Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics

The cycling competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place at five venues between 28 July and 12 August. The venues were the London Velopark for track cycling and BMX,^[1] and Hadleigh Farm, in Essex, for mountain biking.^[2] The road races took place over a course starting and ending in The Mall in central London^[3] and heading out into Surrey, while the time trials started and finished at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames. Eighteen events were contested and around 500 athletes participated.

Cycling at the Games of the XXX Olympiad
Pictograms for, from top, BMX, mountain, road, and track cycling.
Venue	London Velopark (BMX, track) Hadleigh Farm (mountain) Central London, Surrey (road)
Dates	28 July – 12 August 2012
Competitors	Total: 505 48 (BMX) 77 (mountain biking) 210 (road cycling) 176 (track cycling)
← 2008 2016 →

Cycling events have been contested in every Summer Olympics programme since the first modern Olympiad in 1896 alongside athletics, artistic gymnastics, fencing and swimming. Compared to the cycling at the 2008 Olympics, there were many changes in the Olympic track cycling programme. The men's and women's individual pursuit and points race, and the men's Madison were removed. Team sprint, team pursuit and keirin were added to the women's programme, while Omnium was a new race for both men and women.^[4] Countries were restricted to one entry per track event, a restriction which seemed to be directed at preventing the British team from double-medalling in the same event as they had in four events in 2008,^[5][6][7] thus lowering their medal chances. However, similar to the 2008 Beijing Games, the cycling events were dominated by the British team, which, with a haul including eight gold medals, was the only nation to win more than a single gold medal.

Venues

The road racing at the Olympics and Paralympic Games was originally scheduled to take place in Regent's Park and on Hampstead Heath. Instead, the Olympic road races started and finished on The Mall in central London and headed out in a south-westerly direction to include loops around Box Hill in Surrey.^[8] Road racing in the Paralympics took place at Brands Hatch.^[9] The Olympic mountain bike event took place at Hadleigh Farm after the UCI labeled the course at Weald Country Park^[10] "too easy" in July 2008.^[11] It was touted that the course could be created in Wales.^[12] A location in Kent was also considered.^[13]

Qualification

Main article: Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Qualification

Participating nations

See also: List of cyclists at the 2012 Summer Olympics

Cyclists from 74 nations participated at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

•  Algeria (1)
•  Argentina (4)
•  Australia (29)
•  Austria (5)
•  Azerbaijan (1)
•  Belarus (10)
•  Belgium (16)
•  Brazil (9)
•  Bulgaria (2)
•  Canada (17)
•  Chile (3)
•  China (12)
•  Colombia (17)
•  Costa Rica (2)
•  Croatia (2)
•  Cuba (5)
•  Cyprus (1)
•  Czech Republic (10)
•  Denmark (11)
•  Ecuador (2)
•  Eritrea (1)
•  El Salvador (1)
•  Estonia (2)
•  Finland (2)
•  France (24)
•  Georgia (1)
•  Germany (25)
•  Great Britain (27)
•  Greece (4)
•  Guam (1)
•  Guatemala (1)
•  Hong Kong (6)
•  Hungary (3)
•  Iran (3)
•  Ireland (4)
•  Italy (14)
•  Japan (9)
•  Kazakhstan (2)
•  Latvia (5)
•  Lithuania (4)
•  Luxembourg (2)
•  Malaysia (5)
•  Morocco (3)
•  Mauritius (1)
•  Mexico (2)
•  Moldova (1)
•  Namibia (2)
•  Netherlands (25)
•  New Zealand (22)
•  Norway (6)
•  Philippines (1)
•  Poland (12)
•  Portugal (4)
•  Romania (1)
•  Russia (18)
•  Rwanda (1)
•  Serbia (2)
•  Slovakia (1)
•  Slovenia (6)
•  South Africa (9)
•  South Korea (10)
•  Spain (16)
•  Sweden (5)
•  Switzerland (11)
•  Syria (1)
•  Thailand (1)
•  Chinese Taipei (2)
•  Trinidad and Tobago (2)
•  Turkey (3)
•  Ukraine (10)
•  United States (24)
•  Uruguay (1)
•  Uzbekistan (2)
•  Venezuela (12)

Competition schedule

H	Heats/preliminaries	¼	Quarterfinals	½	Semifinals	F	Final

BMX, mountain biking and road cycling^[14][15][16]

