Mathieu van der Poel

At the prime age of 29, and in dazzling race-winning form, the ‘Flying Dutchman’ van der Poel is a hot favourite for the men’s road race in Paris.

Last year, he won the World Championships road-race title in Glasgow, only 14 days after the end of the Tour, and he hopes for a similarly successful summer.

“The Olympic road race falls two weeks after the Tour and that is actually ideal,” he said.

“You can compare that with the World Championships in Glasgow, where I also achieved a very good level by riding the Tour earlier.”

Van der Poel has backed up his glorious 2023 season with victories in the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix in 2024.

The ultra-versatile rider has also sensibly withdrawn from the Olympic mountain bike event to focus on the road.

With key rival Wout van Aert fighting back to form following injury in the spring, 2024 could be van der Poel’s summer.

And as the fiery Classics-style course in Paris features explosive climbs and cobbled ascents, the Dutchman has the perfect skillset to attack.

Sarah Storey

Now 46, Dame Sarah Storey is Britain’s most successful Paralympian of all time.

Amazingly, Paris 2024 will be the ninth Paralympics for the Cheshire-born rider, who appeared in her first Games as a swimmer in 1992, aged 14 – back in the era when CDs were starting to overtake cassette tapes in popularity.

She is heading to Paris 2024 four years shy of her 50th birthday.

Storey was born without a functioning left hand after her arm became entangled in the umbilical cord in the womb.

As a child, she excelled at swimming and went on to win five Paralympic gold medals in the pool.

She switched to cycling in 2005 and has amassed 12 Paralympic gold medals and 27 world titles across the road and track.

The 46-year-old mother of two is aiming to retain the three gold medals she won in the pursuit C5, road race C5 and time trial C5 in Tokyo.

“It would be amazing to win again and say I have won medals at nine consecutive summer Games,” she admitted this year.

“I don’t think anyone in any sport has ever done that.”

Tom Pidcock

Paris 2024 will give road cycling fans a rare chance to witness the punchy, powerful off-road alter ego of multi-talented Ineos Grenadiers roadie Tom Pidcock.

Straight after his scheduled appearance at the Tour de France, the Yorkshire star, aged 24, is bidding to defend the Olympic cross-country mountain bike gold medal he won at Tokyo 2020 – Britain’s first gold in this discipline.

An outrageously talented rider who competes in road, cyclo-cross and mountain bike events, the 5ft 7in pocket rocket has the sort of compact but powerful physique that suits cross-country MTB races on twisty, obstacle-riddled courses.

Despite committing to ride the Tour, which finished only eight days before the MTB event starts on 29 July, Pidcock has made the defence of his gold a priority.

“The Olympics transcends cycling,” he said this year.

“After Tokyo, people and press were turning up at my parents’ house and I was on the front page of every newspaper.”

Although now best known as a road racer, Pidcock won the MTB XCO (cross-country) World Championships in Scotland last year. He then secured a dominant victory in his first UCI MTB XC World Cup race of 2024 in the Czech Republic in May.

Pidcock will attack the tricky Olympic course at Elancourt Hill with his usual fearlessness and flair.

Katie Archibald

Katie Archibald is thinking bigger. The Scottish track queen earned a team pursuit gold at Rio 2016, followed by a Madison gold and a team pursuit silver at Tokyo 2020.

However, at Paris 2024, the 30-year-old former swimmer has a chance of a golden hat-trick in the team pursuit, Madison and omnium.

She has already proven it is possible, having won all three events at the 2023 European Championships, then again at the Track Nations Cup in Canada in April this year – the last competitive track event before Paris.

“I’m the only person to have been world champion in all three of those disciplines,” she says.

A successful summer would be particularly poignant for Archibald after a traumatic few years.

Her partner, the Scottish cyclist Rab Wardell, died tragically aged 37, following a sudden cardiac arrest in bed in August 2022.

“I can’t describe this pain,” Archibald tweeted at the time.

A hat-trick of golds would also be an historic sporting achievement. Archibald would become the first British woman to win three gold medals at a single Games.

Chris Hoy (2008), Jason Kenny (2016) and swimmer Henry Taylor (1908) are the only Brits to have won three gold medals at one Olympics. As Archibald has said: “I have every opportunity to achieve something great.”

