athletes commissions criticised the concept, calling it “a betrayal of everything that we stand for”.

“As athletes, we believe that the Enhanced Games or any events encouraging the use of performance-enhancing substances and methods are a betrayal of everything that we stand for,” the statement read.

“Most importantly, these events undermine the integrity of sport, and the responsibility athletes hold as role models in society. Promoting performance-enhancing substances and methods sends a dangerous message – especially to current and future generations of athletes.”

The statement went on to warn about “long-term health consequences” of doping, saying the substances can lead to “even death”.

“Encouraging athletes to use them is utterly irresponsible and immoral. No level of sporting success is worth such a cost," the commissions said.

“We stand firmly together for the values of fair play, ethical behaviours and respect – principles that have shaped our journey and that we believe should guide and inspire the next generation of athletes. We will do everything we can to protect the integrity of sport for generations to come.”

The Enhanced Games is a privately-funded competition, founded by Australian businessman Aron d’Souza in a mission to “build a new superhumanity”.

D’Souza told Cycling Weekly last year that it was a “classic misconception to say that performance-enhancing drugs are unsafe – it’s hysteria”.

Asked about the inclusion of cycling events, d’Souza said it “doesn’t make sense now from an economic standpoint”, but that some of the main Olympic cycling disciplines – time trial, road racing and track – were scheduled to be on the programme in future years.

Athletes who compete in the Enhanced Games, and take performance-enhancing substances, will undergo medical screenings.

Kristen Faulkner is a double Olympic gold medallist and US national road champion. A former varsity rower, then venture capitalist, Faulkner only began riding a road bike in 2017. She turned pro in 2020, and currently rides for EF Education-Oatly. In 2024, she won the road race at the Paris Olympics, and three days later, won gold in the team pursuit on the track with her US teammates.

What was your first bike?

I think it was from Walmart and it was like a hardtail, a mountain bike without suspension, one of those big ones with flat handlebars and flat pedals. I think it cost $300 and I worked all summer as a housekeeper, cleaning toilets, so that I could buy it. I was so excited when I got it, I rode around town every day with my friend and I would ride around aimlessly, I had nowhere to go. I would ride to Pick-N-Pay, and I’d ride to the grocery store, but I didn’t even buy anything. I would just walk around the aisles. I’m from a small town in Alaska, so for me, the bike as a kid was a way to feel independent and like an adult.

Did you follow pro cycling when you were growing up?

No, I wasn’t into professional cycling until I started racing my bike after college. I had heard of the Tour de France back when Lance Armstrong was the heyday of American cycling, but I didn’t follow it besides that.

What other sports did you do?

I went to boarding high school in Massachusetts, and I was a swimmer and a runner. We had to do three trimesters, and we had to do a different sport every trimester – that was school policy. I ran cross country in the fall, I was a swimmer in the winter, and then in the spring, I decided I might as well try a New England sport, so I went into rowing and I really enjoyed it. I was really good at it.

Harvard had a really amazing rowing program, so it was a pretty easy decision to row in college. I rowed freshman year and senior year in the lightweight and heavyweight teams, and then competed in the Junior National Championships and World Championships, and placed second when I was 17. After college, I actually considered training for the Olympics for rowing, but it was really hard to fit that in with my job. I took some years off rowing, thinking that I would go back and prepare for the 2020 Olympics, but during that time I fell in love with cycling.

You were 24 when you bought your first road bike. What inspired you to take up cycling?

I was living in New York City and I really missed being part of a team sport from college. I was waking up every morning, going to the gym on the elliptical, going on a run, and I just felt that I missed the camaraderie and the community aspect of sports that had always been a pillar of my life.

My boyfriend at the time had this hand-me-down bike in his apartment, and he said, “Just borrow the bike. There’s a group ride, a community ride.” He was the one who urged me to go to this introductory women’s cycling clinic that was in Central Park. So I borrowed the bike – it was way too big for me, I think it had pedals you were supposed to clip into but I wore sneakers, and I showed up having no idea what I was doing. Once I went there, I was hooked. I loved it so much and never looked back. From that very first day, I just wanted to be as good as I could be.

When did the thought of turning pro really take hold?

The idea was there quite early. There was a woman, Evie Stevens, who had gone through the same cycling club in New York City, and she started cycling after college, really late. She went pro in Europe, and she was racing and was quite successful – she won Flèche Wallonne. When I won my very first race in Central Park, which maybe was a month into learning to clip in, there were some racers who said, “Oh, you’re the next Evie Stevens”. And I was like, "Who’s Evie Stevens?" Then I looked her up and I was like, "Wow this girl’s professional." I saw it as something that was possible. I didn’t think of it as something that was likely, but it gave me something to work towards, and to dream about from the very beginning.

At the time, you were working in venture capital. Are there any principles you’ve taken from that career and brought it into your approach to cycling?

So many things. The first one is being comfortable with taking risks. When I started cycling, a lot of people were really nervous to attack and go solo for these long-range attacks. For me, I have no problem with failure. If I attack and it doesn’t work out, I’ll try next time. It doesn’t phase me at all, it doesn’t hurt my ego. I think that because I spent my career investing in really high-risk start-ups, where many failed and many were wildly successful. I took that approach to racing: if I fail five times that’s fine, as long as I win a race eventually. It’s just about shots on goal.

The other one was the really interesting dynamic of being both an individual and a team. In venture capital, you work at a company, and usually the way it works is you get a certain percentage of the deals that you do, but you also get a return on deals that your team does. So you’re highly incentivised to be the best you can be, but also to help your teammates be the best they can be. Similarly, you have to work with other firms sometimes on a deal, because you might both be investors in a deal. You see that dynamic play out a lot in cycling.

Is there one race in particular that you look back on as a turning point in your career?

My very first stage in Europe, when I won a stage in Ardèche [in 2020]. I soloed to victory on stage four, and I had never raced in Europe before, so that was really big for me for a few reasons. The first thing was, as soon as I came to Europe, I got a taste of what it feels like to win, and that’s when I was like, "Wow, I really want to go win more races. I want to win bigger races." But it also told me that I belonged here. The second thing is that I won solo. It was in that race that my director told me to go away solo. At the time I thought, "Why? How could I possibly make it? I’m a beginner in Europe and I’m against all these amazing riders." When I went away solo, that kind of became my way to win from then on.

What is the proudest moment of your career?

Winning the Olympics. I remember hugging my parents and my little brother at the finish line – that was incredibly meaningful to me. My parents live in Alaska and it’s really hard for them to travel. They run a summer hotel, and it’s really busy in the summer, so for them to come over here and watch my race is really, really hard. It’s a really big deal and a sacrifice for them to come over. It’s not only far for them, but it also takes time away from their business, which is their income. Having them there to support me at the finish line was hugely meaningful for me.

What else would you like to achieve in your career?

I’m still figuring that out. I definitely have some smaller goals that I’m working towards in the near term: I want to win a stage at the Tour de France. I’ve won a stage at the Vuelta [Femenina], I’ve won a stage at the Giro [d’Italia Donne], but I need to kind of complete the triplet and win a stage at the Tour. At some point in the next few years, I’d like to win Strade Bianche and Milan San-Remo – those are my two favourite races on the calendar. I’d like to get on the podium at the World Championships in the time trial. I’d also like to win another two gold medals at the LA Olympics.

What do you like doing outside of cycling?

I love reading, I’m a huge reader. I’m currently writing a book about my cycling career, so that takes up a bit of time. I like going on date nights with my boyfriend, and I love to cook. I’m always looking at new recipes. I love to cook really healthy food, I try to find really healthy recipes that taste really good. I love doing an Asian stir fry – recently, I’ve been doing a lot of beef and broccoli. I also love to spend time outdoors during the off-season. I’ll go on a week-long hike, camping in the woods. That’s my happy place.

Kristen Faulkner's team, EF Education-Oatly, is sponsored by Wahoo. Go behind the scenes of the American's first race as Olympic champion with Wahoo's Embrace Every Moment series, available now on YouTube.

Cycling will once again receive the most funding of any sport for the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic cycle, as UK Sport declares its largest investment to date for the Los Angeles Games in 2028.

Announced today, cycling has been awarded £38,950,000 of the overall £330 million pot for the 2025-2029 funding period.

This will be split into £30,125,000 for the Olympic cycling squad and £8,825,000 for the Paralympic squad, both housed within British Cycling. As a result, each programme is set to receive a boost of almost £1 million compared to the funding for Paris 2024, a previous best.

“We’re incredibly pleased with the funding award,” said Stephen Park, performance director of the Great Britain Cycling Team. “With the continued support of UK Sport, we are able to support the maximum number of athletes to train full-time across the seven Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, with the ultimate aim of delivering world-beating performances.

“Our ongoing partnership with UK Sport and this funding commitment for the next four years through to LA 2028 will allow our athletes to continue to inspire the nation to experience the joy of cycling for themselves and increase the social impact that they can provide in their communities, both on and off the bike.”

The money allocated is drawn from National Lottery and Government funding. It will go towards supporting all aspects of the Great Britain Cycling Team, including equipment development and competition costs across road, track, mountain bike and BMX over the next four years.

Dr Kate Baker, UK Sport's director of performance and people, hailed the funding announcement as the body’s “greatest investment to date”.

“Following the spectacular performances of Team GB and ParalympicsGB in Paris this summer, it’s so important for us to be able to keep the momentum going as we head into the LA cycle,” Baker said.

Since UK Sport funding began in 1997, Team GB has topped the Olympic medal table in cycling four times – in Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo.

Team GB finished fifth overall in cycling events in Paris, winning 11 medals, of which two gold – one in cross-country mountain bike through Tom Pidcock and the other in the women’s team sprint on the track, thanks to Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant. The Paralympics squad finished third in the cycling medal table, finishing on a tally of 22, including nine gold.

The next best funded sports for the LA Olympics are aquatics (£28,750,000), rowing (£24,850,000) and sailing (£23,950,000). Para athletics will receive the highest Paralympic allocation with £9,800,000.

These figures do not include the salary grants given to athletes, which are paid directly in the form of Athlete Performance Awards (APAs).

Double Olympic silver medallist Matthew Richardson has been effectively banned for life from representing the Australia national squad, following his nationality swap this August.

The track sprinter, who represented Australia at the Paris Olympics this summer, switched his racing nationality to Great Britain following the Games. The 25-year-old was born in Maidstone, Kent, but moved to Australia with his family when he was nine years old.

Since his nationality swap announcement in August, Richardson has been under investigation by AusCycling, Australia’s national body. The country has now finalised its review, concluding the sprinter “acted in a way which conflicted with the values of AusCycling, the Australian National Team and the broader cycling community”, and banning him from ever rejoining the squad.

The ban bears no impact on Richardson's ability to represent GB.

Richardson began talks with GB about switching nationality in February 2024, when he approached the squad’s head coach at a UCI Nations Cup round in Adelaide. He then kept the news secret from his Australian coaches and teammates, who found out moments before the official announcement was made on 19 August.

According to AusCycling, prior to the announcement, Richardson asked to take his custom race bike, cockpit and Olympic skinsuit to Great Britain. “This represented an unacceptable risk to AusCycling’s intellectual property,” the national body wrote in a statement, released today.

AusCycling has now imposed three sanctions on Richardson: he is not allowed to rejoin the Australian Cycling Team “at any point in the future”; he is “prohibited” from using any of the team’s, including its partners’, resources; and he is ineligible for AusCycling awards.

AusCycling also looked into imposing a two-year non-competition clause, but found it to be “legally unenforceable”. UCI rules stipulate that a rider cannot compete in the immediate World and Continental Championships after a nationality swap, meaning Richardson is eligible to represent GB following the European Championships in mid-February.

The track sprinter made his debut in GB colours, as an independent rider, at the UCI Track Champions League in Paris on Saturday night, where he won two events from two, and took the lead in the series. He is considered to be among the top two best track sprinters in the world, alongside the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysen.

“I was really trying to soak in the experience,” said Richardson of his debut race as a Brit. “When the announcer called my name representing Great Britain, it was such a special feeling. It’s a dream come true really and to win every single race tonight was more than I could have ever wished for.”

Commenting on today’s AusCycling ruling, the squad’s executive general manager of performance, Jesse Korf, said: “These decisions underscore AusCycling’s adherence to the values of the Australian National Team and our broader commitment to the principle of  Win Well.

“Integrity, respect and trust are foundational to our team and organisation, and we remain focused on fostering an environment that upholds these standards.”

Cycling Weekly contacted British Cycling for comment on this story, but the national body chose not to provide one.

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A serial winner on the road, it might be time to get used to seeing Lorena Wiebes winning inside the velodrome, too.

The Dutchwoman competed in, and won, her first international track event at the UCI Track World Championships on Wednesday evening, holding off three-time Olympic champion Jennifer Valente (USA) in the scratch race.

The victory brought a career-first rainbow jersey for Wiebes, across all disciplines, as she plots a path towards the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.

Is she thinking about racing track at the next Games? “Yes that’s possible,” she told Cycling Weekly.

Although best known for her road sprinting exploits, the 25-year-old has won nine national track titles, three of which came in the scratch race. The event is not in the Olympic programme, but comes within the four-part Omnium, alongside the tempo, elimination and points races.

“The Omnium event is completely different to only the scratch race,” Wiebes said. “We have to see what’s coming these next couple of years. Maybe I first need to ride a full Omnium to fully decide what I want.

“I don’t really like the elimination race. That’s a big thing,” she laughed. “I have four years to get used to it, so we will see what the future brings. It’s somewhere on my mind.”

The Dutchwoman hovered near the back of the pack for most of her Track Worlds debut in Ballerup, Denmark. When the bell rang to signal the final lap of the 40-lap race, she darted to the front, putting three bike lengths into her rivals. She then bowed and shook her head in disbelief as she came across the line victorious.

“I expected that somebody will pass me still in the last lap, so that was surprising,” Wiebes said. “We did race scenarios during training, and we knew that if I was leading with one lap to go, it will be ideal for me. But it was really also instinct.

“I said to the coach before, ‘We need to do it through instinct, and not think too much, because anything can happen.’ I found a good wheel, and I felt with one and a half laps to go, I needed to start moving up more to the front. It worked out perfectly.”

Wiebes was only down for one event at this year's Track Worlds, meaning she now leaves with a 100% record. Her brief appearance, she explained, came because of proximity to her last road race, the Simac Ladies Tour, where she won three stages and the points classification.

“It was so close after Simac that you can have only a few days of rest, only spinning the legs. For me, it’s quite an ideal preparation. I didn’t have to do any training anymore, just keep the shape and continue to the next event,” she said.

Can we expect to see her racing more on the track in the future, as her SD Worx-Protime teammate Lotte Kopecky does? “We have to see if it’s possible with the road programme, of course. I’d like to show this jersey in some scratch races next year,” she said. “It’s possible, but you have to find a good balance for it.”

The Omnium is a one-day event at the Track World Championships in Copenhagen with a focus on endurance events over the four-race-long discipline. The men's event takes place on Saturday, 19 October and the women's takes place the day before on Friday, 18 October.

Track World Championships 2024 cycling: OMNIUM

The Omnium sees individual riders take part in multiple events that take place over one day.

The defending champions are Jennifer Valente of the United States in the women's event, and Iúri Leitão in the men's equivalent.

Originally, the Omnium was a six-race event, which included the Scratch Race, Individual Pursuit, Elimination Race, 1km Time Trial, Flying Lap, and Points Race.

However, since 2016, the format has changed to remove the timed events and focus on the Scratch, Elimination and Points races as well as the inclusion of the Tempo race. All these events are mass participation, and favour endurance riders.

The Scratch is the first round and is takes on 10km for the men and 7.5km for the women. It is a mass participation event with every rider taking part in the Omnium racing, almost like a road race in a velodrome. 

The first rider across the line wins, simple.

The second event in the Omnium is the Tempo race. The races last for 10km in the men's race and 7.5km in the women's. This has a similar format to the Madison except riders do not team-up. 

Just one point is awarded to the first rider to cross the line each lap from the end of the fifth lap. However, if a rider gains a lap, they will take 20 points. On the flip side, if they lose a lap they will lose 20 points. Simple, right?

The third event is the Elimination Race. Every two laps from the start there is a sprint, the last rider to cross the line is eliminated leaving a handful of riders to sprint for the line in the final lap. This favours riders with nerves of steel and the craftiness to be able to not use too much energy.

Bringing the Omnium to a close is the points race. 

To make it sound as simple as possible, the race is a long one, 25km for the men and 20km for the women. There is a sprint every 10 laps with five, three, two, and one points available each time for the top four riders, and then 10, six, four, and two points at the finish.

Much like in the Tempo race, riders are awarded 20 points when taking a lap and deducted 20 for losing one. This is the main way of gaining points on rivals and often can swing the whole event on its head in the final few laps.

The winner of the Omnium medals is determined by who has the highest scores after the final event. In the unlikely event of a tie the Points race final sprint placings decide who takes the medal home. 

Making its return at the Track World Championships 2024 in Copenhagen, the Madison is a popular event in the velodrome and has attracted some of the biggest names in cycling to compete over the years. The events will take place between 9 to 10 August.

Track World Championships 2024 cycling: Madison

The Madison sees teams of two take to the track in a mass rolling start. Each team must have just one rider racing at one time though with the riders performing a hand sling to throw their team-mate into the action for a lap or two while the other rests.

The aim is to take more laps than your opponents by pushing out in front either on your own or with other teams to then get back to the rear of the leading main bunch. This can become confusing as often races can be split all over the track and some may think they have made the lap but in fact need to make it through another group of riders.

If you take a lap you gain 20 points on your rivals with riders who lose a lap getting a deduction of 20 points.

