Paris 2024 is almost here and the world’s best cyclists are ready for action. Here is your ultimate guide to all the Olympic and Paralympic cycling events
The start of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games is only days away, with the cycling action taking place across the Summer Games, from 28 June to 11 August.
There has been cycling at the Olympics since 1896, when there were road and track cycling events. Mountain biking was added in the 1990s and BMX racing began in 2008, with freestyle BMX appearing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
From road racing to BMX, here is our guide to all of the bike events at Paris 2024.
Cycling at the 2024 Paris Olympics schedule
Cycling at the Olympics
Road Race
- Men’s Road Race: Sat 3 Aug
- Women’s Road Race: Sun 4 Aug
The wildly unpredictable men’s Road Race takes place only 13 days after the end of the Tour de France, meaning some riders will have hit peak form and others will be broken by fatigue.
Only two things are certain. First, there will be a new Olympic champion, because Tokyo 2020 winner Richard Carapaz has not been selected by Ecuador, with Jhonatan Narváez taking their lone spot.
Second, at 273km, this will be the longest ever Olympic Road Race.
Similar to the 270.8km Tour of Flanders this year, it promises to be a punchy, Classics-style affair.
After leaving the Trocadéro, riders will venture through the undulating Île-de-France region, taking on slopes such as the Côte de Châteaufort (900m at 5.7%), which has a memorial to Jacques Anquetil.
They will then return to Paris for three laps of an 18.4km circuit with technical bends and the cobbled climb of the Butte Montmartre (1km at 6.5%), before a 230m sprint finish towards the Trocadéro.
“I lived on the Butte Montmartre, so I know every cobble and there are some sketchy, steep roads,” says cycling commentator Carlton Kirby, author of Magic Spanner, about life behind the scenes at the world’s biggest cycling races.
.“In front of the Sacré-Coeur basilica, there is a tumbling staircase. Montmartre means ‘Martyrs’ Mount’ and if you wanted redemption you had to crawl up the mount.
“So this is an extreme and steep course. There will be elbows, luck, teammates not functioning, weather issues – rain on cobbles is a nightmare. It could be the greatest finale we’ve ever seen.”
With 2,800m of climbing and 13 ascents, the route will favour strong Classics riders including Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands), Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) and Mads Pedersen (Denmark).
“It will be full of French Julian Alaphilippe fans,” adds Kirby. “It suits him perfectly.
“But how does Belgium pick four riders? And who will be the boss? You might get team riders attacking each other. Van der Poel is favourite.
“Remco Evenepoel is a loose cannon. You can’t ignore Pogačar. There are some phenomenal battles and an awful lot of needle.”
Stephen Park expects a gritty race. “It will be a war of attrition, so it will be six to seven hours on the bike and full-gas from the off,” he insists.
“With even the biggest teams having only four riders, it is hard to ride as a team for a race of this nature, so we will see attacks from the start gun.”
The women’s road race is 158km and packs in 1,700m of climbing, with nine ascents and two laps of the finishing circuit.
The route has the same start and chaotic finish as the men’s race, either side of a dash through the Vallée de Chevreuse.
Medal favourites include Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands and Belgium’s world road race champion Lotte Kopecky.
“The women’s event will be a real distillation of talent,” insists Kirby. “Wiebes looks monstrously good.
“Some are compromised between the track and the road, especially the Italian riders Elisa Balsamo and Marta Cavalli.
“But, for Britain, I hope the Bäckstedts (Zoe and Elynor) get their chance to shine.”
Road race routes
Time Trial
- Men/Women: Sat 27 July
With its long straights and crêpe-flat terrain (only 150m of ascent), the Paris Time Trial course will celebrate the event’s primary quality: electrifying speed.
This summer, male and female riders will race the clock on the same 32.4km course for the first time.
Riders will depart the Esplanade des Invalides, before dashing past iconic cycling locations, including the Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, the Paris 1924 track cycling venue, and returning via the Place de la Bastille to Pont Alexandre III bridge.
Expect this technical, rapid route to appeal to TT purists.
