Discipline's origin

   Bicycles were first developed in the mid-18th century and have long since been used as a form of transport. Originally, the front wheel was much larger than the rear wheel, and the rider was elevated a great deal, thus making the bike difficult to control and therefore very dangerous. In 1885, J.K. Starley of England devised the more modern bike with a chain and gearing that allowed the wheels to be of almost equal size. Although bike races had been held on the old "penny farthings", the new bikes stimulated the growth of bicycle racing as a sport.

   From 1880-1900, cycling became immensely popular both in Europe and the United States. The sport was primarily a professional one at that time. The sport continues its grip on the European continent to this day, but bike racing ceased to be a popular sport at about the time of the depression in the United States. Only the American Olympic victories in Los Angeles in 1984 and the recent Tour de France exploits of Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong have again stimulated interest in the United States.

   Olympic history

   Cycling is one of the few sports that has been on the programme of every Olympic Games. The programme has varied but now consists of road races, track races, and mountain biking. Track racing has been held at all Olympic Games except for 1912 in Stockholm, when only a road race event was held. The programme has varied a great deal, especially in the early years and recently. The Olympic track cycling programme underwent little change from 1924 to 1992, with the programme consisting basically of a match sprint event, a 1-kilometre time trial, a tandem match sprint, and a team pursuit race. In 1964, an individual pursuit race was added, and the tandem match sprint was eliminated after 1972. In 1984, women were admitted to Olympic cycling with a single road race. In 1988 a sprint race on the track for women was also held and in 1992, the women contested an individual pursuit track race.

   During the Sydney 2000 Games, several new track events were introduced. Women competed in a 500-metre time trial, similar to the kilometre time trial contested by men. Men competed in the Madison, Olympic sprint and Keirin races.

Credit: IOC

For further info., please visit http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/programme/disciplines_uk.asp?DiscCode=CT.