Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Cycling at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Pictograms from top, left to right: BMX Freestyle, BMX Racing, Road, Mountain and Track cycling.
Venue	Olympic BMX Course Izu Mountain Bike Course Izu Velodrome Musashinonomori Park Fuji Speedway
Dates	24 July – 8 August 2021
No. of events	22
Competitors	530 from 73 nations
← 2016 2024 →

Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics
List of cyclists Qualification
Road cycling
Road race	men	women
Time trial	men	women
Track cycling
Sprint	men	women
Team sprint	men	women
Keirin	men	women
Team pursuit	men	women
Madison	men	women
Omnium	men	women
Mountain biking
Cross-country	men	women
BMX
BMX racing	men	women
BMX freestyle	men	women
v t e

The cycling competitions of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo featured 22 events in five disciplines.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

Cycling competitions had been contested in every Summer Olympics programme since the first modern Olympiad in 1896 alongside athletics, artistic gymnastics, fencing and swimming.

Since the 1896 contests which featured five track events and an 87 km road race from Athens to Marathon and back, Olympic cycling had gradually evolved to include women's competitions, mountain bike and BMX to arrive at the current 22 events.

The cycling program for this edition was expanded with 4 more events than those held in 2016. BMX freestyle was added in the program for the first time and there will also be a return of Madison events on the track that had been removed from the Olympic program in 2012. The award of the extra events was widely seen as a reward for the agreement of the UCI that the track cycling and mountain bike events be taken out of Tokyo and held in Izu, Shizuoka, allowing for significant costs savings to the organising committee. As Izu was not covered by the state of emergency imposed by the Japanese government, cycling was one of the very few sports at these games that allowed a limited number of local spectators to attend.

Great Britain's stranglehold on the velodrome events slackened for the first time since 2008, with their three golds matched by the Netherlands and six other golds shared among six nations. They also failed to win a road medal for the first time since 2004. Nevertheless, with three golds, three silvers and a bronze inside the velodrome, and a hugely successful mountain bike and BMX campaign outside it (three golds, a silver and a bronze from the six events) for the fourth Olympics in a row, Great Britain topped the medal table in cycling with twelve medals, six gold, closely followed by the Netherlands with twelve medals but five golds. Between them the two top nations won half of all the 22 gold medals on offer in cycling; no other nation won more than one, and aside from 12 medals won by each of the 'Big 2', only the Swiss managed more than three medals in total, thanks to their dominance of the mountain bike podium (winning 4 medals from 6).

During the Games, Jason Kenny and Laura Kenny respectively took the records for the most successful male and female Olympic cyclists in history, Jason with a seventh gold in men's keirin, and Laura with a fifth in women's madison. They also became their nation's most successful male and female Olympians in history.

Track cycling was planned for a temporary venue in Ariake. To save $100 million in construction costs, it was announced after months of negotiations that the venue for track cycling would be the existing velodrome in Izu.^[7]

The International Cycling Union (UCI) resisted moving track cycling 120 km outside Tokyo to Izu. The UCI feared it would detract from the Olympic experience for both athletes and fans. Eventually, the UCI agreed to change. The Japanese Cycling Federation and local authorities committed to establishing at Izu a multi-sport cycling center, to create local cycling programs, and to develop the cycling sport.^[8]

For road cycling the start and finish were originally planned at the Imperial Palace Garden. Later it was announced that the finishes would be at the Fuji Speedway with the starts of the road races at the Musashinonomori Park.

Japan, as the host country, received one guaranteed quota place per gender in the BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle, and mountain bike events and two quota places per gender in the road race events (there are no guaranteed places in the road time trial or any track events).

Most of the qualification was done through UCI ranking lists, with some spots allocated through world championship events or continental qualification events.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2021)

The courses for the men's and women's road races were revealed in August 2018. The races started in Musashinonomori Park in Chofu, western Tokyo with the finish at the Fuji Speedway circuit in the Shizuoka prefecture.

The men's road race was 234 kilometres long with a total elevation of 4865 m. The women's race was 137 km long with a total elevation of 2692 metres.^[11]

The first part of the men's and women's races is identical. The course first passes through the mostly flat outskirts of Tokyo's metropolitan area. After 80 km there is a long climb on Doushi Road with a total elevation of 1000 m. After reaching Lake Yamanakako in Yamanashi and crossing the Kagosaka Pass there is a fast 15 km descent. From here the courses are different for men and women.

After the descent, the men's race heads towards the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, with a 14.3 km long climb with a 6.0% average incline. The riders then head to the Fuji Speedway section, where they cross the finish line twice before entering the last part of the race, which includes the Mikuni Pass peak at about 30 km to go. This climb is 6.8 km at a height of 1159 metres with an average incline of 10.2% including sections reaching 20%. After the climb, the race returns to Lake Yamanakako and the Kagosaka Pass before finishing on the Fuji Speedway circuit.

The women's race does not include the two tough climbs at Mount Fuji and Mikuni Pass. Instead, the race remains on the Fuji Speedway circuit, where the women ride 1.5 laps before the final crossing of the finish line.

