Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's track time trial

The men's time trial was one of 5 track cycling events on the Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fourth event on the cycling schedule and was held on 11 April. The first time trial competition was the only time that Olympic time trials were held over the distance of one-third of a kilometre; when the event returned to the programme at the 1928 Summer Olympics the distance was set at one kilometre.

Men's track time trial at the Games of the I Olympiad
The french participants Flameng and Masson
Venue	Neo Phaliron Velodrome
Date	11 April 1896
Competitors	8 from 5 nations
Medalists
Paul Masson  France Stamatios Nikolopoulos  Greece Adolf Schmal  Austria
1906 (Intercalated Games) 1928 (Summer Olympics) →

Background

This was the first appearance of the event, which would not be held again until 1928 (after which it would be held every Games until dropped from the programme after 2004). This was the only time the event was held over a distance of one-third of a kilometre, rather than the one kilometre usually used. Paul Masson of France was the most significant cyclist in the small field, having won a "major international race" in 1894.^[1]

Competition format

The event was a time trial on the track. In 1896, the distance was one-third of a kilometre, which was one lap around the track. A flying start was used.^[1][2]

Schedule

The exact time of the event is not known; the cycling events began shortly after 2 p.m. and the time trial was the third event, after the 2 kilometres and 10 kilometres races.

Date		Time	Round
Gregorian	Julian
Saturday, 11 April 1896	Saturday, 30 March 1896		Final

Results

The time trial race was once around the track, or one-third of a kilometre. It was held on 11 April and eight cyclists competed. Masson won his third race of the day, with Schmal and Nikolopoulos tying for second place and having to compete in a race-off for the second position.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
	Paul Masson	France	24.0
2	Stamatios Nikolopoulos	Greece	26.0	Race-off
	Adolf Schmal	Austria	26.0	Race-off
4	Edward Battell	Great Britain	26.2
5	Frederick Keeping	Great Britain	27.0
5	Theodor Leupold	Germany	27.0
5	Léon Flameng	France	27.0
8	Joseph Rosemeyer	Germany	27.2

Race-off

In this race, Nikolopoulos improved upon his time from the first round, winning the race for an overall second-place finish. Schmal was slower in this race than he had been in the first one.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time
	Stamatios Nikolopoulos	Greece	25.4
	Adolf Schmal	Austria	26.6

References

1. "333 1/3 metres Time Trial, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 10 November 2020.
2. Official Report, p. 98.

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at )
• Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at )
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.