It isn't all about laps though as the riders also have to battle for sprint points too. This could be decisive if riders are tied on laps at the end of the race. If they are level after this then it will be based on where the riders placed in the final sprint.

The sprint points available are five, three, two and one point(s) with a whistle blown to indicate that the lap is a sprint lap. A bell will ring for the start of the final lap of the race. Sprint points are doubled on the final lap.

Riders who are racing should stay as close to the bottom of the track as possible and rider changes should also happen low on the track below the 'stayers line' on the track. This is the zone between the black and red lines in the bottom half of the track.

The change is often a hand-sling but a push is also allowed if the former is not possible.

Once a rider has done the rider should move as high up on the track as they can to avoid disrupting the racing below them.

If one of the two riders in a team suffers a mechanical or crashes they will be allowed to rejoin the race but it must be within two laps. This will leave the other rider on their own. Sometimes the chief commissaire will pair the rider off with another team.

The current world champions are Neah Evans and Elinor Barker of Great Britain in the women's event and Jan Willem van Schip and Yoeri Havik of the Netherlands in the men's.

The race is named after the first event in Madison Square Garden in New York but is known by different names around the world. In France, it is known as the Course à l'Américaine and as Americana in Spain and Italy.

The keirin is one of the more unique events of the Track World Championships cycling line-up, and returns to the Worlds in Copenhagen this year.

Track World Championships 2024: What is the keirin?

The keirin heralds from Japan, where professional keirin racing is the equivalent of horse racing, drawing in huge crowds to gamble on the outcome.

The riders, many of whom are millionaires from their earnings in the sport, live in schools away from any members of the public who may want to influence the outcome of the races. The common misconception is that keirin means fight – actually it means 'racing wheels'.

Although the length of Japanese keirin varies, in the Olympics the keirin is one for the sprinters. The riders line up side-by-side on the pursuit line and jump in behind the pacer's bike, commonly called a derny, as it comes past. The riders' starting position is determined by drawing lots beforehand. Position number one is at the bottom of the track and that rider should take the spot directly behind the pacer unless another rider beats them to it.

From here riders will use a variety of tactics; leading from the front, sitting in the wheels, or leaving it late with a burst of speed.

Expert opinion – Sir Chris Hoy

“The race is six riders on bicycles, it’s a two and a half lap sprint and the race begins when the pace bike swings off. The pace, or derny bike, is a way of keeping the bunch together, it’s like a pace car in motor sport.

"So basically the race doesn’t begin until the bike swings off, then it’s two and a half laps of everyone going hell for leather. It’s simple – you’re trying to cross the line first – but then there’s five or six other riders all trying to do the same.

"Therefore there’s always an element of bumping and barging to get there, but it’s fast, high speed and exciting, and occasionally there are crashes. Tactics will depend on the type of race it is. Sometimes it will be a flat out sprint for two and a half laps, while other times there’ll be a bit of hesitation, but no more than half a lap of waiting before the first rider will go for it."

"If you hit it the front hard, with a lap and a half to go, then not many folk will get round you. It’s about timing your attack correctly and holding on to the line. You have a plan A, and a plan B if they don’t work you ride on instinct and react to the situation around you.”

Track World Championships keirin schedule

Thursday, 17 October
1pm-4pm BST

Men's keirin: first round, repechages, and second round

5.30pm-9pm BST

Men's keirin: third round, 7-12 final, 1-6 final

Sunday, 20 October
10am-11.30am BST

Women's keirin: first round and repechages

12.30pm-4pm BST

Women's keirin: second round, third round, 7-12 final, 1-6 final

Great Britain's Emma Finucane took bronze in the women's keirin at the Paris Olympics on Thursday evening, as the Welsh rider was pipped to gold by Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand) and Hetty van de Wouw (Netherlands).

The 21-year-old, already an Olympic gold medallist in the team sprint, did not have the legs to round Andrews, the world champion in the event, and was overtaken by Van de Wouw at the death.

Her team sprint colleague, Katy Marchant, finished fourth in the same event. 

Finucane's bronze, GB's 51st of the games, is the second for the young rider on her Olympic debut. She had qualified for the final by finishing second in the quarter finals, and then third in the semis, only just scraping through.

Andrews led from the front in the final, with the five other riders unable to challenge her. As Finuncane tried to challenge at the end of the two-and-a-half laps of racing, Van de Wouw rounded her. Marchant, meanwhile, beat Emma Hinze (Germany) and Daniela Gaxiola Gonzalez (Mexico) into fourth.

"Going up in that final and scraping through the semi, I knew I had to find something in my legs that I hadn’t seen before," Finucane told the BBC.

"Ellesse [Andrews] is world champion, she has demonstrated today that she is so strong. All of the other girls in that final, we’re the strongest girls in the world that’s why we are in the Olympic final. And to even be there next to one of my best friends Katy [Marchant] was such a ‘pinch me’ moment.

"To get a bronze medal, it literally feels like gold to me because I left everything out there on the track. If you told me a year ago I’d be coming to the Olympics and getting a gold in track sprint and then bronze in keirin, I would’ve been like ‘no way’ but here I am."

Benjamin Thomas wins men's omnium

Meanwhile, Benjamin Thomas of France overcame a crash in the points race to hang onto gold, France's first on the track at their home Olympics. The Frenchman won the scratch race, finished 11th in the tempo race, then came second in the elimination event, meaning he went into the final points race as the favourite.

The points race swung multiple ways, but Thomas was always ready to take control, even when he crashed late on. Able to remount, the 28-year-old quickly regained the lead in the race, and despite a late attempt from Portugal's Iúri Leitão, could not be prevented from winning. Fabio van den Bossche of Belgium held off a surge from Albert Torres to take bronze. Leitão's medal was Portugal's first ever track accolade.

The tempo race had been won by Van den Bossche, before the elimination race was taken by Ethan Hayter of Great Britain, which suggested a podium challenge was on from the Londoner. However, after failing to make a significant impact in the final event, Hayter finished eighth overall.

GB's Jack Carlin through to sprint semi-final

There was almost an upset in the men's sprint quarter-finals, as it briefly looked like GB's Hamish Turnbull might knock out a member of the dominant Dutch sprint squad, Jeffrey Hoogland. However, the latter overcame a loss in the first race to make it through to the semis.

In heat four, GB's Jack Carlin was also up against it after Kaiya Ota of Japan looked like he had taken an unassailable lead in the best-of-three event, however, Ota was relegated in the second race, and Carlin pipped him in the final. It means the Scottish sprinter is through to the semi-finals.

Through with the Scot was Hoogland, Dutch world champion Harrie Lavreysen, and Australia's Matthew Richardson. Carlin will go up against the might of Lavreysen in the first heat on Friday afternoon.

The track sprint (match sprint or just sprint) is a regular event at the Olympic Games and will feature again for men and women at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The sprint has been in the Games in every edition aside from 1904 for the men, with women competing since 1988.

Here's what you need to know about the sprint at the Olympic Games.

Olympic cycling: Track sprint

The principle of the track sprint is clinically simple – two riders race off over three laps to see who is fastest.

In practice, the riders take part in what can seem a bizarre stalemate, watching each other carefully and waiting for the other to make the first move – until the sprint bursts into life in the closing stages.

In the early stages of the event riders will often move up to the top of the track to try and force the other into the lead (and gain an aerodynamic advantage behind when the sprint starts), even coming to a complete stop in a track stand.

The race commissaire will warn the riders if they hold the track stand for too long, at which point they will begin rolling again (albeit usually quite slowly).

The race will then kick-off, usually in the last lap, when one of the riders begins making their charge for the line. The leading rider will often accelerate first to try and gap the chasing rider. The rider in second wheel will have an aerodynamic advantage and will try to come round the leading rider in the final bend or straight. The leading rider however can hug the tightest inside line on the track to create the shortest distance, or can move further up to force their opponent wider (and therefore a further distance around the track).

The Olympics kick off with a 200m flying lap to establish qualifying times. The 18 fastest riders take part in the 1/16 finals, pairing off with the fastest against the slowest. Winners progress, while losers get the chance to compete in repechage rounds, until eventually eight riders remain for the best-of-three quarter finals.

The semi-finals decide who will compete in the gold medal final, and who will race off for bronze.

Watching the Paris Olympics 2024 track sprint events

Men's sprint qualifying rounds take place from Wednesday 7 August, with the finals on Friday 9 August. The women's qualifying rounds begin on Friday 9 August, with the finals on Sunday 11 August. 

• Wednesday 7 August, 12:45pm-3.30pm CEST: Men's Sprint, qualifying; Men's Sprint, 1/32 finals and repechages, 1/16 finals, and 1/8 finals and repechanges
• Thursday 8 August, 5:30pm-7:55pm CEST: Men's sprint quarter finals
• Friday 9 August, 2:30pm-3:45pm CEST: Women's Sprint, qualifying; Men's Sprint, semi finals, and finals; Women's Sprint, 1/32 finals and repechages, 1/16 finals and repechages; Women's Sprint 1/16 Finals
• Saturday, 10 August, 5:00pm-7:55pm CEST: Women's Sprint, 1/8 finals, and quarter finals
• Sunday, 11 August, 11:00am-2:15pm CEST: Women's Sprint, semi finals and finals

You can see a schedule of all events at the Paris 2024 Olympic games here.

Each day, we'll provide timings for the day's races here, so you can best plan how to watch the Paris Olympics track cycling events.

I was away on holiday over the weekend, spending some time with friends in West Wales, so I did something reasonably unusual - I watched cycling with people who don’t like cycling. Let me rephrase that, I subjected some of my friends to the Paris Olympics men’s road race on Saturday, and another friend to the women’s road race on Sunday. How often do you actually do this? Your housemate or partner might walk in and quickly out of the living room while you watch a stage of the Tour de France, but it feels rare to watch an extended period of time with someone who has no real interest in the sport.

It’s moments like this that make you realise how insular and niche bike racing is. Pretty much everyone understands the basic rules of football, or can work out what’s going on in the 100m sprint, or even the mountain biking. But the road race is different, seemingly more complex, and opens up a whole load of new questions.

Firstly, there is how long it takes. This seems to confound a lot of people, and is one of the hardest things to sell about the sport of road cycling - who has the time to watch all of the action, or who will screen it all? When we left our Airbnb at 11am on Saturday, the men’s road race had just begun. Four hours later, and having gone on a five mile walk, a wild swim, and sat down for a pub lunch, and the race was still going. Remco Evenepoel was riding for over six hours on Saturday, which is four football matches long. You’re asking for a lot of attention.

Obviously, not all races are as long as the men’s Olympic road race at 260km, it’s an extreme example, but this does seem bizarrely long to anyone outside of the bike racing bubble. Connected to this, my friends didn’t understand why the women’s race was 100km shorter, which is not something necessarily easy to explain away. 

I think we kid ourselves that cycling is accessible, but as soon as a word like peloton or breakaway is uttered, the whole thing becomes confusing. Add in the idea of a team sport where an individual wins, and the fact that real world factors impact racing, and it quickly becomes a beguiling, fascinating thing, but also a quite difficult concept to a lay person.

A one-day race is the easiest cycling event to understand - the person at the front wins, right? However, it opens other questions, the biggest of which is ‘why doesn’t someone just ride off?’ 

This is the one of the most fundamental questions in cycling, and is what sets it apart from other sports. It’s not that simple, but sometimes it is - it is essentially what  Evenepoel and Kristen Faulkner did at the weekend, and it is what Tadej Pogačar has been doing all year. Perhaps cycling is simple, after all, but we could all do a better job of explaining it.

Stage races, meanwhile, are a completely different level of perplexing - stages are not necessarily an indicator of the overall winner. This doesn’t seem too difficult to understand, but the fact there can be multiple winners at the same time is somewhat unique in top level sport. 

I’m not sure any of my friends are going to go away and purchase a Eurosport subscription straight away, but it was interesting to get out of the bubble and to realise how niche of a sport cycling actually is. Perhaps, it’s something I’ll aim to do more often than once every four years. 

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

The Japanese national cycling team is using a new track bike at the Paris Olympics, which retails at £108,000 and has an unusual left-sided drivetrain. 

The V-Izu TCM-2, made by Japanese carbon manufacturer Toray, was unveiled back  in May at the Japan Track Cup competition in Tokyo. It had previously been spotted at last August's UCI World Championships in Glasgow, where it was ridden for homologation ahead of the Games. 

The bike is characterised by its wide front forks, aerodynamic design and, most notably, a drivetrain installed on the left side of the frame. 

Though uncommon, this is not a new phenomenon in track cycling. In 2016, USA Cycling revealed a pursuit bike with a left-sided drivetrain, produced by bike brand Felt. The brand's designers said placing the chainring on the inside improved aerodynamics and handling, and combatted the impact of yaw. 

As UCI rules state that all equipment must be commercially available, the V-Izu TCM-2's frame alone is on sale for €126,555 (£108,000), a prohibitive price tag that effectively takes it off the market. 

It is the most expensive track bike at the 2024 Olympics, costing significantly more than Team GB's Hope x Lotus HB.T, priced at £25,000 for the frame, and Australia's Factor bike, at £47,000 for the full set-up.

The V-Izu TCM-2 was debuted at the Olympics on Monday by the men's team pursuit squad, who clocked a time of 3:53.489 in qualifying. 

Benoît Bétoux, technical director of Japan's high performance centre, said he was "moved" by his experience riding the track bike earlier this year. "It gives you a sense of speed and stability for the first time in your life," he said.

The bike's speed was also noted by Koichi Nakano of the Japanese Cycling Federation. "The first thing that athletes say about this bike is that once you get up to speed, it's hard to slow down," he said. "Riding on inertia, the bike picks up speed faster than the person riding the bike thinks. 

"On the other hand, it seems to feel heavy at slow speeds. But I think it is a bike that can demonstrate its performance when used in high-level competitions."

The bike sparked controversy when it was used at the World Championships last year for its resemblance to the patented wide fork design of Team GB's Hope x Lotus bike. Speaking in August, British Cycling's head of performance Stephen Park said there "might well be" cause for legal action, although Cycling Weekly understands none has been taken.

Read on to discover how to watch the Olympic track cycling 2024. This guide explains how to tune in wherever you happen to be in the world – including options to watch for free, and details of how to use a VPN to follow the final day of action if you're away from home.

It's the last day of the Olympic track cycling programme at Paris 2024. Taking place in the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, the headquarters of the French Cycling Federation, the week's schedule has included six disciplines for men and women: team pursuit, omnium, sprint, team sprint, keirin and madison. The omnium is a competition made up of four endurance events: scratch; tempo; elimination and points, with the winner being the rider with the most aggregated points. 

The final medals will be handed out on a packed morning and early afternoon in the velodrome – on this final day, the cyclists have a much earlier start time. The women's omnium, men's keirin and women's sprint are the three events yet to be decided. 

Read on to find out how to watch the Olympics track cycling from anywhere. You'll find today's schedule below.

Olympics track cycling: Sunday schedule

All times BST

• 10.00am Women's omnium, scratch race
• 10.22am Women's sprint semi-finals, race 1
• 10.29am Men's keirin, quarter-finals
• 10.50am Women's sprint semi-finals, race 2
• 10.57am Women's omnium, tempo race
• 11.18am Women's sprint semi-finals, decider
• 11.25am Women's sprint final (places 5-8)
• 11.29am Men's keirin, semi-finals
• 11.45am Women's sprint finals, race 1
• 11.53am Women's omnium, elimination race
• 12.15pm Women's sprint finals, race 2 MEDAL
• 12.23pm Men's keirin finals (places 6-12)
• 12.32pm Men's keirin finals (gold medal race) MEDAL
• 12.44pm Women's sprint finals, decider MEDAL
• 12.56pm Women's omnium, points race MEDAL

Watch Olympic track cycling live streams in Australia

In Australia, cycling fans can watch most of the Olympic Games for free on Channel 9 and 9Now – arguably the most complete free coverage in the world.

Viewers across the country can tune in to the 9Now streaming service using the smart device of their choosing to catch all the action in July and August.

Watch Olympic track cycling live from anywhere

If you are outside of your home country and try to access your usual live streaming services to watch the action, you may find your access to be geo-restricted.

In this case, a VPN service will come in handy, allowing your computer to pretend it's back home and let you log into your streaming accounts to catch all of the racing action.

Our colleagues at TechRadar thoroughly tested several VPN services and recommend NordVPN:

Watch Olympics track cycling live streams in the UK

In the UK, fans will be able to watch some of the Olympics track cycling live and for free on BBC One. You can also watch the Games online via BBC iPlayer - though you'll need a valid TV Licence to do so.

However, the BBC is limited to two live streams at any one time, so probably won't be broadcasting every minute of the cycling. The most complete Olympic Games coverage in the UK will therefore be streamed live on Discovery+, with 3,800 hours of live coverage across 55 channels.

A 'standard' subscription to Discovery+, which includes Eurosport's Olympics coverage, would usually set you back £6.99 or more but a special Olympics deal means you'll be able to get it for a cut-price £3.99 per month until 11 August. Subscribe before then and you'll pay that low price until the end of the year.

Watch Olympic track cycling live streams in the USA

NBC hold the broadcasting rights for the Olympic Games in the USA. The race will be broadcast live on NBC, as well as the network's streaming service, Peacock TV and the network's TV channels including NBC, MSNBC, and the USA Network. The women's and men's track cycling will be on USA Network, E!, CNBC and NBC 4 New York.

A subscription to Peacock Premium starts from $7.99 per month or $79.99 per year. The ad-free Peacock Premium Plus costs $13.99 per month, and Peacock TV offers a seven-day free trial for those who want to try before they buy.

No cable? No worries. Sling is a smart TV service that allows people in the US to watch cable channels on their TV, laptop or tablet without actually having to subscribe to an annual cable TV package. You can get USA Network and E! with the Sling Blue package (which costs $40 per month, $20 for the first month). For CNBC you'll also need the additional News Extra add-on, which will usually set you back $6 per month, though you can get your first month for free. 