Male contenders include 2023 World Time Trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) and Filippo Ganna (Italy). “Probably the most exciting prospect for Britain is Josh Tarling, who won a (bronze) medal at the World Championships in Glasgow,” says Park.
“He is young (20), but continues to hone his craft well.”
Female prospects include Tokyo silver medallist Marlen Reusser of Switzerland and 2023 world Time Trial champion Chloé Dygert (USA). “Zoe Bäckstedt (a junior Time Trial world champion) would be great,” adds Kirby.
Time Trial route
Track cycling
- Mon 5 Aug – Sun 11 Aug
A fast and frenzied feature of the Olympics since Athens 1896, track cycling is one of the most exciting spectator sports, serving up outrageous speeds, raw tension and brute force.
It helps that Britain is pretty good at it, too, topping the track table again at Tokyo 2020. At the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, Jack Carlin will be chasing medals in the Sprints, while Dan Bigham will be powering up the men’s Team Pursuit squad.
Katie Archibald is hunting a hat-trick of Team Pursuit, Omnium and Madison golds.
She helped the women’s Team Pursuit squad to pip New Zealand and France to the 2023 world title. Emma Finucane won Sprint gold and Neah Evans and Elinor Barker took gold in the Madison.
There will be 190 global track cyclists battling it out in Paris. “The Australians always bring their A game, and New Zealand and Canada too,” warns Kirby.
Watch out for Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands), who won double gold in the Individual and Team Sprint at Tokyo 2020, and Kevin Quintero (Colombia), who took gold in the Keirin at the 2023 Worlds.
“The Team Pursuit is always special,” adds Kirby. “In Tokyo, the Danes versus the Italians was decided on the final pedal stroke, after Filippo Ganna did a monster turn and nicked it from the Danes in their pomp.”
New Zealand’s world Keirin champion Ellesse Andrews will be looking to upgrade her silver from Tokyo 2020, and American Jennifer Valente will hope to defend her Tokyo Omnium gold.
Mountain biking
- Women’s Cross-Country: Sun 28 July
- Men’s Cross-Country: Mon 29 July
A fusion of speed, stamina, strength and skill, Cross-Country MTB is the only mountain biking discipline with Olympic status.
It sees punchy riders such as Tom Pidcock scrap over laps of a 4.3km course packed with forests, gravel, rocks, jumps and climbs.
“For mountain bikers, the Olympics is the big one,” insists three-time Cross-Country MTB Olympian and commentator Oli Beckingsale (bwcycling.co.uk).
“If you medal, it is a life-changing experience. I did three Games, starting with Sydney 2000, and it’s just mind-blowing to be part of that big circus.”
The Paris course is on the site of an old sandstone quarry at Élancourt Hill: at 230m, it’s the highest point in the Paris region.
French rider Loana Lecomte, who won the test event, says it is a “beautiful circuit” that encourages “real mountain biking”.
Races usually last one to two hours. “It is a mass start, with six to seven laps of a circuit with hard climbing and technical elements,” explains Beckingsale.
“Whereas a road race starts steady and builds, this is intense from the start, like a cyclocross race, with everyone jockeying for position.
“There is a mix of wide and narrow track, so if you are too far back on the narrow track before a technical section, you risk losing time.
“There is usually a lead group of five to 10 riders and then attacks from that. We will see fast, close racing. We will get seconds, not minutes, between riders, so really full-on.”
Tom Pidcock is hoping to repeat his Tokyo 2020 gold. “Pidcock has punch on climbs, but he is one of the most technically adept riders too,” says Beckingsale.
“A course with a tougher ascent may favour Tom more,” admits Park. “At the recent World Cup race (in Nové Město, Czech Republic), he dominated.”
Competition will come from New Zealander Sam Gaze, Nino Schurter (Switzerland) and Victor Koretzky (France).
Britain’s Evie Richards will be hunting a medal in the women’s race. “Evie had a concussion recently, but I am confident she will come back strong,” says Park.
“As well as winning the World Championships in 2021, she has been a regular podium visitor at World Cup level.”