  *   Host nation (Japan)

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain	6	4	2	12
2	Netherlands	5	3	4	12
3	Switzerland	1	3	2	6
4	Denmark	1	2	0	3
5	United States	1	1	1	3
6	Germany	1	1	0	2
7	Australia	1	0	2	3
	Italy	1	0	2	3
9	Canada	1	0	1	2
	Slovenia	1	0	1	2
11	Austria	1	0	0	1
	China	1	0	0	1
	Ecuador	1	0	0	1
14	New Zealand	0	2	0	2
15	Colombia	0	1	1	2
16	Belgium	0	1	0	1
	Japan*	0	1	0	1
	Malaysia	0	1	0	1
	Ukraine	0	1	0	1
	Venezuela	0	1	0	1
21	France	0	0	2	2
	ROC	0	0	2	2
23	Hong Kong	0	0	1	1
	Spain	0	0	1	1
Totals (24 entries)		22	22	22	66

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's road race details	Richard Carapaz  Ecuador	Wout van Aert  Belgium	Tadej Pogačar  Slovenia
Men's time trial details	Primož Roglič  Slovenia	Tom Dumoulin  Netherlands	Rohan Dennis  Australia
Women's road race details	Anna Kiesenhofer  Austria	Annemiek van Vleuten  Netherlands	Elisa Longo Borghini  Italy
Women's time trial details	Annemiek van Vleuten  Netherlands	Marlen Reusser  Switzerland	Anna van der Breggen  Netherlands

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Keirin details	Jason Kenny  Great Britain	Azizulhasni Awang  Malaysia	Harrie Lavreysen  Netherlands
Madison details	Denmark (DEN) Lasse Norman Hansen Michael Mørkøv	Great Britain (GBR) Ethan Hayter Matthew Walls	France (FRA) Donavan Grondin Benjamin Thomas
Omnium details	Matthew Walls  Great Britain	Campbell Stewart  New Zealand	Elia Viviani  Italy
Team pursuit details	Italy (ITA) Simone Consonni Filippo Ganna Francesco Lamon Jonathan Milan	Denmark (DEN) Niklas Larsen Lasse Norman Hansen Rasmus Pedersen Frederik Rodenberg	Australia (AUS) Leigh Howard Kelland O'Brien Luke Plapp Sam Welsford Alexander Porter
Sprint details	Harrie Lavreysen  Netherlands	Jeffrey Hoogland  Netherlands	Jack Carlin  Great Britain
Team sprint details	Netherlands (NED) Jeffrey Hoogland Harrie Lavreysen Roy van den Berg Matthijs Büchli	Great Britain (GBR) Jack Carlin Jason Kenny Ryan Owens	France (FRA) Florian Grengbo Rayan Helal Sébastien Vigier

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Keirin details	Shanne Braspennincx  Netherlands	Ellesse Andrews  New Zealand	Lauriane Genest  Canada
Madison details	Great Britain (GBR) Katie Archibald Laura Kenny	Denmark (DEN) Amalie Dideriksen Julie Leth	ROC Gulnaz Khatuntseva Maria Novolodskaya
Omnium details	Jennifer Valente  United States	Yumi Kajihara  Japan	Kirsten Wild  Netherlands
Team pursuit details	Germany (GER) Franziska Brauße Lisa Brennauer Lisa Klein Mieke Kröger	Great Britain (GBR) Katie Archibald Laura Kenny Neah Evans Josie Knight Elinor Barker	United States (USA) Chloé Dygert Megan Jastrab Jennifer Valente Emma White Lily Williams
Sprint details	Kelsey Mitchell  Canada	Olena Starikova  Ukraine	Lee Wai Sze  Hong Kong
Team sprint details	China (CHN) Bao Shanju Zhong Tianshi	Germany (GER) Lea Friedrich Emma Hinze	ROC Daria Shmeleva Anastasia Voynova

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's details	Tom Pidcock  Great Britain	Mathias Flückiger  Switzerland	David Valero  Spain
Women's details	Jolanda Neff  Switzerland	Sina Frei  Switzerland	Linda Indergand  Switzerland

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's race details	Niek Kimmann  Netherlands	Kye Whyte  Great Britain	Carlos Ramírez  Colombia
Men's freestyle details	Logan Martin  Australia	Daniel Dhers  Venezuela	Declan Brooks  Great Britain
Women's race details	Beth Shriever  Great Britain	Mariana Pajón  Colombia	Merel Smulders  Netherlands
Women's freestyle details	Charlotte Worthington  Great Britain	Hannah Roberts  United States	Nikita Ducarroz  Switzerland

• Cycling at the 2018 Asian Games
• Cycling at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
• Cycling at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics
• Cycling at the 2019 African Games
• Cycling at the 2019 European Games
• Cycling at the 2019 Pan American Games
• Cycling at the 2020 Summer Paralympics

• Results book – Cycling BMX Freestyle Archived 11 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Results book – Cycling BMX Racing Archived 11 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Results book – Cycling Mountain Bike Archived 9 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Results book – Cycling Road Archived 9 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine
• Results book – Cycling Track Archived 8 August 2021 at the Wayback Machine