Event↓/Date →	Sat 28	Sun 29	Wed 1	Wed 8	Thu 9	Fri 10		Sat 11	Sun 12
Men's BMX				H	¼	½	F
Women's BMX				H		½	F
Mountain biking
Men's cross-country									F
Women's cross-country								F
Road cycling
Men's road race	F
Men's time trial			F
Women's road race		F
Women's time trial			F

Track cycling^[17]

Date →	Thu 2			Fri 3		Sat 4			Sun 5			Mon 6				Tue 7
Event ↓	A			A		M	A		M	A		A				M	A
Men's Keirin																H	½	F
Men's Omnium						FL	PR	ER	IP	SR	TT
Men's sprint						H				¼		½		F
Men's team pursuit	H			½	F
Men's team sprint	H	½	F
Women's Keirin				H	F
Women's Omnium												FL	PR		ER	IP	SR	TT
Women's sprint									H			¼					½	F
Women's team pursuit				H			½	F
Women's team sprint	H	½	F

M = Morning session, A = Afternoon session
FL = Flying Lap, PR = Points Race, ER = Elimination Race, IP = Individual Pursuit, SR = Scratch Race, TT = Time Trial

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Great Britain	8	2	2	12
2	Germany	1	4	1	6
3	France	1	3	0	4
4	Australia	1	2	3	6
5	United States	1	2	1	4
6	Colombia	1	1	1	3
7	Netherlands	1	0	2	3
8	Czech Republic	1	0	0	1
	Denmark	1	0	0	1
	Kazakhstan	1	0	0	1
	Latvia	1	0	0	1
12	China	0	2	1	3
13	New Zealand	0	1	2	3
14	Switzerland	0	1	0	1
15	Russia	0	0	2	2
16	Canada	0	0	1	1
	Hong Kong	0	0	1	1
	Italy	0	0	1	1
	Norway	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		18	18	19	55

Road cycling

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's road race details	Alexander Vinokourov  Kazakhstan	Rigoberto Urán  Colombia	Alexander Kristoff  Norway
Men's time trial details	Bradley Wiggins  Great Britain	Tony Martin  Germany	Chris Froome  Great Britain
Women's road race details	Marianne Vos  Netherlands	Lizzie Armitstead  Great Britain	Olga Zabelinskaya  Russia
Women's time trial details	Kristin Armstrong  United States	Judith Arndt  Germany	Olga Zabelinskaya  Russia

Track cycling

Men

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Keirin details	Chris Hoy  Great Britain	Maximilian Levy  Germany	Simon van Velthooven  New Zealand
			Teun Mulder  Netherlands
Omnium details	Lasse Norman Hansen  Denmark	Bryan Coquard  France	Ed Clancy  Great Britain
team pursuit details	Great Britain (GBR) Ed Clancy Geraint Thomas Steven Burke Peter Kennaugh	Australia (AUS) Jack Bobridge Glenn O'Shea Rohan Dennis Michael Hepburn	New Zealand (NZL) Sam Bewley Aaron Gate Marc Ryan Jesse Sergent Westley Gough
sprint details	Jason Kenny  Great Britain	Grégory Baugé  France	Shane Perkins  Australia
team sprint details	Great Britain (GBR) Philip Hindes Chris Hoy Jason Kenny	France (FRA) Grégory Baugé Michaël D'Almeida Kévin Sireau	Germany (GER) René Enders Maximilian Levy Robert Förstemann

Women

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Keirin details	Victoria Pendleton  Great Britain	Guo Shuang  China	Lee Wai Sze  Hong Kong
Omnium details	Laura Trott  Great Britain	Sarah Hammer  United States	Annette Edmondson  Australia
team pursuit details	Great Britain (GBR) Dani King Laura Trott Joanna Rowsell	United States (USA) Sarah Hammer Dotsie Bausch Jennie Reed Lauren Tamayo	Canada (CAN) Tara Whitten Gillian Carleton Jasmin Glaesser
sprint details	Anna Meares  Australia	Victoria Pendleton  Great Britain	Guo Shuang  China
team sprint details	Germany (GER) Kristina Vogel Miriam Welte	China (CHN) Gong Jinjie Guo Shuang	Australia (AUS) Kaarle McCulloch Anna Meares

Mountain biking

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's details	Jaroslav Kulhavý  Czech Republic	Nino Schurter  Switzerland	Marco Aurelio Fontana  Italy
Women's details	Julie Bresset  France	Sabine Spitz  Germany	Georgia Gould  United States