Watch Olympic track cycling live streams in Canada

If you live in Canada, you can catch the Olympics across several broadcasters, including CBC, TSN, and Sportsnet.

CBC will be offering plenty of events throughout the Games for free on CBC Gem. Access to the broadcaster's ad-free premium service costs $5.99 per month, though the ad-supported version is free of charge.

A TSN subscription will set you back $19.99 per month or $199.90 per year, while a standard Sportsnet SN Now subscription costs $19.99 per month or $179.99 per year.

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example:1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service).2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad.We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

The women’s Olympic road race will take place this weekend, on August 4 at 8 a.m. ET,  and 95 women will be fighting for a chance at a medal.

For the two American women racing, Chloé Dygert and Kristen Faulkner, there is extra motivation on the line knowing that no American woman has medaled in Olympic road racing in 40 years.

A Dynamic Duo Pulling Double Duty

Dygert is no stranger to rising to the occasion at the Olympics; she is now a three-time medalist, having earned her third medal - a silver one - in the individual time trial just a few days ago.

This will be Faulkner’s first Olympics, and after rising to professional cycling prowess on an accelerated timeline after only learning to ride competitively in 2020, the Alaskan is likely to be hungry to make a name for herself in Paris.

Both Dygert and Faulkner are pulling double duty for Team USA.  In addition to the road event(s), they are also integral parts of the Team Pursuit on the velodrome. 

While Team USA has medaled in the Team Pursuit in the past three Olympics, there's history to be made in the road race. The last time an American woman medaled in the road race was in the very first Olympic road race in 1984, when Connie Carpenter and Rebecca Twigg took gold and silver, respectively.

Connie Carpenter

Considered one of the greats of women's cycling, Connie Carpenter-Phinney (yes, that Phinney. She's married to Davis Phinney and Taylor Phinney is their son) made history by being the first, and so far only, American woman to earn a gold medal in the Olympic road race.

She took the top spot on the Olympic podium in 1984, which was the debut year for women’s road racing in the Games. 

For Carpenter-Phinney those 1984 weren't her first Olympics, however. She began her sporting career as a long-distance speed skater and competed in the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics when she was 14 years old. She placed seventh in the 1,500-meter speed skating event. 

After a speed skating-induced ankle injury sidelined her in 1976, Carpenter-Phinney picked up cycling to cross-train and quickly became a dual-elite athlete. 

She found a second love in cycling and began competing in bike races in the late 1970s, winning 12 total U.S. national titles in road and track cycling before being selected for Team USA for the inaugural women’s Olympic road race. The race consisted of a 79.2-kilometre route through Los Angeles, where she edged out her teammate Rebecca Twigg, winning gold by just half a wheel length at the finish line.

Carpenter-Phinney is also a seasoned rower who helped the UC Berkeley women’s crew team win the 1980 national championship for women’s coxless fours.

Since her incredible achievement at the 1984 Games, Carpenter-Phinney has been inducted into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame, married, and raised two athletically talented children: Kelsey Phinney, a Nordic ski racer, and Taylor Phinney, a now-retired former professional cyclist and Olympian.

Rebecca Twigg

Rebecca Twigg, now in her early 60s, has had nearly the polar opposite experience post-Olympic medal as Carpenter-Phinney.

Twigg discovered cycling at a young age and, like Carpenter-Phinney, took to it with ease and joy, saying that the only time she fell was when she realized on a ride as a child that she didn’t know how to stop and barreled into a wall. 

She was scouted at age 17 by famous cycling coach Eddie Borysewicz who helped her kick off her cycling career first in road racing, and then in track, specifically, the individual pursuit. At her peak, Twigg was racing more than 60 times per year.

The Seattle-born cyclist rose to tremendous fame in the 1980s and 90s winning six cycling world championships and two Olympic medals across three Games.

Twigg’s first Olympics started with a bang: she represented the U.S. in the women’s road race, where she earned a silver medal next to Carpenter-Phinney’s gold one.

She then returned to the Games at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics where she earned a bronze medal in the 3,000-meter individual pursuit. Her final Olympics appearance was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics where she placed fifth in the same event. 

Despite her tremendous success in cycling, Twigg has struggled in her post-Olympic days and as of 2019 considered herself homeless, according to the Seattle Times.

Twigg shared in the Seattle Times article that trying to work a more traditional job after the thrill of her cycling career didn’t resonate with her and she never found a “good fit” after being so in love with her previous job of professional cycling.

Twigg said she vacillates between living with friends and family, in homeless shelters and even under garbage bags on the street downtown. It has been years since she rode a bike.

Twigg is not addicted to drugs or alcohol, but described herself as “confused” with what to do with her life.  

“Some of the hard days are really painful when you’re training for racing,” Twigg said in the Seattle Times article, “but being homeless, when you have little hope or knowledge of where the finish line is going to be, is just as hard.”

As Dygert and Faulkner kit up for the women’s road race on August 4, they will undoubtedly be gunning to break the 40 year drought of U.S.-earned medals in the women’s road race, knowing that they have some very big and very meaningful shoes to fill.

A bead of sweat rolls down my forehead and stings my right eye. I blink, hard, to try and get my sight back, but it doesn’t work. I then lift my hand from the bars, stick my fingers under my glasses and rub in desperation. This only makes it worse. My hands, too, are sticky from the heat, and I start to realise that the amount of sun cream I put on might have been excessive. The oily gleam has begun to melt, and there’s nothing I can do as it slimes my skin and floods my eye sockets. 

It’s 30 degrees in Paris, and I have decided to lug a 20-kilogram bike up a cobbled hill. Not just any cobbled hill, of course, but Rue Lepic, the short Montmartre climb that’s expected to detonate the Olympic road races this weekend. In fact, I’m out to ride the whole 20-kilometre finishing circuit, whose roads will no doubt launch the winners in both the men’s and women’s races. They’ll ride it two times. I drank four beers the night before, so once will do for me. 

I start in Pigalle, a district at the foot of Montmartre, once famous for cabaret but now known for its rows of sex shops. It’s here that I pick up my steed. With no bike of my own, I’m left with the city’s fleet of pay-as-you-go Vélib bikes. I approach a line of them, and start my thorough selection process, kicking their back tyres, and giving their brakes a half-hearted squeeze. There’s one I take a liking to, so I pay my €3, and free it from its dock. 

My first pedal strokes tell me this bike is a world apart from those the pros will use. It’s too heavy to lift, made of aluminium and plastic, and is supposed to have three gears. When I hit the lower slopes of Rue Lepic, my middle gear skips and whirrs, so I declare it redundant. It then takes 14 seconds to eventually shift down. (Yes, I counted). 

I swing up, past the Moulin Rouge and onto the cobbles. The gradient is manageable at this point, but I fear I’ve started out too eagerly. I’m giddy just to be riding in Paris, and fuelled by three pieces of bread – my breakfast order has earned me the nickname ‘Pain Pain Pain’ in the hotel – I feel invincible. My 40-odd millimetre tyres are making light work of the surface. The road then curves round to the left, bends back to the right, and kicks up again, narrowing this time, and at a tougher pitch. 

It’s here that my bike begins to labour. Worsened by the uneven, square cobbles, the 9% gradient feels like I’m trudging through water, riding against a downhill torrent. The suffering, however, lasts only minutes. The climb is barely a kilometre in total, banked at an average of 5%. I do it at 9km/h. The pros will go three times as fast. 

At the top, I catch a glimpse of Sacré-Cœur’s chalk white dome through the houses. It’s there that I’m heading, but first I have to navigate through Place du Tertre, the artists’ quarter, where tourists fork out up to €120 euros for a quick portrait. I lose my momentum behind an older gentleman trailing an easel behind him. Then, finally, the road drops down, and I’m standing at the steps in front of Sacré-Cœur. 

It’s eerily quiet for 11am, I think to myself. There’s been very little bustle in Paris over the past week; the locals, generally opposed to the Games, have fled elsewhere, and tourists have been deterred by the fear of price hikes. What’s left is a city of sports lovers, one that’s sparsely populated, and pleasantly breathable. 

Still, it comes as a relief to cycle out of Paris’s tourist hotspot. I leave Montmartre on yet another cobbled street, this one just over a car’s width in size, and file alongside the traffic to the front. The next 6km take me out to the city’s eastern limit, void of notable features. Then comes another one-kilometre climb, and a long descent back into the city centre. 

I’m not sure if it’s because of the 30-degree heat, or the four beers perhaps still present in my bloodstream, but the third climb, which comes after 14km, is the one that gets me. This one drags up into Belleville, again on rough cobbles, along a strip of Chinese restaurants. The gradient maxes out at 10%. My back throbs as I stomp down on the pedals. When I roll over the summit, I look across the street and see the entrance to a metro station called ‘Pyrénées’. How appropriate, I smile to myself. 

I’d originally hoped to do the circuit in under 45 minutes. Why 45 minutes? Well, because I have to pay an extra €1 for the bike every half an hour after that. Now, an hour has passed, and the money is the least of my troubles. My clothes look, and feel, like I’ve worn them to a water park; I can barely see through the sweat; and, to top it all off, I’m at drink-straight-from-the-tap levels of thirst. My finish line, fortunately, is nearing. 

I cut through a bike lane in Barbès-Rochechouart, laden with scraps of cardboard and plastic, offcuts from the morning’s market. Then I spot an oasis. Never before have I been so happy to see a sex shop, or rather ‘Love Store’, per the neon sign. I have no desire to walk through its doors, but it signals I'm back in Pigalle, the place I set out from. It’s time to shackle up my bike again. 

Seeking, perhaps, to get my own back for the damage it has done to my back, I jam it into an empty dock. There are no sad goodbyes. Instead, I make a beeline for the supermarket across the road, frantically buy a bottle of tropical fruits flavoured water, and inhale it as I walk out into the street. Then I turn to Strava for the lowdown on my performance. 

20km. 248m elevation. 15.1km/h. Typically, I’d aim for twice that speed, but on a bike three times the weight of my own, and wearing cotton clothing, I consider it a victory. 

When I return to my hotel, the sight of me seems to shock the receptionist. “Hot outside, huh?” he says. I nod, before scuttling away for a cold shower and a snooze. One lap was enough for me. I'll leave the rest to the pros. 

How better to test the integrity of a cardboard bed than with a BMX stunt? This was the thought that crossed freestyle rider Vincent Leygonie's mind the moment he arrived at the athlete village for his Olympic debut. 

This year, as was the case in Tokyo in 2021, athletes are sleeping on cardboard beds at the Games, a measure that seeks to make the event more environmentally friendly. 

Prior to arriving in Paris, South African BMXer Leygonie had seen videos of other athletes testing the beds online, and said he "almost fell through the window" when he carried out his own. 

"When we came into the village room, the first thing I did was jump on it, and I was like, 'We could totally trick on it'," he told Cycling Weekly. "I just thought, there's nothing cooler than doing a trick on it. I'm a BMX rider, we're badass, so if we're going to do a bed test, let's do a barspin on it. 

Leygonie's video, filmed by his coach, has since gathered over 70,000 views on Instagram. The shot he posted was his third attempt, he admitted. 

"In the first take, I hopped and ducked my head because I thought I was going to hit the roof, but I was like a whole two metres away from it. I tried a couple of tricks, I almost fell through the window a couple of times, because it's so tight, but it was good," he smiled. 

Reassured by his test, the South African went on to spend his first night in the bed, which he found "actually more comfortable than you would think". 

"A lot of people are giving them a lot of hate for no reason. I think I'm suffering more with the heat than the bed. The bed's super comfortable. Or it might just be that my bed at home is really bad." 

Leygonie did not qualify for Wednesday's men's BMX freestyle final, which was won by Argentina's José Torres Gil, ahead of Team GB's Keiran Reilly. The South African, a former mountain biker, said his debut Olympics brought some "highlight moments", with personal-best scoring in his runs. 

"The first day I got [a BMX bike], my friend told me to try a trick. I tried it for like five hours straight and I was hooked. Then all my friends got bikes and we just started riding bikes and having fun. That's all BMX has ever been to be, just having fun," he said. "The fact I've gotten onto the world stage is just absolutely insane."  

Watch any WorldTour road race and every member of a pro team will be wearing the same kit and riding the same bike, or at least a small selection of top spec models from the same brand.

At the Paris Olympics, you’ll be able to spot cyclists from the same country by their identical clothing; Castelli is a long-time partner of the Italian cycling team, for example, and Czech brand Kalas supplies British Cycling’s team clothing.

On the track, the British Cycling team-issue kit extends to the Hope x Lotus track bike. All members of the track team, regardless of discipline, will ride the same bike, with variations in handlebars to cater for the needs of the different events.

So why, when they line up at the start of the road race and the time trial, will UK riders be on a hotch-potch of bikes in different colors and from different brands, with different wheels, tyres, groupsets and other components? Their helmets and shoes will differ too.

“The Olympic regulations allow riders to ride different brands of bike,” says Ellie Stott, communications manager for the Great Britain Cycling Team.

All the riders on the team are professional athletes, who spend the majority of their year riding for their trade team. They’ll have covered thousands of miles on their bikes in training and WorldTour competition and know them inside out. Pro riders are notoriously picky about their bikes’ set-up too.

Swapping to a different bike for one event, which falls in the middle – or at least towards the tail end – of the professional race season would be problematic, as the riders wouldn’t have time to train and grow accustomed to a different machine.

There would be additional questions to address as well: would a uniform Olympic bike be equipped with the same groupset for all riders, for example? Again, there’d be a learning curve if so. Likewise saddle, tyres and the host of other small parts that make up a race bike - components that riders are comfortable with and for which they know the limits.

“So it makes sense for riders to ride their own bikes. Likewise, they’ll use the same helmet as they’d use when riding for their trade team, just without the team branding,” says Stott.

That may not be true across all disciplines though. At the Paris Olympics, Tom Pidcock was wearing a Lazer helmet when he won the XC MTB competition, rather than one from Kask, which sponsors the Ineos Grenadiers road team.

At the high end, Kask’s emphasis is on road helmets (except for the $600 full-face Defender). Pidcock looks to have a non-exclusive deal for road riding only and we'd expect him to revert to a Kask helmet for the Olympic road race. Normally in XC MTB and cyclocross competitions, he wears a Red Bull helmet, which is a branded Lazer lid.

Again, with shoes, a rider will have a pair supplied by their team sponsor that they’re comfortable riding in; often shoe brands will have a unique custom last for shoes to fit a single sponsored pro rider.

What logos can be displayed by Team GB riders and other Olympic athletes is governed by Rule 40. It's pretty complex and covers everything from sponsor logos to tweets, but is designed to ensure that the British Olympic Association captures revenue to fund its grassroots activities.

Bike brands see the opportunity to promote their bikes too. At the Rio Olympics in 2016, all the riders on Specialized bikes, regardless of their nation, were riding bright yellow Tarmacs. Other brands have provided their sponsored riders with colorful bikes too, although at the same time some riders have been on bikes in their standard team colors.

It’s not just at the Olympics that riders ride their trade team bikes when competing for their country either. Mathieu van der Poel won the world road race championships in 2023 riding a Canyon Aeroad, the same bike as he rides in the WorldTour.

Again, other members of the Dutch national team were riding bikes from a variety of other brands, matching the equipment they’d ride with their trade teams.

Choice on the track too 

We mentioned above that all the members of the British Cycling track team would be riding the same Hope x Lotus track bike. Stott points out that here too there’s room for different bikes to be used. 

“All of our track riders will use the Hope-Lotus Paris bike but that’s not mandatory in the regs. We’ve had riders using other bikes at previous Games,” she says.

Some other nations whose track teams aren’t resourced as well as Team GB will see a range of different bikes used by their teams.

But given that the Hope x Lotus track bike is considered state-of-the-art in a competition where margins are razor thin and there’s a continual tech arms race, it makes sense for riders to opt to ride it over alternatives.

There’s also the little matter of the cost of Olympic-level track bikes. The Hope x Lotus carbon bike can be bought for £25,000. Team GB is also debuting the 3D printed UKSI-BC1, which is priced at £55,000 plus VAT.

Other Olympic track bikes are similarly expensive. You can buy the Japanese team’s V-Izu TCM-2 for a little over £100,000, for example. That’s a lot of cash for an individual rider to pony up for a shot at a medal.

Seasoned cycling viewers tuning into the Olympic road races this weekend may be in for a bit of a shock. Rather than the 170-plus peloton we’re used to, around 90 riders will line up in the men’s and women’s events in Paris. To be specific, the provisional start lists show 88 riders for the men’s race, and 95 for the women's. 

This is not part of a plan to make road racing more exciting, just down to strict restrictions on the number of athletes allowed at the Olympics. The IOC caps the overall number allowed, and sports like cycling have been impacted. However, it might just be the perfect way of making the road races exhilarating.

The size of the peloton has been reduced from 2021, when there were almost 130 riders lined up in Tokyo, and this could have a massive impact on the races. Think less control, more chaos. To compare the Olympics to the World Championships, there will be about 100 fewer  riders in the Paris pelotons vs those on the start line in Zurich, racing for rainbow bands in a couple of months.

It’s almost a different sport, with less strength in numbers and more individual riders trying individual things. Why not attack from there, if there is no-one to pull you back; it is all down to the skill of the rider themselves. The Olympic course looks a bit like the Tour of Flanders in terms of its profile and its length, but it won’t be raced like the Ronde, it can’t be. 

I’m all for it. With team tactics almost thrown out the window there can be no repeat of 2012, a race with 144 starters, in which GB tried to set the race up for Mark Cavendish. It will be the strongest rider on the day who wins, and there’s very little that a team can do about it.