Demi Vollering

There aren’t many things the all-conquering Dutch rider Demi Vollering hasn’t won, but an Olympic gold medal is one of them.

Last year, the Team SD Worx-Protime rider’s race victories included the Tour de France Femmes, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Strade Bianche.

And although the 27-year-old has had to settle for some second and third places in 2024, she won the La Vuelta Feminina, Vuelta a Burgos and Itzulia races in May, finding her form just in time for Paris.

“After a difficult spring, this is confirmation that the form is good,” Vollering declared after the races.

Vollering, who used to work as a florist and relaxes by taking her dog Flo for a bike ride in a backpack, will be a serious contender in Paris.

She is part of a talented Dutch squad, which includes lead road-race rider Lorena Wiebes, Ellen van Dijk and Marianne Vos.

Vollering’s first shot will come in the time trial on 27 July, but she will get another crack in the road race on 4 August.

Few would bet against the 2023 Vélo d’Or winner following in the tyre marks of other Dutch Olympic champions, including Anna van der Breggen (2016) and Vos (2012) on the road and Annemiek van Vleuten (2020) in the time trial.

Remco Evenepoel

Belgian speed machine Remco Evenepoel, 24, is planning to hit the Paris 2024 time trial in the fastest form of his life.

“I need to perform at the highest level that I’ve ever done,” he said earlier this year.

In 2023, the Flanders-born racer became the youngest-ever World time trial champion, aged 23.

Now he fancies his chances on a fast, flat Paris time trial course that’s built for purists.

Having won a World road race title in 2022, Liège-Bastogne-Liège (2022, 2023) and the Vuelta (2022), he will be a threat in the Paris road race, too.

Look out for aero innovations. The Soudal Quick-Step rider sported a Specialized TT5 helmet with an aero ‘head sock’, until the feature was banned in April.

And the Belgian cycling federation has built a life-sized Evenepoel ‘doll’ to help refine his skinsuit in wind tunnel tests.

The Belgian suffered a broken collar bone and scapula at April’s Itzulia Basque Country, but claims he didn’t lose much fitness. He also looks in good form having finished third at the Tour de France, claiming the best young rider’s white jersey in the process.

Rivals such as Britain’s Josh Tarling, Italy’s Filippo Ganna and reigning Olympic TT champion Primož Roglič of Slovenia will hope he’s wrong.

“It’s a dream to leave Paris with two medals,” said Evenepoel.

Bethany Shriever

Watching British BMX racing star Bethany Shriever storm to gold on the chaotic 400m-long BMX track in Tokyo was one of the golden moments of the last Olympics.

The Leytonstone-born racer, who took up BMX when she was eight, had to fund her own qualification campaign to reach Tokyo 2020, relying on family support and crowdfunding.

She then had to overcome Mariana Pajón of Colombia in the final, who was gunning for a third Olympic title.

But after an electrifying dash over the jumps and banked corners of the track, she won gold, finishing only 0.9 seconds ahead of Pajon, before almost collapsing from the leg-flaming effort.

On the road to Paris 2024, the 25-year-old has received Lottery funding, and she confirmed her form with a second World BMX racing title in 2023.

But she suffered a fractured collar bone at the BMX Racing World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in May, two months before the Olympics.

She faces major competition in Paris from former world champion Laura Smulders of the Netherlands and reigning world champion Alise Willoughby of America.

But Shriever knows what it takes to win an Olympic final. “I’ve got one more opportunity,” she posted after her recent crash. “And it’s a big one.”

Harrie Lavreysen

With his muscular physique and raw power, Dutch track sprinter Harrie Lavreysen is the Incredible Hulk on wheels.

The 27-year-old is a serious watt monster, with a mind-blowing peak output of 2,680 watts.

“I was born with strong legs,” Lavreysen once declared, and he can squat over 200kg – more than double his 92kg bodyweight.

A former BMX racer who switched to track in his junior career, he will be a fan favourite at Paris 2024.

Lavreysen is the dominant force in world sprinting, having won gold in the individual and team sprints at Tokyo 2020 and bronze in the keirin.

In Paris, he is gunning for a hat-trick of golds to match the three golds he won at the European Championships in January.

His imperious form makes him the best men’s track sprinter since Britain’s Jason Kenny.

Lavreysen is the Usain Bolt of the velodrome and his Paris races will be a thrill to watch.