BMX

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's details	Māris Štrombergs  Latvia	Sam Willoughby  Australia	Carlos Oquendo  Colombia
Women's details	Mariana Pajón  Colombia	Sarah Walker  New Zealand	Laura Smulders  Netherlands

Broken records

See also: World and Olympic records set at the 2012 Summer Olympics and List of Olympic records in cycling

Event	Name	Nation	Score	Date	Record
Women's team sprint	Gong Jinjie Guo Shuang	China	32.447 s	2 August	WR, OR
	Gong Jinjie Guo Shuang	China	32.422 s	2 August	WR, OR
Men's team sprint	Philip Hindes Chris Hoy Jason Kenny	Great Britain	42.747 s	2 August	WR, OR
	Philip Hindes Chris Hoy Jason Kenny	Great Britain	42.600 s	2 August	WR, OR
Men's team pursuit	Ed Clancy Geraint Thomas Steven Burke Peter Kennaugh	Great Britain	3:52.499	2 August	WR, OR
	Ed Clancy Geraint Thomas Steven Burke Peter Kennaugh	Great Britain	3:51.659	3 August	WR, OR
Women's team pursuit	Dani King Laura Trott Joanna Rowsell	Great Britain	3:15.669	3 August	WR, OR
	Dani King Laura Trott Joanna Rowsell	Great Britain	3:14.682	4 August	WR, OR
	Dani King Laura Trott Joanna Rowsell	Great Britain	3:14.051	4 August	WR, OR
Men's sprint	Jason Kenny	Great Britain	9.713 s	4 August	OR
Women's sprint	Victoria Pendleton	Great Britain	10.724 s	5 August	OR

References

1. "VeloPark". Archived from the original on 6 December 2009. Retrieved 11 December 2009.
2. "Hadleigh Farm, Essex". Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2009.
3. "The Mall". London 2012. Archived from the original on 4 December 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
4. "IOC approves new events for London 2012". IOC. Retrieved 11 December 2009.
5. William Fotheringham (14 February 2012). "London 2012 rule changes likely to restrict GB cyclists' medal haul | William Fotheringham | Sport". The Guardian. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
6. Cycling (19 July 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Sir Chris Hoy falls victim of controversial rule change". The Telegraph. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
7. "2008 Summer Olympics Track Cycling Results - Beijing, China - ESPN". ESPN. Archived from the original on 2 September 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
8. "London 2012 website on road cycling". London2012.com. Archived from the original on 7 September 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
9. "BBC Sport – Brands Hatch to host London 2012 Paralympic cycling". BBC News. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
10. "BBC SPORT | Olympics | London 2012 | Essex venue to host 2012 biking". BBC News. 11 August 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
11. "BBC SPORT | Olympics & Olympic sport | London 2012 | Mountain bike course 'too easy'". BBC News. 1 February 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
12. "UK | Wales | Coe dampens mountain bike hopes". BBC News. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
13. Keith Bingham (15 August 2008). "Lord Coe selects Hadleigh in Essex as 2012 Olympic mtb venue | Olympics 2012". Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
14. "Olympic sport competition schedule". London 2012. Archived from the original on 8 September 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
15. "Olympic sport competition schedule". London 2012. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
16. "Olympic sport competition schedule". London 2012. Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.
17. "Olympic sport competition schedule". London 2012. Archived from the original on 3 September 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2012.

External links

Media related to Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics at Wikimedia Commons

• Cycling - BMX at the 2012 Summer Olympics. London2012.com. at the UK Government Web Archive (archived 28 February 2013)
• Cycling - Mountain Bike at the 2012 Summer Olympics. London2012.com. at the UK Government Web Archive (archived 28 February 2013)
• Cycling - Road at the 2012 Summer Olympics. London2012.com. at the UK Government Web Archive (archived 28 February 2013)
• Cycling - Track at the 2012 Summer Olympics. London2012.com. at the UK Government Web Archive (archived 28 February 2013)
• Official results book – Cycling BMX. London2012.com. at the Wayback Machine (archived 11 May 2013)
• Official results book – Cycling Mountain Bike. London2012.com. at the Wayback Machine (archived 24 April 2013)
• Official results book – Cycling Road. London2012.com. at the Wayback Machine (archived 11 May 2013)
• Official results book – Cycling Track. London2012.com. at the Wayback Machine (archived 24 April 2013)
• Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics at SR/Olympics (archived)