With the biggest squads just four riders, it means that nations have the opportunity to send their best options, rather than thinking about the best mix. For example, Belgium are able to send Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel in the same squad of four in the men’s race, and the Netherlands have picked all three of Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes and Marianne Vos in the women’s equivalent, three of the best riders in the world.

You can foresee a situation where Evenepoel or Vollering attack from afar, which could work. And, if this doesn’t work, then the race tilts in favour of Van Aert or Wiebes. It is almost impossible to predict, and this makes it all the better, in my opinion. 

Fewer riders does mean that many are forced to miss out, obviously, but there is only one gold on offer anyway. Places are allocated based on rankings in 2022-23, hence why GB gets the maximum riders in both the men’s and women’s events. Smaller nations are only able to send one rider, which you could see as a bad thing, but equally, the race is so small that someone like Biniam Girmay of Eritrea or Jhonatan Narváez of Ecuador have real chances of impacting events. They will not be crowded out. Still, it’s a shame that defending champion Richard Carapaz won’t be there.

A peloton of 90 will mean a thrilling, quite different race, especially without race radios, a quirk of the Olympic event. It will feel quite alien to a traditional cycling fan, but I think it will be all the more exciting. Perhaps this year’s Olympic road race could serve as inspiration to other events, , maybe more races should have smaller fields; although it is hard to foresee teams themselves going for this. As a special event, though, it is a real treat.

This piece is part of The Leadout, the offering of newsletters from Cycling Weekly and Cyclingnews. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here.

If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com.

There were boos when Tom Pidcock crossed the line to win the Paris Olympics mountain bike race. The home crowds had spotted something they didn't like.

By the finish line at the foot of Élancourt Hill, thousands watched on big screens as the Brit made a bold winning move in the forest above. It came with 400m to go, when he nipped around a tree, through the inside line, and in front of the French favourite, Victor Koretzky, who had led solo for most of the race.

The pair then brushed together. The collision caused Koretzky to unclip from his pedal, while Pidcock stormed ahead to win.

It was, to the chagrin of the French, the move that sealed one of the most spectacular comebacks in Olympic history. Around the midway point, the Brit had lost 40 seconds to a puncture, compounded by a clumsy wheel change, but fought his way back to topple the home favourite.

"I just didn't want to give up. I wasn't going to give up," Pidcock said afterwards. The booing that soundtracked his victory, however, did not go unnoticed. 

"It's a shame, because that's not really the spirit of the Olympics," the Brit said. "But I do also understand it. The French are very passionate. They wanted Victor to win, which is understandable. But, you know, they didn't boo the rock that made me puncture."

Some wondered if there might be an appeal from the French camp after the race. But those rumours were quickly put to bed by British Cycling's performance director, Stephen Park, who made clear his rider had made "no infringement" .

"As it happens, the matter was reviewed by the UCI's sports director, Peter Van den Abeele," Park said. "He looked at the video a number of times, and he was comfortable that the line was good. [Pidcock and Koretzky] were definitely alongside, if not Tom was slightly ahead when they came together, therefore there was no infringement."

Pidcock shared the same view. "I didn't do anything wrong," he said. "I was in front and he left the door open. We were racing for a gold medal and I wanted to win just as much as he did."

Though his fans had thought otherwise, Koretzky, too, saw no wrongdoing in the incident. "He touched my shoes, I unclipped and I almost crashed. But it's part of racing," the Frenchman said, sat beside Pidcock in his press conference, gracious after missing out on the victory. 

"We all want the gold, and we fight for the gold. After his puncture, [Pidcock] showed to everyone that he was very strong today."

By the time the podium ceremony came around, the bitterness had begun to subside among the French fans. There were still some boos when Pidcock received his gold medal, but the majority of the crowd applauded, acknowledging, perhaps through gritted teeth, one of the sport's great fightbacks. 

"I came here to win, and that's all I was thinking about," Pidcock said afterwards. "What makes the Olympics so special to me is the fact that it's bigger than cycling. People back home, they come to the Olympics, they get into the Olympic spirit, they celebrate every gold medal. 

"The biggest thing is to inspire people, and that's what I love to do. Hopefully I did that today." 

The past two summers couldn't have been more different for Ella Maclean-Howell. Last year, back home in South Wales, the 19-year-old was finishing her A-Levels, having studied history, maths and the Welsh Baccalaureate. Now, she's riding her mountain bike at the Olympic Games in Paris. 

Few athletes can boast having made their Olympic debut as a teenager. For Maclean-Howell, the youngest rider on Team GB's cycling squad, hers has come "earlier than expected".

"A first Olympic Games at 19. I'm just overwhelmed," she said following Sunday's cross-country mountain bike event. The Brit finished 23rd in the race and, under the searing sun at the foot of Élancout Hill, couldn't stop smiling afterwards. 

"The crowds were incredible. There are so many Brits here that it almost felt like a home Olympics for me."

It was, in fact, a home Games that first turned Maclean-Howell onto the sport. In 2012, just weeks before her eighth birthday, she watched the mountain bike and track events at the London Olympics. She then signed up to an outdoor velodrome session in Cardiff, where she rode her bike off-piste, onto the grassy infield, and flipped over her handlebars. Still, she wouldn't be deterred. 

"I started with Maindy Flyers, and a lot of good riders have come from there, such as Geraint Thomas and Elinor Barker," she said. "It's a good place to start, and definitely helped with my progression."

Maclean-Howell also kept good cycling company growing up in South Wales. “Me and Zoe [Bäckstedt] are super close,” she said. Today, one is an Olympian, the other a former junior world champion across four disciplines. 

"We grew up in the same town, basically. We went to school together, rode together. It's a shame she can't be here, but she's a really good friend, and has definitely pushed me throughout my career.

"It'll be so good if she can come to LA [Olympics in 2028], and hopefully, at that point, both of us could be going for medals." 

As Maclean-Howell moved up through the British Cycling system, her talent came to the fore. She won the junior cross-country mountain bike National Championships in 2022, before taking back-to-back under-23 titles over the next two years. Then came the Paris Olympics, and the biggest race of her life. 

"I came in with not much of a plan, just to empty myself, give my best and just see where I came," she explained. She did, after all, only become a full-time cyclist last year. 

"Normally I'm not racing with these girls. Normally I'm in the under-23 category, so to race at this level is a new experience, and almost getting thrown in at the deep end at the Olympic Games. I'm happy to hold my own in the first few laps."

Determined to reach the finish, Maclean-Howell ended up placing as the last rider in the seven-lap race, 10 minutes down on the winner, France's Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Eleven other riders were, however, pulled from the field early. 

When the Welshwoman crossed the line, she was met by her teammate, fifth-placed Evie Richards, who had waited with a cheery grin, and congratulated her with a hug. It was the same warm welcome, the teenager said, that she has felt all week living in the GB squad house. 

"It's been so good being here this week with Evie, Tom [Pidcock] and Charlie [Aldridge], who are all just incredible riders, and to be able to learn from them has been so useful, especially coming into this race," she said. "I'm just chuffed. This set-up has been so good, and really helped me be my best today." 

Now an Olympian, A-Levels feel like a distant memory for Maclean-Howell. Although, she admits, there are still some moments when she feels like the baby of the squad. 

"When people talk about buying houses and stuff, that's a bit far away for me," the teenager laughed. "Other than that, everyone's welcomed me, and it’s been just such a learning experience."

Remco Evenepoel took time trial gold with a sensational ride in difficult conditions around the streets of Paris.   

Evenepoel won the second cycling gold of the 2024 Olympic Games and was best at every time check in what was a tight race with time trial rival Filippo Ganna, who took the silver medal 15 seconds down.

His compatriot Wout Van Aert finished with the bronze medal while riding his innovative 'double-disc' setup. Great Britain & Northern Ireland's Josh Tarling was just two seconds shy of a medal after suffering a front wheel puncture early on.

“I cannot describe the feeling I had on the podium”, Evenepoel told media after accepting his medal. 

“It’s a magical moment in my life. We watched the women’s race before we got into our warm-up and we saw the crashes so we decided not to take any risks in the corners and to push a bit more on the straights, and it was a good strategy." 

"With a third spot in the Tour de France and a victory here, tiredness doesn’t matter, the motivation and the positive feelings overtake everything,” Evenepoel said.

The rains of the previous evening's opening ceremony continued into the morning and throughout the race. It meant that a course that was already criticised for its cracks and potholes was even more dangerous. Riders were seen taking corners cautiously, hoping not to ruin their Olympic dreams early.

TV graphics early on had shown Brit Tarling to be in the lead before a front puncture ground him to a halt and forced a bike change. The 20 year old was disappointed as he spoke to Eurosport.

"S**t happens, eh? Everyone put a lot of effort in and... it happens... [I had a] front puncture and it was on the rim. With that corner coming up I had to change."

"Right now it's annoying... I've still got the road race to come so I'll give that a good go."

How It Happened

Few events at this year's Olympic Games will give viewers a better tour of Paris and its many landmarks than the road cycling time trial. Unfortunately, any striking Parisian views were covered in cloud and downpour as the weather became a major feature of the race.

Amir Ansari, representing the Refugee Olympic team, was the first man down the ramp in the men's Olympic time trial, taking first look at the treacherous conditions.

Italy's Alberto Bettiol was the rider who made the strongest early effort, leading through each time check as he powered on to a time of 38:06.

The conditions were similar to the women's event earlier in the day, which was marred by crashes and mechanicals. British medal-favourite Josh Tarling fell foul of the latter, suffering a front wheel puncture in the opening kilometres of his ride. Shortly after, Tarling's Ineos Grenadiers team mate Magnus Sheffield crashed. Bothlooked like the were heading for a high placing before their incidents.

Czechia's Mathias Vacek took over the lead by two seconds over Ryan Mullen of Ireland as the favourites began to make their way through the course. Wout van Aert, riding his double-disc setup, took the lead at the first intermediate with ten riders left. Tarling, despite his mishap, was just three seconds down on the Belgian and Australia's Luke Plapp just a second behind, but failed to finish the course after crashing.

Filippo Ganna moved ahead before Remco Evenepoel blasted through seven seconds in front of the Italian. Just 13 seconds split the top six after the first 13.1 kilometres.

At the finish, Stefan Bissegger took a brief lead before Wout van Aert flew over the line a minute quicker than the Swiss rider. The Belgian's leading time at the second intermediate looked to be standing up well too, overhauling Filippo Ganna and holding a five second lead before his compatriot Evenepoel came across the 22 kilometre time check.

Evenepoel was flying round the course and led Van Aert by eleven seconds at the second time check. Ganna was ahead of Tarling by just two seconds as they tussled for the final spot in the medals. The Italian had to save himself from crashing with a few kilometres of his ride still to go after striking a barrier, his momentum suffering as a result.

Tarling fell short of Van Aert's time by just two seconds and would finish a disappointed fourth in the end.

Having lost significant time to Van Aert before the second intermediate point, Ganna made a magnificent counter-punch in the final ten kilometres to finish ten seconds ahead of the Belgian.

It was not enough for Ganna to overhaul Evenepoel, though. The reigning time trial world champion stayed strong and stayed upright to beat the Italian by 15 seconds, with an average speed of 53.7kph.

Results: Paris > Paris 32.4km

1. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) 36:12
2. Filippo Ganna (Italy), +15 seconds
3. Wout van Aert (Belgium), +25 seconds
4. Josh Tarling (Great Britain), +27 seconds
5. Brandon McNulty (USA), +1:04
6. Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland), +1:26
7. Nelson Oliveira (Portugal), +1:31
8. Stefan Küng (Switzerland), +1:35
9. Maximilian Schachmann (Germany), +1:38
10. Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark), +1:43

The first road cycling events of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are the men's and women's time trials, which both take place on the afternoon of Saturday 27 July.

The individual time trials for the best women and men in the world are exactly the same, a a 32.4km route from and back into central Paris, which are largely incredibly flat.

35 women are competing, with 34 men following on. The first rider down the ramp will be Urška Pinter of Slovenia at 13:30pm BST, with the last woman being the reigning world champion, Chloe Dygert of the USA at 14:21pm BST. 

Following this, the men will be led by Amir Ansari, who is part of the IOC's refugee team, who sets off at 15:32pm BST, with the race closing with Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) at 16:21pm BST. Given the flat nature of the course, the top times won't be riding for too much longer than half an hour.

The time trials begin and finish in central Paris, by Invalides. The course heads east to the Bois de Vincennes, with the tightest corners near the Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, before an incredibly straight final 5km.

Here's how to watch the cycling at the Paris Olympics, and an outline of the Paris Olympics cycling schedule. 

Women's time trial start times

Men's time trial start times

The cycling events at the Paris Olympics begin this Saturday with the individual time trials, and as always, when the stakes are high, the tech gains come to the fore.

Earlier this week, riders set out on their recons of the 32.4km city-centre course, all under the watchful eye of photographers. Here at Cycling Weekly, we've scrutinised the images to pick out some tech insights we might see during the race. 

From a rare front disc wheel, to brand-new paint jobs, here's a taster of what to look out for.  

Wout van Aert's front disc

Wout van Aert made headlines yesterday when he took to the time trial course running a dual disc wheel set-up. Despite offering a smoother air flow in still conditions, front discs can be notoriously difficult to control in crosswinds, and are for that reason very rarely used on the road. 

Speaking to Sporza, Van Aert explained that he isn't certain to use the disc wheel. 

"It's definitely an option," he said. "We've been preparing for this for a while. It's super fast, but the right conditions are needed.

"We'll decide on Saturday. It mainly depends on the wind, because you have to be able to keep your bike under control," the Belgian added. "I was happy when I saw the course, because there is a lot of shelter, so it could be an option, even though it looks unusual."

Josh Tarling, Team GB's medal hope for the event, was unconvinced by the choice when asked about it in his press conference on Thursday. "It's clever if he thinks there's a gain in it. If he's tested it, then go for it," the Brit said.  

"I know the first and last five kilometres are bumpy, and so harsh on a disc wheel. I've never ridden one outside but I'm sure the corners won't be amazing on it either. Because the corners are fast, you need to really make the most out of them."  

Pinarello's new Bolide F TT

There's going to be a new incarnation of Pinarello's Bolide F TT bike in Paris, used by riders such as Magnus Sheffield, Filippo Ganna, and Tarling. 

The bike, unveiled by the Italian manufacturer last week, claims to have a 2.28% CdA reduction compared to its previous design, meaning aerodynamic drag is lower - albeit by a slim margin. 

Part of the way the brand has achieved this, it says, is through its 'AeroNodes' – the small ridges that go down the seat tube – that are borrowed from its track bike, the Bolide F HR. These AeroNodes are said to "reduce the complex vortexes generated by riders' leg movements" and are inspired by the tubercules on the flippers of humpback wales.  

Stefan Küng's Willier Supersonica

Like the new Pinarello Bolide F TT, Willier's recently released Supersonica SLR promises significant aero improvements - 16% more than its previous model, according to the brand. 

Developed in just nine months, the bike was released in June this year with a hefty price tag starting at €20,5000 (£17,280). It was ridden by Groupama-FDJ's Stefan Küng at the Tour de France, and the Swiss rider was spotted using it again in his recons of the Olympic course in Paris. 

One of the bike's more unique elements is its integrated bottle cage, which requires a special, rectangular bottle, and is typically seen in triathlon. It's all part of making the machine a fast, cohesive unit, with as little airflow disruption as possible. 

Team GB's special skinsuits

Brought to our attention by Cyclingspy on Instagram, the material on the Team GB skinsuits is worthy of closer inspection. 

As shown in the picture above, Tarling's forearms appear to be wrapped in a shiny, smooth fabric. This material could be latex or silicone, and despite being branded as Adidas, may have been made by another manufacturer, such as bespoke brand Vorteq, who are known to be working with the Team GB track team at the Games.

The desired effect of the material, ultimately, is to go faster. Track sprinter Jeffrey Hoogland used similar fabrics, inspired by speedskating suits, during his kilometre time trial world record in a bid to reduce drag at higher speeds. 

The GB skinsuits, likewise, seek to control airflow with a waved texture on the upper arm, likely achieved by layering two fabrics.

Specialized's Paris paint jobs

Specialized may not have given their riders new models for the Olympic time trials, but the American brand has provided fresh paintwork. Those using S-Works Shiv TT bikes, such as Demi Vollering and Remco Evenepoel, will race with special paint jobs that have a nod to sustainability. 

The design comes as Specialized celebrates its 50th anniversary, and symbolises the brand's mission to strive for a better planet. 

Vollering shared close-up pictures on her Instagram, revealing the phrase "pedal the planet forward" printed on her bike's top tube. 

For more information about the Paris Olympic Games time trials, visit our detailed hub page, which provides everything you need to know to follow the action. 

Qualifying for the Olympics in one sport is hard enough, but a rare breed of athletes have been known to pursue two sports at the elite level. One such athlete is Colorado-based triathlete and cyclist Taylor Knibb.

The 26-year-old returning Olympian became the first American athlete to qualify in two sports for the Paris 2024 Olympics when she won the 2024 USA Cycling Time Trial National Championships in May. The victory earned her a trip to Paris, where she was already scheduled to compete in a triathlon. 

She's now got a busy schedule ahead, with the Olympic time trial on July 27, the individual triathlon on July 31 and the mixed relay triathlon on August 5.

This gives her three chances to expand her trophy collection, which already contains a silver Olympic medal from her part in the triathlon mixed team relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. 

While still relatively unknown in the cycling world, Knibb is no stranger to world-class competition.

A star triathlete, Knibb is a two-time Ironman 70.3 world champion, an Olympic medalist, and a multi-time World Triathlon Championship Series medalist.

