Cycling
Cycling is one of the few sports that have been part of every Olympic Games. Cycling is also among the major 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics Sports. Cycling, as a sport in the Olympics has changed considerably over the years, but now includes road races, track races and mountain biking.
The cycling events in 2008 Beijing Olympics are slated to be held from August 9-23, 2008. The venues for Track, Mountain Bike and BMX events of cycling will be Laoshan in Shijingshan District, while road cycling will be held at the Urban Cycling Road Course.
By and large, the Europeans - led by the French and Italians, have dominated Cycling in the Olympics. Nevertheless, the Eastern Europeans have also won several medals.
The rules laid out by the Olympic Committee clearly state that the course for a cross-country cycling race must include, forest roads and tracks, fields, earth or gravel paths as and where possible. There should be significant amounts of climbing and descending involved. No more than 15% of the total course should feature paved or tarred/asphalt roads. The course should be completely ridable irrespective of the terrain and weather conditions. It must be free of all significant obstacles other than those that have been expressly included or of which the riders have been warned beforehand.
In cycling if a rider is disqualified, it could result in invalidation of results and his being barred from all classifications and losing all prizes, points and medals in the race.
Following are the equipments required for Cycling in Beijing Olympics:
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The cycling events to be held in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics are:
- Cycling Road:
- Individual road race - Men & Women
- Individual time trial - Men & Women
- Cycling BMX:
- Individual - Men
- Individual - Women
- Cycling Track:
- Individual Pursuit - Men & Women
- Keirin - Men
- Madison - Men
- Olympic Sprint Men
- Points Race Men & Women
- Sprint individual Men & Women
- Team Pursuit (4000m) Men
- Mountain Bike:
- Cross-country Men & Women