Home favourite Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is chasing a first Olympic gold to add to her glittering career.
Other rivals include fellow Frenchwoman Loana Lecomte, and 22-year-old rising star Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands.
BMX racing and freestyle
- BMX Freestyle: Tue 30 Jul – Wed 31 Jul
- BMX Racing: Thu 1 Aug – Fri 2 Aug
BMX Racing
This is an explosive, exciting discipline that will leave gravity-grounded road cyclists gawping with delight.
The sport is split into BMX racing and BMX freestyle events, with both competitions hosted at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium.
After launching out of a gate on top of an 8m-high start hill, riders race around a 400m track festooned with jumps, banked corners and obstacles.
“It’s similar to road racing, but you’re flying in the air,” explains BMX rider Jon Taylor, who commentates for the BBC.
“Riders travel at big speeds of 30mph and clear 30ft jumps. Imagine going down a hill on a road bike and someone pulls out a jump the size of a double-decker bus!”
BMX Freestyle
Freestyle is a hazardous world of stunts, akin to gymnastics on a bike.
On a park course, riders perform as many tricks as possible in 60 seconds, scoring points for the complexity of their stunts, height and style.
“It looks dangerous, but every rider is thinking: how can I ride this course better than everyone else?” says Taylor.
“They will often save the best tricks for the final. Sometimes, they fly backwards on jumps, so they are totally blind until they spot their landing.”
At Tokyo 2020, Charlotte Worthington stormed to acrobatic gold in the women’s freestyle, while Bethany Shriever took gold and Kye Whyte took silver in the BMX racing.
“To live that experience was phenomenal,” recalls Taylor. “Charlotte Worthington’s
360 backflip was on the cover of every newspaper.”
The confidence of BMX riders is staggering. “There’s a continual challenge to learn new tricks, and that brings to the forefront higher degrees of danger and degrees of mental fortitude,” explains Park.
Paralympic cycling
- Track: Thu 29 Aug – Sun 1 Sept
- Road: Wed 4 Sept – Sat 7 Sept
At the Paralympics, 220 cyclists compete across 17 track events and 34 road events.
Road riders can compete in the Road Race, Time Trial and Relay, while track athletes can take part in Time Trial, Individual Pursuit and Team Sprint races.
In road events, you’ll see bicycles, handcycles, tricycles and tandems, while track events include bicycles and tandems with sighted ‘pilots’ for visually impaired riders.
All events are classified according to athletes’ disabilities, incorporating conditions such as impaired muscles, amputations, neurological conditions or sight impairments.
British serial winner Dame Sarah Storey is the headline act: with 17 golds, across swimming and cycling, Storey, who was born without a functioning left hand, is Britain’s most successful Paralympian.
Other medal hopes include the visually impaired Scottish cyclist Neil Fachie, who won gold in the Tandem 1km Time Trial at London 2012 and Tokyo 2020, and Kadeena Cox, a former runner with MS who won gold in the Time Trial and Mixed Team Sprint at Tokyo 2020.
“The Team Sprint on the track will be exciting,” says Park, with Team GB looking to retain their gold from Tokyo.
“There has been a real battle between Great Britain and China.
“But there’s a good chance we’ll see Jody Cundy, Kadeena and Jaco (van Gass) in that team again, pushing hard. Fin Graham will be strong in the Time Trial.
“And the Tandem events on the track are massively exciting, especially the Sprints.”
Park admits there is now a “higher degree of competition worldwide”.
The Netherlands and France were Britain’s biggest cycling rivals at Tokyo 2020. Home favourite Alexandre Léauté, who suffered a stroke at birth and lost 95 per cent of his muscle power on his right side, is looking to better the four track and road medals he won in Tokyo.
American athlete Oksana Masters, an amputee who was born in Ukraine and suffered leg damage from in-utero radiation poisoning after the Chernobyl disaster, has won 17 Paralympic medals across multiple sports.
And Keiko Sugiura, who has paralysis on the right side of her body, won double gold in the Road Race and Time Trial at Tokyo 2020, aged 50.