Knibb grew up in the triathlon world. Her mother, Leslie Knibb was an Ironman competitor, and Knibb herself started dabbling in triathlon at an early age and enjoyed a stellar junior and U23 career. She belongs to a select club of female triathletes who have won the Junior, U23 and Elite World Championships. In college, Knibb competed in Division 1 level Track and Field and swimming for Cornell University. In 2017, at the age of 19, Knibb became the youngest athlete ever to be selected for the U.S. national triathlon and again took that honour when she qualified for the Olympic team at Tokyo 2020. 

Looking to take her talent to new arenas, Knibb joined the  Trek-Segafredo cycling team (now Lidl-Trek) in 2023 as a way to ‘test herself at the highest level of professional cycling and learn all about the ways I can continue to improve and develop.’

She made her pro cycling debut at the 2023 U.S. National Road Racing Championships, where she finished fourth in the individual time trial behind Chloe Dygert, Lauren Stephens and Amber Neben.

Since then, Knibb has only grown in both cycling and triathlon. She has spent the last two seasons racking up a series of wins and podium finishes in both short-course and long-course triathlons. She is especially dominant in the bike leg of a triathlon and often out-bikes other formidable professional female triathletes. 

She is currently ranked first in the world in the Professional Triathlete Organization rankings. In Paris, Knibb is favoured to win gold in the women's individual triathlon and play a big part in Team USA's medal candidacy in the mixed team relay. 

On the cycling side, Knibb was originally also scheduled to compete in the Olympic road race. However, with a busy schedule as is, Knibb chose to bow out, and Kristen Faulkner was called up to take Knibb’s place.

Knibb's first race takes place the morning after the opening ceremonies. Follow along as she takes her chance to make history. See the Olympic cycling schedules and streaming services here.

Knibb’s schedule of Olympic events:

• July 27: Individual time trial
• July 31: Women’s individual triathlon
• August 5: Triathlon mixed team relay

Ellen van Dijk might need help getting off her bike after the Olympic time trial on Saturday, as she is still unable to unclip from her pedals following an ankle break, she revealed on Wednesday. 

The Dutchwoman, a three-time world champion, fractured her ankle in a training crash last month, and faced a six-week battle to be fit in time for the Olympic Games. 

She was named in the Dutch road cycling squad last week, but said she "hasn't had an ideal preparation" for her third Games. 

"The ankle doesn't have much mobility yet," she said after a time trial course recon on Wednesday. "But that's no problem on the bike. I don't have to worry about it. It's just that I can't unclick [sic: unclip] from the pedals, but there's no need for that in the time trial."

Van Dijk underwent surgery on her ankle at the start of June, and was limited to indoor turbo sessions during her recovery. She also trained with a support brace that she put inside her cycling shoe. 

When the training crash happened, she said, she thought her Olympic dream "was all over". 

"It was a tough crash with pretty nasty ramifications, and at that very moment you just don’t know how quick you'll recover," the 37-year-old explained. 

"I held on to the fact that, after my pregnancy, I was back on the bike within three weeks and it felt good. So I thought three weeks after the [ankle] operation, we're still a week ahead of the Games. Of course it's different, but I was very fit when I crashed, so the level will return quickly too."

Van Dijk no longer relies on a brace when she rides, but is still facing some discomfort off the bike. "Walking is more difficult than cycling, but it's not about walking," she said. "[My ankle] doesn't bother me on the bike and that's the most important thing."

Both the men and the women will take on a flat 32.4km route through central Paris in Saturday’s Olympic time trials. Following her recon, Van Dijk said the course "suits" her, although the "surface is bad", with lots of bumps and holes. 

"I'm going to give it my all," she said. "I want to enjoy it, because being here is special as it is." 

Josh Tarling doesn't remember how many time trials he won as a junior. As he sits opposite Cycling Weekly on a video call, he looks over his laptop screen, hoping to pluck a number out of the office air at British Cycling's Manchester headquarters. It's not that it was that long ago for the Brit, who only turned 20 in February. It's that, quite simply, he has lost count.

"Um," he begins, trying to force his memory. "It sounds bad, but I don't think I lost many… and if I didn't win, there'd be an excuse somewhere." 

Since the age of 12, Tarling has been honing the craft of time trialling. In 2022, the year before he turned pro with Ineos Grenadiers, he won nine out of the 10 time trials in which he competed. He then became the European champion the following year, aged just 19, and will make his Olympic debut this Saturday as one of the favourites for gold. 

Asked what his ambitions are for Paris, Tarling offers back a one-word response: "Win." It's the same attitude that he has held throughout his young career, a strength of will that took root as early as his first-ever time trial – a two-up he did with his dad, Michael, shortly after his 12th birthday. 

"It was the same course as my dad's first TT," the 20-year-old remembers, "so we wanted to do it as a two-up to see if I was any good." The verdict quickly became clear. Even today, his dad jokes, "my legs are still aching".

A keen racer himself, Michael was a constant figure in the local time trial scene. It's thanks to him that Josh's passion for cycling began to grow. How much does he remember from his son's first time trial? "To be fair, quite a bit, because it was horrible," he laughs. 

"He started when he was 12, because you have to be 12 to do a TT on open roads. I think it was either late February or early March. It was down in Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, and it was a two-up 25[-mile event] down the A38. It kind of went off around the lanes and back for two laps. It was probably the last time I did a decent turn [riding with Josh], to be honest."

From there, Josh's appetite grew. Still only 12 years old, he signed up to a 100-mile event, set along the carriageways near his home in Aberaeron, West Wales. "It was silly," he remembers. "I wanted to do it. I used to ride for a club and a lot of people used to do it. I think I was the youngest one to do it."

At the time, Michael was preparing for an Ironman event, and entered the time trial as part of his training plan. His son tagged along. "It was a big sausage-shaped circuit," Michael says, "and you do bits of it twice. My parents, and my wife Dawn's parents, and a family friend who was riding, and his family were at various bits along the course. The plan was that [Josh] was going to ride as long as he wanted, and then jump in the car at the next lay-by and come and watch me finish. As it turns out, I didn't finish and he did."

Josh completed the course in four hours, 49 minutes and 14 seconds, with an average speed of 20.7mph. It was, according to Michael, yet another sign of a "determined streak" he first noticed in his son when he was eight years old, battling through a wet and windy sportive in Pembrokeshire. 

"We knew pretty much straight away that there was no way he was going to stop," Michael says of that day. "It was like that with the 100-mile TT too. We all assumed that he wasn't going to finish, and because we all assumed that, he was absolutely determined he was going to finish."

Into his teenage years, Josh and his younger brother Fin, now 17 and set to join Israel Premier Tech's development team, became regular competitors in Ystwyth Cycling Club's weekly 10-mile time trial, held on a Wednesday night. It was over this distance that the now Ineos Grenadiers rider first realised his own talent. 

"When I did my first club 10 in Wales, I wanted to do sub-30 [minutes], so 20mph, and I think I did like 27 [minutes] or something, so I was quite a bit under," he says. "Then we kept doing them, and kept trying to set little milestones. I think only a couple of years later, we tried to do sub 20."

In 2019, aged 15, Josh broke the juvenile 10-mile record, stopping the clock at 18 minutes and 55 seconds – a speed of 31.7mph. Three years later, his brother Fin broke it again, shaving off 47 seconds on the same course outside Aylesbury. Josh has since managed "low 17s" as a senior over 10 miles, a speed of around 35mph, which he says is "not that fast". 

Growing up, Josh ran, swam and did athletics, before settling on cycling. He raced criteriums and road events, most of which ended in a bunch dash to the line. "Josh was never the best sprinter in the country by a long way," his dad says, "so there were a lot of times when he would be quite frustrated".

What really appealed to him was the "all-in" nature of time trialling. "You'd just do one big effort," Josh says. "Strongest wins, and I quite liked that about the TTs."

He would toy with Fin on a Wednesday night, sending his little brother onto the course a minute early to then try and catch him. "He got pretty quick," Josh smiles. "He got further and further into it before I caught him." 

For weekend races, which involved trips across the UK, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, the family would bundle into their campervan, together with their pack of Springer Spaniels. The local Wednesday night trips were more straightforward. "We'd probably get McDonald's on the way back," Josh says. 

Michael laughs at the memory. "He shouldn't have said that," he says, but doesn't deny the facts. "Often the two of them [Josh and Fin] would ride up, do the 10, and then we would drive back again because it was getting dark, and always stop at McDonald's." 

The fastfood chain, it turns out, wasn't only reserved for dinner time. "There's a McDonald's on the way to one of the fast courses in South Wales, so many a Sunday morning breakfast was in McDonald's, and then they'd go and smash a time trial."

Now in the early years of his pro career, Josh has remained vocal in his support of the scene that made him who he is today. His home now is in Andorra, but ahead of last year's National Championships, he returned to the UK to get his eye in with a local 50-mile time trial, which he won by over 25 minutes. He then went on to win the Nationals – a feat he repeated again this June – before taking home a bronze medal from the World Championships in Glasgow. 

"I think it's such an advantage that you can get from the UK," he said after his Worlds podium. "There aren't many places where you can pull on a skinsuit on a Wednesday night and just hurt yourself."

As he looks back on those school nights spent racing, Josh has no trouble pinpointing the skills he picked up. "It helped with the engine a lot," he says, "and I feel comfortable on a TT bike. I don't have any problems cornering or sitting in a horrible position. It made me pretty versatile to changes in position." 

Back then, he says, he never felt like he was racing against other riders. "You were sort of racing yourself. You've got your own record, your own fastest time, or your fastest time on that course. You just go in for that every time, and a bit faster. 

"The by-product is winning the event, if you get me? It was more just about trying to get my fastest time. Now, with the UCI races, it's trying to win the event, but back then it was more about new PBs."

His next race, the Olympic time trial, is all about the win. On Saturday, Josh's family will be by the roadside, as they always are, this time swapping the lumpy Welsh lanes for the boulevards of central Paris. His chances are good; the bookmakers have him as odds-on. Still, perhaps trying to play down expectations, Josh says he doesn't see himself as a favourite. 

"I know other people do," he says. "In my eyes, I watch [Filippo] Ganna, and I watch Remco [Evenepoel], and other people as well, like Magnus [Sheffield] and [Brandon] McNulty and Wout [van Aert], and I almost don't link myself to their level.

"Any pressure will be put on by me to do the performance rather than, 'I'm a favourite, I need to win,'" Josh says. He pauses. "I just want to win," he adds with a smile.

The Olympic men's time trial begins at 15:32 BST on Saturday 27 July, and counts a flat 32.4km course. 

The most powerful cyclists in Team GB's Olympics squad might not be who you think they are. 

For many, the mind will instantly go to the track riders, particularly the sprinters, whose giant quads and explosiveness are among the most impressive in the sport. 

Still, there's a branch of cyclists who are even more powerful. Their bikes are smaller, and their quads are bigger. Meet the BMX racers.  

Introduced into the Olympics in 2008, BMX racing consists of riders barrelling down an eight-metre high start ramp, and vying for positions around a 400m pump track. It's a test of raw strength, and those who compete in the discipline for GB are capable of putting out over 2,500 watts – around 10% more power than the world's best track sprinters.

"Obviously it changes from rider to rider," BMX racer Ross Cullen told Cycling Weekly. "[My peak power] is definitely pushing over 2,500 [watts] on some testing we've done. Obviously we don't know how accurate that is, but we'd like to think it is." 

Cullen will travel to Paris as a reserve rider for Team GB at this summer's Olympics, where his teammate Beth Shriever will defend her gold medal from Tokyo. 

For the reigning women's Olympic champion, power is everything when setting off down the start ramp. "You've got to get moving fast and hard, as quick as you can," Shriever said. "We're doing a lot of power stuff, a lot of strength stuff. Then it's about pedal efficiency as well around the track. You've got to be efficient. You've got to be able to spin, but also create power. It's all very technical." 

Speaking in March this year, Shriever revealed that her power PB was 1,500 watts, with room for progress. "Maybe before the Games it will be 1,600 or 1,700," she said. "I think I'd make some of those girls a bit nervous if I went on the track." 

Next month, GB's track sprinting hopes will be pinned on world champion Emma Finucane, and her teammates, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant, in the women's sprint squad. 

Finucane, although better known for her racing prowess and aero positioning, has a peak power of around 1,400 watts. Marchant is understood to put out the highest numbers in the team, with a peak of around 1,500 watts. 

On the men's side, Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen, a 13-time world champion, has hit powers of over 2,300 watts, setting a peak power of 2,338 watts at last year's UCI Track Champions League. This is still 200 watts short of Cullen's best. 

"I'm going to try the track later this year, and I've told them all I'm going to try and smoke them," Cullen said. Shriever, too, would like to go up against her friends in the track squad. "We'll show them what's what," she smiled.   

The BMX Racing at the Paris Olympics will start on 1 August, with the finals taking place on 2 August. 

Date: 27 July
Location: Paris, France (Pont Alexandre III)
Distance: 32.4km
Elevation gain: 150m
Women’s time trial: 2:30pm (CET), 1:30pm (BST), 8:30 (ET)
Men's time trial: 4:30pm (CET), 3:30pm (BST), 10:30 (ET)

Paris Olympics time trial route

For the first time in the history of the Olympics, men and women will race the same course, over an equal distance, in the time trial. The organisers have laid on a lavish route to mark the occasion, too. Starting and finishing by Pont Alexandre III, the city’s most ostentatiously golden bridge, the riders will trace a 32.4km loop east, along the south bank – or rive gauche – and out into the Bois de Vincennes. They won’t need to look up from their tucked positions to hear the bells of Notre-Dame – which they’ll pass twice – but should they afford themselves a glance at their surroundings, they’ll see the towering column of the Place de la Bastille, the former royal residence of the Château de Vincennes, and the outdoor Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, which hosted the 1900 and 1924 Games. 

When GB’s gold medal hopeful Josh Tarling visited the French capital for a recon in June, together with teammate Anna Henderson, he was taken aback by how city-based the course is. "When they said it was in Paris, I didn’t know if it was going to be sort of near it, but it’s proper central, and it’s definitely fast," Tarling told Cycling Weekly. "I think it could suit me, but I think it could suit two other guys as well. Well, more than two other guys…"

The course is designed to be a true test of speed, favouring those with the fastest engines. There are no hills to tackle, just 150m of minor lumps, and a sparse spattering of obstacles. The biggest challenges will be navigating the twists of the Vincennes Forest, and the drain hole covers peppered throughout the inner-city streets. 

At 32.4km, it will be the longest time trial distance the women have faced at the Olympics, and the shortest ever for the men – a far cry from 1912, the first men’s Olympic time trial, which stretched 320km. 

Paris Olympics time trial favourites

Neither of the two defending champions will compete in Paris, following the retirement of Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands) and the non-selection of Primož Roglič (Slovenia). 

A total of 69 riders – 34 men and 35 women – will race against the clock for medals. Here are a handful of the favourites among them. 

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)

The world champion will no doubt be the favourite for gold in the men's race in Paris. Known in his native Belgium as the ‘Aero Bullet’, the 24-year-old rides like he was born to race on a time trial bike. So much so, in fact, that he has been said to have "fast skin", according to a report in Het Nieuwsblad last year. The finding came during wind tunnel testing, when results showed there to be less airflow resistance when he was bare-armed, compared to when he was wearing long sleeves. His confidence will be boosted by his victory in the first time trial at the Tour de France.

Filippo Ganna (Italy)

No rider is as synonymous with time trialling as Filippo Ganna. The Italian has ruled against the clock in recent years, with 26 of his 33 professional wins coming in the discipline – that’s 79%. He’s a master of short, powerful hit-outs, thanks to his track pursuiting background, but can sustain longer efforts, as evidenced by his Hour record, which he shelved in October 2022. Ganna missed out on a medal by just two seconds in Tokyo. Gold, to match his team pursuit spoils from 2021, would solidify his status as the greatest time trialist in history.  

Josh Tarling (Great Britain)

Asked by Cycling Weekly what his ambitions are for the Olympics time trial, Josh Tarling responded with one word: "Win." The European champion, a product of his local Wednesday night TT scene, has had unprecedented success in his young career, winning five of his last nine individual outings against the clock. Since he was 12 years old, he has been yomping across 100-mile courses, and feels at ease hunched over his handlebars. Still, he’s keen to point out, he doesn’t see himself as a favourite in Paris. "Any pressure will be put on by me to do my performance rather than being a favourite," he says. "I just want to win." 

Chloé Dygert (USA)

A double world champion, Chloé Dygert has been through so much in the curtailed Olympic cycle since Tokyo in 2021 that she doubted if she’d ride again last season. An Epstein-Barr virus diagnosis in early 2022 was followed by heart surgery to treat dangerously accelerating beats. Few riders are as resilient as Dygert, though. Many will know her name from the crash she suffered at the World Championships in 2020, when she flipped over a metal barrier and lacerated her thigh. Today, her left leg is an inch smaller in circumference than her right one, but has still powered her to a TT world title.

Grace Brown (Australia)

"If I come fourth, I’ll be disappointed," Grace Brown recently told The Guardian. It’s easy to understand why. Since the last Olympics, the Australian has contested 10 individual time trials, and only finished off the podium once. This year will be her last pop at an Olympic medal, with her retirement announced for the end of the season. That doesn’t mean she’s lacking firepower, though. Fans only have to watch back her win at April’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where she spent the day in the breakaway, then won the sprint against fresher legs. Now she’s after an Olympic crown to close her career. 

Anna Henderson (Great Britain)

The reigning British champion has quietly established herself as one of the peloton’s most consistent time trial performers over the last few years, even exceeding her own expectations. Ahead of last summer’s World Championships she told her coach she’d be "over the moon" with a top-10 placing, before going on to finish fourth. Henderson then backed up the result with second place at the European Championships the following month. Fun fact: her victory in this year’s National Championships marked the first of any rider wearing Giro’s spaceship-like Aerohead 2.0 helmet.

