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In 1885, J.K. Starley of England devised the more modern bike with a chain and gearing to allow the wheels to be of equal size. Although bicycle races had been held on the old "penny farthings", the new bikes stimulated the growth of bicycle racing as a sport.
Cycling at the Olympics features four exciting disciplines: road, track, mountain biking and Cycling BMX.
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| Cycling Road |
Scottish blacksmith Kirkpatrick McMillan gave bicycle racing its first big boost back in 1839 when he devised a pedal-and-crank mechanism to power the two-wheeled machines. Until then, bicycles were pushed along by the feet. It rather limited their racing potential.
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| Cycling Track |
In track cycling, the riders go nowhere, just around and around an oval track banked at 42 degrees. The track's name - the velodrome - sounds space-age, and the helmets, suits and bikes bearing no resemblance to a common two-wheeler more closely resemble something out of Star Wars.
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| Mountain Bike |
Mountain biking debuted in the Games in 1996 at Atlanta. The sport was about 40 years old then, if you date it back to the university student who first stripped down his bicycle, converted it and headed for the hills in 1953. The sport was just 20 years old, though, if you date it back to the first organised competition outside San Francisco.
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| Cycling BMX |
On 29 June 2003, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to include BMX in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
BMX races are held on circuits of around 350 metres, including jumps, banked corners and other obstacles. Eight riders compete in each heat (qualifying rounds, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals), with the top four qualifying for the next round.
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