Other riders to watch

It seems a shame that neither of Slovenia’s two fastest sons, Primož Roglič and Tadej Pogačar, will compete in the time trial in Paris, meaning the former, the champion in Tokyo, will not defend his title. Instead, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad winner Jan Tratnik has received the nod to use Slovenia’s single ticket to the event, a rider perhaps better suited to the flat terrain.

Still, heavier, more powerful riders are likely to fare the best on the Parisian course. This is where the likes of Stefan Küng (Switzerland), the two-time European champion, and Wout van Aert (Belgium), one of his generation’s great all-rounders, are expected to come into their element. 

In the women’s event, Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) would ordinarily be among the favourites, but the triple world champion’s form is unknown after she broke her ankle in a training crash in June, and hasn’t raced since. Denmark’s Emma Norsgaard could be a surprise package in her second stab at the Olympics. The 24-year-old has won her country’s national championships the last four years running, on flat routes not dissimilar to that built for Paris. 

Keep an eye out, too, for the USA’s Taylor Knibb. The 26-year-old will be competing in both the triathlon and the time trial at the Games, having earned her spot in the latter by taking a shock victory in the national championships. Her speciality is longer distances, though; she has won the last two Half Ironman world titles, which count 90km of cycling. 

How to watch the time trials at the Paris Olympics

For those in the US, NBC is the official broadcaster of the Olympics, and all cycling can be viewed via NBC's live streaming service, Peacock.

If you're in the UK, the BBC is the official broadcaster of the Olympics, and will provide live TV coverage on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC iPlayer of all events including cycling.

However, the BBC will not air every 2024 Olympic cycling event and session. You'll need Discovery Plus (£6.99 per month) to watch all of the cycling from the Paris Games in the UK and across Europe. Likewise, Peacock TV will host live streams of all the Olympic cycling in the US. Subscription costs $7.99 per month.

Cycling fans in Australia can watch all of the 2024 Olympics cycling free on Channel 9 and the 9Now streaming service.

Paris Olympics time trial men's startlist

AUSTRALIA
PLAPP Lucas 

AUSTRIA
GROSSSCHARTNER Felix 

BELGIUM
EVENEPOEL Remco
VAN AERT Wout 

CANADA
GEE Derek 

CZECHIA
VACEK Mathias 

DENMARK
BJERG Mikkel
SKJELMOSE Mattias 

ERITREA
GIRMAY Biniam 

FRANCE
VAUQUELIN Kévin 

GERMANY
SCHACHMANN Max 

GREAT BRITAIN
TARLING Joshua 

HUNGARY
VALTER Attila 

INDIVIDUAL NEUTRAL ATHLETE
SYRITSA Gleb 

IRELAND
MULLEN Ryan 

ITALY
BETTIOL Alberto
GANNA Filippo 

KAZAKHSTAN
FEDOROV Yevgeniy

MONGOLIA
SAINBAYAR Jambaljamts 

MOROCCO
ED DOGHMY Achraf 

NETHERLANDS
HOOLE Daan 

NEW ZEALAND
PITHIE Laurence 

NORWAY
FOSS Tobias
WÆRENSKJOLD Søren 

POLAND
KWIATKOWSKI Michał 

PORTUGAL
COSTA Rui
OLIVEIRA Nelson 

REFUGEE OLYMPIC TEAM
ANSARI Amir Arslan 

SLOVENIA
TRATNIK Jan 

SPAIN
LAZKANO Oier 

SWITZERLAND
BISSEGGER Stefan
KÜNG Stefan 

USA
MCNULTY Brandon
SHEFFIELD Magnus

Paris Olympics time trial women's startlist

AFGHANISTAN
HASHIMI Yulduz 

AUSTRALIA
BROWN Grace 

AUSTRIA
KIESENHOFER Anna
SCHWEINBERGER Christina 

BELGIUM
KOPECKY Lotte

CANADA
BARIL Olivia 

CHINA
TANG Xin 

CZECHIA  
KOPECKY Julia 

DENMARK
UTTRUP LUDWIG Cecilie
NORSGAARD Emma 

FINLAND
AHTOSALO Anniina 

FRANCE
CORDON-RAGOT Audrey
LABOUS Juliette 

GERMANY
KRÖGER Mieke
NIEDERMAIER Antonia 

GREAT BRITAIN
HENDERSON Anna 

INDIVIDUAL NEUTRAL ATHLETE
DRONOVA Tamara
TSERAKH Hanna 

ITALY
LONGO BORGHINI Elisa 

NETHERLANDS
VAN DIJK Ellen
VOLLERING Demi 

NEW ZEALAND
CADZOW Kim 

POLAND
LACH Marta
SKALNIAK-SÓJKA Agnieszka 

RWANDA
INGABIRE Diane 

SLOVAKIA
JENCUSOVA Nora 

SLOVENIA
BUJAK Eugenia
PINTAR Ursa 

SPAIN
BENITO Mireia 

SWITZERLAND
HARTMANN Elena 

THAILAND
SOMRAT Phetdarin 

UKRAINE
BIRIUKOVA Yuliia 

USA
DYGERT Chloé
KNIBB Taylor 

UZBEKISTAN
ZABELINSKAYA Olga

Tadej Pogačar will not take part in the Paris Olympics road race, it was announced on Monday.

The day after the Slovenian won the Tour de France, Slovenia's Olympic Committee announced that the three-time Tour champion would not start the road race, which takes place on 4 August, in under a fortnight's time.

Team Slovenia wrote on Twitter: "Men's Cycling Team Selector Unveils Names for Paris Olympics. Unfortunately, Tadej Pogačar will not be among them. He will be replaced by national team colleague Domen Novak. We wish Domen all the best and success. Once again Tadej, congratulations for Tour de France win!"

It was expected that the UAE Team Emirates rider would take part in the Olympic Games; he was originally named as part of the four-man team alongside Matej Mohorič, Luka Mezgec and Jan Tratnik. He would have gone to the race as an outstanding favourite, given his form at the Tour, where he won six stages. He also won the Giro d'Italia this year, taking six stages there as well. The Olympic road race looked like a course that would suit Pogačar, a former winner of the Tour of Flanders.

In his press conference on Sunday evening, Pogačar hinted at taking a break from racing ahead of the World Championships, but did not confirm or deny that he would be racing the Olympics.

"I’m super tired, thanks for caring," the 25-year-old said. "That’s why I think I need a little bit of rest now after the Tour. I want to see a bit of family, friends, stay with Urška [Žigart, his partner] to recharge the batteries, because the last four months was full gas. There was so much time away from home. I’m tired. 

"In December, you make the programme, which races you want to do. I try to focus on the Giro first, and I didn’t have many race days before, quite few actually, so it was a good balance with two grand tours. I didn’t do too much racing, and it helps also if you have good legs."

Pogačar expressed a desire to challenge at the World Championships, which this year will take place in Zurich, Switzerland, in September. He will not be racing the Vuelta a España, the only Grand Tour he is yet to win.

There was controversy in Slovenia's cycling selection for the Olympics when Žigart  was not selected for the road events, despite being national champion in both the road race and time trial.

The Liv AlUla Jayco rider wrote at the time: "Didn’t expect this to reach the highs it did. I have come to terms with the decision a long while ago. It is not my intention to force participation at all. Especially, because I don't think I want to race somewhere where they don't appreciate me and to be with people who only put me down.

"But I am allowed to express my disagreement with being left out of the selection and to point out the inexistence of actual objective criteria in the selection process."

The Paris 2024 Olympic Games road races and time trials start and finish in the heart of the famous city.

The day after the opening ceremony, on the 27 July, the men's and women's time trials take place on a 32.4km route into Paris, before the road races take place the next weekend, the men's on the 4 August and the women's on the 3 August.

The road races are lumpy affairs without being suited to the pure climbers, as the Tokyo course was three years ago. Instead, this is more on for the puncheurs, those that rise to the top at the Tour of Flanders and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The favourites, then, will be the likes of Lotte Kopecky (Belgium), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), and Wout van Aert (Belgium). 

The men's road race is 273km long with 2,800 metres of climbing, while the women's is 158 kilometres long with 1,700 metres of climbing. Both time trials take place over a 32.4km route which barely takes in any climbing.

Cycling Weekly will have a reporter on the ground in Paris throughout the Games, with our dedicated news team brining you reports from every road and track cycling event. Want to watch along at home? Here's how to watch the cycling at the Paris Olympics, and an outline of the Paris Olympics cycling schedule.

Men's road race

The 237km-long men's road race sees 13 categorised climbs adding up to 2,800m of climbing; this means slightly less distance covered, but with a bit more altitude added in. It is not a flat day, but neither is it a climber's course.

The men's peloton is just 90 riders strong, with teams having a maximum of four each, so it will be a lot less tactical that trade team racing, and more of a race of feel and strength.

The race essentially takes in three loops, two giant ones to the west of the city, before returning into the centre for a circuit around Montmartre.

The key climbs include the 1.9km Côte des Gardes (6%), the Côte de Saint-Germain En-Laye (1.1km at 5.5%), the Côte des Mesnuls (1.1km at 6.1%), the Côte de Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (1.3km at 6.3%), and the Côte de Bièvres (1.2km at 6.5%). The Côte du Pavé des Gardes is tackled in the opposite direction with 68km to go, which is 1.3km at 6.5%, but with ramps up to 9%.

The finish is flat, but it follows three times of the 18.4km finishing circuit, taking on the Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1km at 6.5%), the last with just 9.5km remaining before the medals are decided.

Women's road race

The women's road race, at 158km long with 1,700m of climbing, again is slightly shorter than the Tour of Flanders, but with quite a bit more climbing. There are nine categorised climbs, according to the organisers.

It's much the same as the men's route, just with one of the giant loops cut off, and takes in the same Montmartre circuit at the finish.

The key climbs are the Côte des Gardes (1.9km at 6%) and the Côte de Port-Royal (1km at 5.5%), followed by the Côte de Saint-Rémy-lès-Chevreuse (1.3km at 6.3%).

The Montmartre circuit with the Côte de la Butte Montmartre (1km at 6.5%) is tackled twice before a flat finish.

Time trials

The men's and women's time trials both use exactly the same 32.4km route, which barely takes in any climbing. It is a course for the pure rouleurs, the likes of Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) and Josh Tarling (GB). 

They begin and finish in central Paris, by Invalides. The course heads east to the Bois de Vincennes, with the tightest corners near the Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, before an incredibly straight final 5km. Power will win out.

Olympic debutants Jess Roberts and Anna Morris will ride for Team GB, it was revealed, as British Cycling released the final riders selected for the Paris Olympics. 

Notably absent from the line-up is Katie Archibald, who suffered a catalogue of injuries last month, breaking bones in her lower leg after an innocuous garden fall.

Also announced on Thursday afternoon was the women's road squad, which includes Lizzie Deignan, racing her fourth Olympics, and GB's BMX team.

It follows the first announcement from late June, which saw 21 athletes selected across track, road and mountain bike disciplines. 

Without Archibald, an ever-present in GB squads at Olympics, World Championships and European Championships in the last decade, a reshuffle was required in the track endurance team for Paris. Roberts and Neah Evans come into the team pursuit squad which won gold at last year's World Championships in Glasgow, with Meg Barker, as a travelling reserve. 

The full team is now Elinor Barker, Roberts, Evans, Morris, and Josie Knight. Evans, Knight and Barker were all silver medallists in Tokyo three years ago. Roberts was not riding in 2021, having taken a break from cycling, while Morris was working as a doctor in intensive care during the Covid pandemic. 

It's not yet confirmed who will race the omnium, the discipline in which Archibald is a former world champion and current European champion.

Deignan will be joined in the road race by Morris, national road race champion Pfeiffer Georgi, and national time trial champion Anna Henderson. Henderson will take GB's sole spot in the time trial, which she will be a favourite for.

The BMX squad consists of world champion Kieran Reilly and defending Olympic champion Charlotte Worthington in the freestyle park discipline. Meanwhile, BMX racing Olympic champion Beth Shriever will defend the women’s title having recovered from a recent collarbone injury, while Kye Whyte will represent GB in the men's event, having won silver at Tokyo. Travelling reserves for BMX racing will be Ross Cullen and Emily Hutt.

"I’m hugely excited for each of and every one of the riders we have announced today to represent Team GB in Paris, which completes our team selection for the Games," Stephen Park, BC's performance director, said. 

"We’re blessed with an incredible depth of talent and experience across all five of the cycling disciplines, and I know that the squad will benefit hugely from the likes of Lizzie Deignan and Elinor Barker who will join us for their fourth and third Games respectively.  

"Achieving gender parity across the squad is something we’ve been working towards for a number of years, and I’m hugely proud of the work our support staff have done to support our three mums on the squad, who are blazing a trail for women at the highest level of elite sport.  

"Our riders have delivered some of the most iconic and memorable Olympic moments of recent times, and I have every faith that our riders can inspire the nation once again at Paris 2024."

The cycling events at the Paris Olympics begin on 27 July with the men's and women's time trials, and conclude with the final races on the track on 11 August. The road races will take place on the weekend of 3-4 August, starting and finishing in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

Full GB Olympic cycling squad

Women's road:
Lizzie Deignan
Pfeiffer Georgi
Anna Henderson (TT and road race)
Anna Morris

Men’s road: 
Ethan Hayter (TT only)
Tom Pidcock
Josh Tarling (TT and road race)
Stevie Williams
Fred Wright 

Women's track endurance:
Elinor Barker 
Neah Evans 
Josie Knight 
Anna Morris 
Jess Roberts 
Meg Barker (reserve) 

Men’s track endurance:
Dan Bigham
Ethan Hayter
Charlie Tanfield
Ethan Vernon
Ollie Wood
Mark Stewart (reserve)

Women’s track sprint: 
Sophie Capewell
Emma Finucane
Katy Marchant
Lowri Thomas (reserve)

Men’s track sprint:
Jack Carlin
Ed Lowe
Hamis Turnball
Joe Truman (reserve)

Men’s mountain bike:
Tom Pidcock
Charlie Aldridge

Women’s mountain bike:
Evie Richards
Ella Maclean-Howell

Men’s BMX Freestyle Park 
Kieran Reilly 

Women’s BMX Freestyle Park
Charlotte Worthington 

 Men’s BMX Racing 
Kye Whyte 
Ross Cullen (reserve) 

Women’s BMX Racing 
Beth Shriever 
Emily Hutt (reserve) 

The 2024 Paris Olympics are almost upon us already, with 22 gold medals on offer across the fortnight for people on bikes.

Cycling takes place almost all the way through from start to finish with road cycling one of the opening events of the Games.

The cycling events kick off on Saturday 27 July, with the final track events on Sunday 11 August.

The day after the opening ceremony the men's and women's time trials take place on a 32.4km route into Paris, before the road races take place the next weekend.

There is also a lot of  track cycling, which takes place between 5 August and the final day of the Games on 11 August. There are six track events: the team pursuit, the omnium, the Madison, the sprint, the team sprint, and the keirin.

Elsewhere, there'll be the women's and men's cross-country mountain biking races, which take place on Sunday 28 July and Monday 29 July, respectively.

Finally there's the two BMX events, making their return for the second time, Freestyle and the Racing. The Freestyle takes place on Tuesday 30 and Wednesday 31 July, with the Racing on Thursday 1 and Friday 2 August.

Paris 2024 Olympics cycling schedule (France time)

Road races

• Saturday 3 August, men's road race, 10am-5:15pm CEST, (273km)
• Sunday 4 August, women's road race, 1pm-5:45pm CEST (158km)

Time trials

• Saturday 27 July, men's and women's individual time trials, 2:30pm-6:30pm CEST (both 32.4km)

Track - Monday 5 August, 5pm-7:40pm CEST

• Women's Team Sprint, qualifying
• Men's, Team Pursuit, qualifying
• Women's Team Sprint, first round
• Men's Team Sprint, qualifying
• Women's Team Sprint, finals

Track - Tuesday 6 August, 5:30pm-7:55pm CEST

• Women's Team Pursuit, qualifying
• Men's Team Sprint, first round
• Men's Team Pursuit, first round
• Men's Team Sprint, finals

Track - Wednesday 7 August, 12:45pm-3.30pm CEST

• Men's Sprint, qualifying
• Women's Keirin, first round
• Women's Team Pursuit, first round
• Men's Sprint, 1/32 finals and repechages, 1/16 finals, and 1/8 finals and repechanges
• Women's Keirin, first round and repechages
• Men's Team Pursuit, finals
• Women's Team Pursuit, finals

Track - Thursday 8 August, 5:30pm-7:55pm CEST

• Men's Omnium, Scratch Race 1\4
• Men's Sprint, quarter finals
• Women's Keirin, quarter finals, semi finals, and finals
• Men's Sprint, quarter finals
• Men's Omnium, Tempo Race 2\4
• Men's Omnium, Elimination Race 3\4
• Men's Omnium, Points Race 4\4

Track - Friday 9 August, 2:30pm-3:45pm CEST

• Women's Sprint, qualifying
• Men's Sprint, semi finals, and finals
• Women's Sprint, 1/32 finals and repechages, 1/16 finals and repechages
• Women's Madison, final
• Women's Sprint 1/16 Finals

Track - Saturday, 10 August, 5:00pm-7:55pm CEST

• Women's Sprint, 1/8 finals, and quarter finals
• Men's Keirin, first round and repechages
• Men's Keirin Repechages
• Men's Madison, final

Track - Sunday, 11 August, 11:00am-2:15pm CEST

• Women's Omnium, Scratch Race 1/4
• Women's Sprint, semi finals and finals
• Men's Keirin, quarter finals, semi finals and finals
• Women's Omnium, Tempo Race 2/4
• Women's Omnium. Elimination Race 3/4
• Women's Omnium. Points Race 4/4

BMX

• Tuesday 30 July, BMX Freestyle Qualification, 12:25pm
• Wednesday 31 July, BMX Freestyle Finals, 12:10pm
• Thursday 1 August, BMX Racing Qualifiers, 7pm
• Friday 2 August, BMX Racing Finals, 7pm

MTB

• Sunday 28 July, Women's Cross Country, 1pm
• Monday 29 July, Men's Cross Country, 1pm

Geraint Thomas has missed out on selection for the final Olympic Games of his career, with the Welshman not picked as part of the men's road squad, which was announced on Monday.

The 38-year-old, a double Olympic gold medallist on the track, was omitted from the five-man team for the road events, meaning he will not take part in the road race or time trial.

It will be the first Games the Ineos Grenadiers rider has missed since Athens in 2004, as the GB team looks towards the future. He is set to retire at the end of 2025.

Thomas won gold in the team pursuit at Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, before racing the time trial and road race at both Rio in 2016, and Tokyo in 2021.

In his place, the Welsh time trialling sensation Josh Tarling - last week crowned British champion for a second year in a row - and Ethan Hayter will likely compete in the race against the clock, with the latter also taking part in the track events.

Tarling will be joined by Fred Wright, Stevie Williams and Tom Pidcock in the road race; Pidcock will also compete in the XCO mountain bike event.

Thomas recently finished third overall at the Giro d'Italia, and is regularly a high finisher in time trials, coming fourth on stage 14 at the Italian Grand Tour. He also came second on two of the three individual time trials at the 2023 Giro. 

However, he is not known for his proficiency in one-day races, especially in recent years, although he has won gold in the Commonwealth Games Road Race in 2014.

Stephen Park, British Cycling's performance director, told The Guardian: "In his time-trialling, he’s not been in great form in our view. We try to think carefully and consider all the evidence in front of us. Clearly he had a good Giro and is in the [Ineos] Tour de France team. But there is some incredible competition and in the road race we have only four riders we can pick.

"We decided that the younger riders would be in better form getting to the end of the Tour, physically and mentally. With a one-day race, it’s different and Geraint will be at the end of a very long season by the time he gets there."

Thomas is part of Ineos Grenadiers' eight-man squad for the upcoming Tour de France, although he is not thought to be a leader, that being Carlos Rodríguez instead.

Defending mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock, European time trial champion Josh Tarling, and world track sprint champion Emma Finucane are among the first riders officially selected to represent Team GB at next month's Paris Olympics. 

Team GB made the first of two squad announcements on Monday, listing 21 athletes selected across track, road and mountain bike disciplines. 

Pidcock will compete in both the men's cross-country mountain bike event and the road race in Paris. Newly crowned national road champion Ethan Hayter will also race across disciplines, as part of the road and track squad. 

Joining Pidcock and Hayter in the road squad will be former national champion Fred Wright and La Flèche Wallonne winner Stevie Williams, as well as Tarling, who will carry British hopes in the time trial. 

The men's track endurance squad will comprise Ollie Wood, Ethan Vernon, Dan Bigham and Hayter – the four riders who won the team pursuit world title in 2022. Charlie Tanfield is also part of the squad, while Mark Stewart will travel as a reserve. 

The women's track sprint squad, which failed to qualify for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, return to the Olympics this year as medal favourites across the three events (team sprint, keirin and individual sprint). Finucane will race alongside Sophie Capewell and Rio bronze medallist Katy Marchant in the team sprint. Lowri Thomas will be the team’s reserve rider. 

Tokyo silver and bronze medallist Jack Carlin leads the men's track sprint squad, alongside Hamish Turnball, Ed Lowe, and travelling reserve Joe Truman.  

“We’re blessed with an incredibly talented, passionate and hungry squad of riders,” said performance director Stephen Park. “We are now fully focused on supporting their final preparations so that they can be at their very best come Paris.”

Team GB is yet to announce the women's road squad, women's track endurance squad, and BMX squads for the Games. A second squad announcement is expected on 4 July. 

Last week, it was revealed that two-time gold medallist Katie Archibald will miss this year's Olympics, after breaking her ankle in a freak accident. 

"I tripped over a step in the garden and managed to, somehow, dislocate my ankle; break my tibia and fibula; and rip two ligaments off the bone," Archibald wrote on Instagram. "A hundred apologies for what this means for the Olympic team, which I've been told won't involve me."

The cycling events at the Paris Olympics begin on 27 July with the men's and women's time trials, and conclude with the final races on the track on 11 August. The road races will take place on the weekend of 3-4 August, starting and finishing in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

The 21 riders selected in the first squad announcement are listed below. 

Riders selected in first squad announcement

Men’s road: 
Ethan Hayter (TT only)
Tom Pidcock
Josh Tarling (TT and road race)
Stevie Williams
Fred Wright 

Men’s track endurance:
Dan Bigham
Ethan Hayter
Charlie Tanfield
Ethan Vernon
Ollie Wood
Mark Stewart (reserve)

Women’s track sprint: 
Sophie Capewell
Emma Finucane
Katy Marchant
Lowri Thomas (reserve)

Men’s track sprint:
Jack Carlin
Ed Lowe
Hamis Turnball
Joe Truman (reserve)

Men’s mountain bike:
Tom Pidcock
Charlie Aldridge

Women’s mountain bike:
Evie Richards
Ella Maclean-Howell

A silver medal, won in a track cycling event at the 1900 Olympic Games, has been scored off Great Britain's Olympic tally and reassigned to France. 

Lloyd Hildebrand claimed second in the men's 25km race over a century ago, when he was said to be of British nationality. 

New information has since revealed that Hildebrand "was born and brought up in France", according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), whose executive board approved the reassignment of the medal in a meeting on Thursday.  

"Even though Hildebrand was a British citizen, he was born and brought up in France, and competed for a French club before and after Paris 1900," the IOC said in a statement. 

"The medal won by Hildebrand will now be credited to France instead of Great Britain in the official records of the Olympic Games Paris 1900 and in the IOC's database."

At the time of the 1900 Olympics, athletes signed up for the Games using the number of their race licence, issued by the country where they tended to compete. As a British citizen, regularly racing in the UK, Hildebrand was therefore considered British. 

Today, the athlete registration process is more rigorous, managed by each country's National Olympic Committee, like the British Olympic Association for Team GB. 

As a result of Hildebrand's nationality reassignment, France took a clean sweep in the 25km track event, which was won by Louis Bastien, an athlete who also competed in fencing at the 1900 Games. 

In response to losing a historic medal, a Team GB spokesperson told the BBC: “We were aware of the change of status for the medal, and have ourselves benefited in such circumstances before.

"We shall try to win one back later this summer!"

This July, the Olympics will return to Paris, where Great Britain will be favourites in a range of disciplines, having topped the cycling medal table in each of the last four Games. 

The cycling events will open with the individual time trials on 27 July, and close with the final races on the track on 11 August. The road races will take place on the weekend of 3-4 August, starting and finishing in front of the Eiffel Tower. 

Two-time world time trial champion Filippo Ganna knows he has young Brit Josh Tarling snapping at his heels ahead of the Olympics. So much so, that the Italian says his Ineos Grenadiers teammate motivates him to go faster against the clock. 

Tarling, who became European time trial champion at just 19 years old last year, is one of the scene's most promising young talents. The now 20-year-old will compete for Team GB at the Paris Olympics this July, where both he and Ganna will go as gold medal contenders in the time trial. 

Speaking to Cycling Weekly, the Italian said he is hoping for a "good fight" with his young teammate. 

"I think Josh is one of the best riders at the moment," Ganna said. "He's European champion, and has a lot of victories also in the TT. He's young, but really, really strong. I hope he can be a good fight for me. For sure, he's one of the motivations I have for training well, so I can beat him."

Tarling is yet to better Ganna in a time trial since turning pro at the start of 2023. The duo faced off twice last year, placing first and second at the Ethias-Tour de Wallonie, and second and third at the UCI World Championships, behind winner Remco Evenepoel. 

At this summer's Olympics, both the men and women will tackle the same flat 32.4km course, which heads east through the centre of Paris, and counts a number of sharp turns. 

On Thursday, GB coach Matt Brammeier posted a picture on X of Tarling and Anna Henderson under the Eiffel Tower, on a recon ride of the course. "57 days," Brammeier wrote, counting down to the race. "Starting to feel a bit real now."

Tarling has made no secret in recent months of his ambitions for the Games. "I'm going to Paris to win," he told The Guardian in April. "I'd like to do the road race as well, but it depends, because there's only four spots. I also want to do the Madison on the track. So I'd like to win the Madison and the TT."

Team GB's selection for the Olympics is not yet finalised, and is expected to be announced in the next month. Tarling's place on the track is not guaranteed, although he has featured in the team pursuit squad this year; he was part of the team that won gold at the Nations Cup round in Adelaide, Australia in February. 

The men's time trial will take place on 27 July, starting and finishing at Invalides in the centre of Paris. 

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 18 April 2024. Subscribe now and never miss an issue. 

“Flat white please,” say Emma Finucane and Sophie Capewell in unison. It’s a well-rehearsed coffee order, one that GB’s track sprinting duo have made a hobby of placing around the world. They’ve asked for it at competitions in Switzerland and Egypt, Australia and Hong Kong. Today, though, they’re a stone’s throw from home. It’s late February, the morning after the National Track Championships, and we’re in Manchester, sitting in a café in the trendy Ancoats district, north of the city centre. The sign on the door reads ‘Off The Press’ – Finucane has chosen an apt spot for a magazine interview, notes accompanying press officer, British Cycling's Ellie Stott. 

We remove our jackets and assemble at a round, wooden table. “I never used to be a flat white girl,” says Finucane, the Welsh-born world and European sprint champion. “I used to be a cappuccino girl.” Capewell’s a bit of a coffee connoisseur, she explains, and has her own machine at home. “I can do a tulip,” she says proudly, when I ask about her latte art repertoire, “but that’s as much as I can do so far.” 

What Capewell lacks in milk-pouring skills, however, she makes up for in her ability on the track. This August, she and Finucane will go to the Paris Olympics as two of GB’s brightest medal hopes. They’re part of the new wave in the women’s sprint team, a pillar of the GB track squad that has struggled in recent years, but having failed to qualify for the previous two Olympic Games, now looks odds-on for success.

The walls of the café are made almost entirely of glass. Sunlight cascades through, across the countertops, bathing the giant potted plants that are as tall as the ceiling. Outside, the weather is crisp. Like almost every other day, today is a training day for Finucane and Capewell. This afternoon, they’re down to practise team sprint starts, but not without getting their fix of caffeine first. Within seven minutes of their flat whites arriving at our table, their mugs are empty. “The amount of coffee we consume is outrageous,” Finucane says. So intense are their training sessions that the pair are encouraged to take it very easy off the bike. That’s why they know Manchester’s café scene better than anybody else. 

Before Christmas, ahead of their first races of this key Olympic year, the women’s sprint team laboured through a tough block of weightlifting. It’s crucial for their discipline of the sport, which hinges on going fast, putting immense power through the pedals. At the Manchester Velodrome, they share the gym with fellow GB cyclists, something they find highly motivating. 

“When someone’s going for a key lift, people will always shout for each other,” says Finucane. Capewell picks out a recent memory. “Ross Cullen from BMX went for a PB and he picked the time when everyone was in the gym, and everyone just screamed,” she laughs. Spurred on, Cullen managed 155kg for a clean lift – where the barbell is lifted from the floor to shoulder height in one smooth motion. “It was a gym record as well. We have a little tally going of the best lifts.”

Reluctantly, Capewell admits that she too features on the records list, having managed 105kg, also for a clean lift. “The gym’s new,” the 25-year-old adds, “and it’s really good. We’re all currently putting new records up on the board because all the other ones are from our old gym. Everyone’s a bit like, ‘Ah, someone’s just done this, so I’m going to put two more kilos on it.’”

Unlike road riders, track sprinters often have to wait months between competitions. What’s more, their biggest goal comes only once every four years. Camaraderie is key to keeping spirits high through training blocks. “Sprinters pick different music in the gym,” Finucane explains. “We’ve now discovered the jam feature on Spotify. One person is in control, and you can add songs to it.” What sort of music do heavy-lifting riders choose? “Well,” starts Capewell, “you can tell when someone’s going for a lift because a lot of people have a certain song they like to put on. Hamish [Turnball, sprinter] picks Numb/Encore [by Linkin Park and Jay-Z], so you know he’s going for a big lift when that comes on in the queue. It’s always the same one.” 

Not everyone can sing along, though. “Emma’s a little bit younger and doesn’t know all the stuff. It’s always like, ‘Emma, do you know this song?’ We’re trying to educate her. She doesn’t know a lot of the R&B club anthems. She has a very specific music taste.” Finucane nods in agreement. “I’ll know the chorus,” the 21-year-old responds, “but that’s about it. I listen to Katy Perry, Post Malone and Fred Again.” Bashfully, she confesses a soft spot for Katy Perry’s song Teenage Dream (“an absolute bop”). “I don’t put it on in the gym because I’d get ripped for that,” she adds. “It’s one for my headphones only.”  

Of course, it’s not all fun and games for the sprint squad. After winning silver at last year’s World Championships in Glasgow, breaking the world record in the final but still losing out to Germany by seven-hundredths of a second, they set out to go deeper than ever behind the scenes. Their gym sessions have been built around pushing their muscles to the limit, making their legs burn as intensely as they do in races. “I’ve cried,” says Finucane bluntly. “It’s the most horrific feeling ever.” Capewell offers her team-mate solidarity. “We’ve both cried during blocks,” she says. “It would always be at the end of the session, just us two crying at the back of the gym. In the back of your mind, you’re thinking, ‘If I can get past the suffering here, I can do it on the bike’.”

The hard work, it’s clear, is paying off. Buoyed by her rainbow bands, Finucane has won three individual gold medals this year. Together with Katy Marchant, she and Capewell also won team sprint gold in each of the opening two UCI Nations Cup rounds, held in Adelaide and Hong Kong. The first was a momentous victory, one that came over a decade after GB’s last success in the event – or precisely “4,095 days” notes a smiling Capewell. “We sat down the Friday before and the coaches had figured out how many days it had been. We kept getting close, but we hadn’t quite crossed that line in terms of being on the top step.” 

With gold medals now in reach, the focus is on getting faster. Not since Glasgow has the squad clocked below 46 seconds in competition in the three-lap team sprint. Helping them get there is their coach, Scott Pollock, who came in as a late swap last year, after four-time world champion Kaarle McCulloch chose to return to her native Australia.

“Scott’s great,” says Finucane. Previously, both she and Capewell have spoken at length about the positive impact McCulloch had on them, as people as much as athletes. There were tears when the Australian left, and a concern of disruption so late in the Olympic cycle. “[Pollock] came in at a weird time for us,” Finucane continues. “It’s hard for anyone to come into a squad and try and change things, but he’s really, really good. I feel like I’ve taken what I’ve learned from Kaarle, and using what I’ve learned with him, we’re working well as a team.” 

A former strength and conditioning coach, Pollock knows what it’s like to be dropped into a high-pressure situation, having been called in late to coach the men’s sprint squad into Tokyo in 2021. “He’s really switched on,” says Finucane. “He’ll go and analyse races for hours, and analyse riders, their strengths and weaknesses. He carries round this big book that I haven’t seen much of, but when he opens it you’re like, ‘Wow, OK.’” 

Together with Pollock, the team takes time to watch their races back. They pore over footage of the opposition, too; the Germans and the Chinese look to be their biggest rivals for the gold medal this summer. Who else is on their radar? “We keep an eye on every team we can,” Capewell says. “Anything can happen when the Games come around, but we can only control ourselves. There’s only so much you can do watching everyone else.” 

Interestingly, some of that competition might come from within their own team. As they sit, sipping from matching GB bidons, both Finucane and Capewell are aware that they could be drawn against each other in Paris in the individual events – the keirin and the match sprint. “I think that’s why we are successful,” explains Finucane, “because we have that in-house competition. We qualified first and second at Worlds, and we’ve raced against each other.” The 21-year-old politely leaves out the detail that, when the duo faced off in the Nations Cup final in Cairo last March, she won 2-0 in a best of three. “I think it’s really cool that we can race against each other internally and at a really high level,” Finucane adds. 

Still, despite there being three sprint events at the Olympics, the squad’s main training focus is the team sprint. It’s in this discipline that they practise the key principles of acceleration, aerodynamic positioning, and holding their line. And yet, they seldom race the full three laps in training. “We do half the distance,” explains Finucane. “Sometimes in flying efforts we’ll do a flying 100m, which is half, and you can kind of gauge, but until you get to race day, you never actually know.” 

One thing they’re both certain of, though, is that it will take a world record to win in Paris. The benchmark in the team sprint currently stands at 45.848 seconds, set by Germany in last year’s World Championships final. As this issue of CW goes to press, there are 109 days – that’s 9.4 million seconds – until the women’s team sprint final on 5 August. “At the end of the day, in Paris, whoever the GB three are, they’ll be trying to find tenths of a second off each other’s laps,” says Finucane, conscious the trio is yet to be finalised. At this stage, Marchant looks likely to be the third name. “When you know the final team, that’s when you start finding tenths in the changeovers and the lines you do, how you execute, how you ride, and how you trust each other. Then it will start to come together.” 

A tenth of a second. That’s what could stand between them and an Olympic gold medal. “It’s not even the blink of an eye,” says Capewell. Scientifically, she’s right, but in track sprinting, a sport fought in the narrowest of margins, a tenth is a big gap to close. “It’s massive,” says Finucane, who regularly hits in excess of 1,400 watts. “Every race is different. You could win by a bike length, you could lose by a hair. We work so, so hard for those marginal gains. It might only be a tenth of a second, but it’s not just a click of the fingers. It’s hard. I think that motivates us every day.”

As the pair stand up to leave, Finucane turns to Capewell and huffs in embarrassment. “Teenage Dream is definitely going in the piece,” she says. They then swing by the counter, order another coffee to go, and set off for the velodrome.

The bike that Team GB’s athletes will hope to ride to glory at this summer’s Paris Olympics has been officially launched. 

The latest incarnation of the Hope-Lotus HBT was developed in partnership with Lotus Engineering, Renishaw, and Hope Technology, and made its debut at the Track World Championships in Glasgow last year.

However, this was used just once for homologation at last summer’s competition, before its manufacturers set to work in getting a fleet ready for Paris, with events kicking off in under 100 days. It follows on from the success of the Tokyo track bike, also a Hope-Lotus collaboration, which saw GB’s riders win seven medals, including three golds.

The new Hope-Lotus design has the same characteristically wide seat stays as the first edition, but now features a split seatpost, ribbed forks and aero-enhanced handlebars. It also comes with a 3D-printed optimised Renishaw titanium crank.

According to GB performance director Stephen Park, the “impressive machine” gives GB’s riders the “best possible platform to succeed”. He previously called it the “most advanced bike that has ever been ridden by British athletes”. 

The bike has incredibly wide fork blades, in order to reduce high-pressure air buildup around the front wheel by giving the turbulent airflow as much room as possible. The fork blades also adjoin right at the top of the headtube, in order to improve stiffness. The split seatpost also aids aerodynamic gains.

It comes with two different setups, with TT-style extensions for the pursuit, and drop handlebars for other races.

“Lotus’ long-standing collaboration with British Cycling has been pivotal in advancing the frontiers of sporting performance and engineering with the 2024 Hope-Lotus Olympic track bike,” Mark Stringer, the commercial director at Lotus Engineering, said.

This ongoing partnership has enriched our depth of knowledge, further enhancing and embracing the innovation that proved successful in Tokyo. We’ve been able to continue pushing engineering boundaries in the pursuit of performance to deliver efficiencies and to give British track riders the best possible opportunity for success.”

The Hope frame was manufactured in Barnoldswick, Lancashire.

Last year, Cycling Weekly revealed a new line of skinsuits debuted by Team GB for homologation before the Olympics. These included the Project 1.0, designed by Kalas in partnership with aero experts Vorteq, and a never-before-seen, thick-collared suit worn by Will Tidball at the World Championships in 2023.

Great Britain has qualified a full track cycling squad for the Paris Olympics this summer. 

The final qualification rankings were confirmed on Tuesday by the UCI, with GB meeting the quota criteria in every event. 

As a result, 14 British riders, seven per gender, will travel to Paris, France in August to compete at the Games. The squad will also be allowed to pull in one male and one female athlete from another cycling discipline, such as road, mountain bike or BMX, meaning up to 16 athletes will ride on the track.

It is the first time GB will be present in every track event since London 2012, having failed to meet the qualification requirements for the women's team sprint at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. 

With no more major track competitions remaining before the Olympics, the GB coaches will now select the riders to compete in Paris. The full squad, containing additional reserve riders, is expected to be announced near the end of June. 

There are six track cycling medal events at the Olympics for both the men and women: three sprint events (team sprint, individual sprint and keirin) and three endurance events (team pursuit, Madison and Omnium). 

The qualification criteria drew on points gathered at the 2023 UCI Track World Championships, the last two Continental Championships, and the best two results from UCI Nations Cup rounds in 2023 and 2024. 

To qualify in the sprint events, GB had to rank in the top eight countries in the team sprint. The women's squad, who won the opening two Nations Cup rounds this year, qualified second, behind the world champions Germany. The men's squad qualified fifth. 

Two of the three team sprint riders in each gender will be selected for the individual sprint and keirin. 

In the endurance events, GB had to qualify among the top 10 countries in the team pursuit, granting them places in the Madison and Omnium as well. 

The men's team pursuit squad, having crashed out of last year’s World Championships, qualified seventh, thanks to gold medals at the European Championships and two of this year's Nations Cups. The women's team pursuit squad had a more assured qualifying period, ranking second overall, behind New Zealand. 

The UCI will now confirm the final quota places in writing to each of the countries. The full Olympic track rankings can be found on the governing body’s website. 

The track cycling events at the Paris Olympics will take place between 5-11 August at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, southwest of the city. 

The Great Britain Cycling Team will compete on the best equipment of any country at the Paris Olympics this summer, performance director Stephen Park has said. 

Team GB has developed mounds of new tech for the Games, including state-of-the-art skinsuits, a 3D-printed frame and an updated model of its Hope-Lotus HBT bike. 

The cut-off for registering equipment - homologating it for use with the UCI - was last year's World Championships in Glasgow. There, Team GB homologated 64 pieces of kit, many of which have since been kept behind closed doors. 

"For those of us that are into tech, it's quite interesting times," Park said. "Some pieces of equipment are limited and set by that homologation. Some have some degrees of freedom within them. It's even more so on the apparel side, the clothing side."

GB's tech advances in recent years have focused mainly on the track, where the winning margin often comes down to a fraction of a second. In previous Olympic cycles, the squad has opted to keep its new tech veiled in the run-up to the Games, preventing rival countries from seeing its benefit in competition. 

Park confirmed that GB’s new Hope-Lotus bike, announced last July and ridden just once at the World Championships, will not be used until "the first race of the Olympics". He also said that there will "certainly be some 3D-printed products involved in the line-up".

Likewise, the performance director highlighted that "there's been a lot of equipment homologated by other teams" that GB can now also use. 

"We'll still make sure we've got rounder wheels than everyone else," Park said, echoing a tongue-in-cheek remark made by his predecessor, Dave Brailsford, at the 2012 Olympics. "[We'll also have] slippier frames than everyone else, and hopefully better apparel than everyone else.

"I am confident that, when we go to Paris, no other team will have an equipment and an apparel set-up that will be better than the one that we will be able to provide our riders to give them the best opportunity to deliver their best on the day."

Team GB topped the medal table in cycling at each of the last four Olympics. During the current Paris cycle, British Cycling bolstered its advantage by acquiring a wind tunnel from Halfords for £1, which was installed a short walk from the National Cycling Centre in Manchester in 2022. 

"We've been able to run lots more tests and positioning than we’ve ever done before," Park said of the new tool. "We've been able to offer it to the Paralympic riders, which we’ve never done before. That has provided us with a great opportunity to progress testing."

Still, Park stressed, with each new cycle, come "diminishing returns" on new equipment. 

"You're still looking for every half a percent," he said. "It's a challenge, but it’s a good one. We've got some really smart people doing some really good work in that space. I'd be quite happy if I was a rider."

Five-time Olympic gold medallist Laura Kenny has a "slim chance" of making the GB squad for the Paris Olympics this summer, Great Britain Cycling Team performance director Stephen Park has said. 

Kenny, the reigning Madison champion, gave birth to her second child last July, and has been making a steady return to training. She has not raced in competition since late 2022. 

As a result, the 31-year-old does not currently have the required points for qualification, and will likely fall short of selection for the Games. 

"She has a slim chance of being in Paris," Park told the press, including Cycling Weekly, in Manchester on Monday. "The first challenge is to be in a position where she feels that she is going to be competitive, and therefore put a hand up to be selected for events that will allow her to qualify herself - because she needs to qualify herself in terms of the number of UCI points - as well as qualify in the team.

"Those are fairly significant hurdles," he added. "She’s got to be competitive in a team that’s more competitive than it’s ever been. We’ve got an ongoing and continual dialogue with Laura. We are supporting her, and have been supporting her, in terms of her return to training."

In an interview on Team GB’s YouTube channel last November, Kenny appeared to set her sights on this summer's Games. "I obviously really want to compete at the next Olympics," she said. "I know everyone thinks I’m mad in saying that, but if I don’t try, I’ll never know."

She later added more context to her statement, telling the BBC that she "hope[s] people don’t expect [her] to actually make it to Paris" and that it would be "such an ask". 

According to Park, Kenny is now "optimistic" about a return to racing at the 2024 Track World Championships, due to be held in Denmark in October, two months after the Olympics. 

"I think she’s weighing up the challenges of being a young mother of two kids, making sure she gets that balance right as well," Park said. "I’m sure whether she ends up riding in the Games or not, she’ll be involved in some way or another.

"I think that Laura will have an ongoing involvement with the Great Britain Cycling Team for years to come."

In recent months, Kenny has been training away from the GB track squad with her personal coach, Len Parker Simpson. "She's conscious that, while she's getting back into that place [of being competitive], she doesn't want to be in a situation where she's affecting the training of the others," Park explained. 

The 31-year-old would need to earn points in either of the two remaining UCI Nations Cup rounds to qualify for the Olympics, although she has not been selected for the first, scheduled in Hong Kong this month, and is unlikely to go to the second. 

Only five riders will make the women’s endurance track squad for this summer’s Olympics, with stiff competition for places. Neah Evans and Elinor Barker are the current Madison world champions, while Barker was also part of the rainbow-jersey-winning team pursuit squad in Glasgow last August, alongside Katie Archibald, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Meg Barker. 

Kenny made her Olympic debut in London in 2012, winning the omnium and the team pursuit. She successfully defended both titles in Rio in 2016, and then went on to win the Madison with Archibald in Tokyo in 2021. 

At the start of this shortened Olympic cycle, Kenny had a miscarriage, before suffering an ectopic pregnancy in January 2022. She went on to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games that August, but later revealed she considered leaving the sport.

Contrary to recent reports, the inaugural Olympic Esports Games are set for 2025, UCI David Lappartient revealed to Cycling Weekly in a January interview in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

"The Olympic Esports Games will start in 2025 and will include cycling esports," pronounced Lappartient. "The program will include gaming, sports simulation, and physical virtual activities and will be a distinct Olympic Esports Games."

Lappartient is Chairman of the IOC’s Esports and Gaming Liaison Group and is a member of the IOC’s general assembly. A source close to the situation said of Lappartient, "If anyone knows the truth about cycling esports in the Olympics, it's him."

When contacted, the IOC wouldn't go as far as to confirm or deny Lappartient's affirmation. However, it did offer the following statement.

"A primary goal of the Olympic Agenda 2020 + 5 is to support and promote the development of virtual sports throughout the Olympic Movement. This is why we have focused on virtual and simulated sports games in the competition series."

IOC President Thomas Bach did speak to Xinhua Sports on January 29, stating:  "I think we can expect the first edition of the Olympic Esports Games in 2025, or 2026 at the latest."

Since 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been testing the virtual waters with a so-called Olympic Esports Series, a week-long event meant to showcase the best of virtual sports, both the athleticism and the technologies behind them. In addition to virtual bike racing, esports disciplines included archery, Bbaseball, chess, dance, motorsport, taekwondo, tennis and sailing. While no medals were handed out, the series was considered as a promising step toward the inclusion of virtual competitions in some form at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA.

The forth-coming Olympic Esports Games inches even closer to that possibility becoming a reality, but for now, the Olympic Esports Gamest will exist as an independent global event and standalone from the traditional mainstream Olympics.

Whether actual Olympic medals will be awarded at the Olympic Esports Games  remains uncertain, however, and reports are mixed. In talking with Cycling Weekly,  Lappartient did not reveal much in the way of medals, either. 

The IOC is all in on esports

The IOC has been dabbling with esport inclusion since  2017, when it set a dedicated agenda for nurturing virtual sports and engaging with gaming communities.

It started with the IOC Esports Liaison Group, formed in 2017 and spearheaded by Lappartient. The IOC Esports Liaison Group was established to facilitate communication and collaboration between the Olympic Movement and the esports community.

The IOC has faced challenges in staying relevant to younger audiences; embracing esports is a way to engage with this rapidly expanding demographic which IOC President Thomas Bach notes boasts hundreds of millions of participants worldwide.

An official IOC Esports Commission followed in October 2023, which specifically deals with the potential inclusion or engagement of esports within the Olympic framework.  

"Our focus in esports centers on virtual sports that involve physical activity, such as cycling, rowing, and even Taekwondo in electronic form, among other sports," Bach said in the lead up to the Olympic Esports Series.

"We are particularly intrigued by these virtual sports because the physical exertion of these athletes equals that of their counterparts in traditional sports. Whether you're conquering a leg of the Tour de France from your home bike or participating in the actual event, the physical demands remain consistent, presenting similar challenges."

The Olympic Esports Week and other trial events that have been happening since 2021 are a direct result of the aforementioned groups and are meant to explore potential inclusion of virtual sports in future Games. 

“The door is open explicitly for virtual forms. Where there is a full physical replication of the traditional sport," said IOC's Sport Director Kit McConnell in a November 2023 Mail Sport interview.

“It’s something that we’re looking to move forward with...and it’s more a question of 'how' rather than 'if'."

And it's virtual cycling that's leading the road to answering that 'how' question. 

“The best example is the road cycling partnership between the UCI and Zwift, and now that’s moved to another partnership (MyWhoosh). We are committed to developing the virtual side of sport.”

Olympic recognition would be a game changer for virtual bike racing

The legitimization of Olympic recognition and the publicity and resources that come with it could have a transformative impact on the sport’s evolution.

“If esports becomes an Olympic sport, it significantly increases its status in the eyes of the USAC. It will increase our efforts and be very helpful to the sport. It’s an absolute game-changer!" said USA Cycling’s Chief of Sports Performance, Jim Miller, in a TheZommunique.com interview.

The primary reason for this enthusiasm becomes apparent when examining the financial aspect. Most of USAC’s funding comes from the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).

“[The USOPC] are obviously interested in Olympic medals. If the sport is an Olympic discipline, we put more emphasis and fund it at a higher level," Miller explained.

What platform will host the competition?

In January, Lappartient visited Abu Dhabi, UAE, to ink a deal to make MyWhoosh the main virtual cycling platform partner of the UCI Road World Championships through 2026.

A growing competitor to Zwift, MyWhoosh is a virtual cycling platform backed by substantial UAE government support and funding.

MyWhoosh will host the first-ever live event UCI Cycling Esports World Championship final, in Abu Dhabi in October 2024.  Abu Dhabi will also host the non-virtual 2024 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships, the 2028 UCI Road World Championships, the 2028 UCI Gran Fondo World Championships, and the 2029 UCI Track World Championships, furthering its ambitions to become a global leader for top-class cycling events and the UCI's support.

"They have a strong management structure and the expertise to organize many top-class international events in different disciplines and sports," said Lappartient. "For us, the UAE is a very strong partner."

In a recent episode of The Virtual Velo Podcast, virtual cycling platform MyWhoosh’s Race and Event Manager, Matt Smithson, confirmed, “We would love to do the Olympics. We want to be the pinnacle of esports and have ideas about how to engage the audience and the athletes.”

Though unconfirmed, every indication is that MyWhoosh will also be the host virtual platform for cycling esports in the Olympic Esports Games in 2025.

None of GB’s riders are racing on the new Hope-Lotus HBT at the European Track Championships this week, and they might not do so before the Paris Olympics this August.

British Cycling unveiled an updated model of the track bike last July, ahead of the World Championships, where it was used just once for homologation. 

The manufacturers - Hope Technology, Renishaw and Lotus Engineering - are now against the clock to produce a fleet before the summer, with the squad still waiting to receive the updated model. 

Sprinter Jack Carlin, an Olympic silver medallist, said he has not yet ridden the new bike, and does not expect to soon. 

“I imagine the first race you’ll see us with them at is the Olympics,” he said. “There are a lot of riders, and that doesn’t mean we’re going to be the first in line to get them. It might be that they want to get them all out at the same time. We’ll just have to wait and see on that one.

"The focus just now is on the physical process goals, and the kit's the cherry on top when you go into the Games."  

A press contact at British Cycling told Cycling Weekly the bikes are likely to be launched around April, just four months before the Olympics. 

The new Hope-Lotus design has the same characteristically wide seatstays as the first edition, but now features a split seatpost, ribbed forks and aero-enhanced handlebars. 

According to GB performance director Stephen Park, it is “the most advanced bike that has ever been ridden by British athletes”. 

Still, it has only been used once in competition, steered by Charlie Tanfield in the qualifying round of the team pursuit at last year’s World Championships. Tanfield crashed, and GB failed to qualify. 

Pursuiter Dan Bigham, who also works as an aerodynamicist for Ineos Grenadiers, said he will test ride the bike for the first time next week, immediately after the European Championships. 

“I think it’s really well engineered,” Bigham said. “It’s nice to see how they’ve iterated on the previous generation. There were flaws in certain aspects of that design, how it interacts with the rider, and just general cleanliness of design. I think they were time-pressed to get that design out, so there were a few rough edges that they’ve polished nicely.” 

On Wednesday’s opening night of the European Championships, GB riders raced on the first-generation Hope-Lotus bikes, released in October 2019. Bigham rode his own pink Pinarello Bolide. 

Other nations used newly produced bikes, such as France, whose sprinter Rayan Helal was spotted on Look’s new P24. 

The wait for new bikes did not hamper GB’s medal hopes, though. The squad claimed two silver medals on Wednesday, thanks to Will Tidball in the elimination race and the women’s team sprint squad. 

Tidball raced on an outdated Cervélo T4 track bike, used by GB prior to the Tokyo Olympics. Curiously, the 23-year-old won the scratch race world title last year on an unreleased, 3D-printed bike, which has since gone back into hiding. 

Both the GB men’s and women’s team pursuit quartets will ride in gold medal finals this evening. The men will face world champions Denmark, while the GB women - the top-ranked team in the world - will take on Italy. 

The European Championships are taking place in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, and run until this Sunday, 14 January.