Paris 2024: When does track cycling start? Who are the favourites for Olympic gold? What are the disciplines involved?
Updated 05/08/2024 at 10:19 GMT+1
The Paris 2024 track cycling gets underway on Monday, August 5 with seven full days of action to come on the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome's boards. Gold medals are up for grabs from the opening session and there are 12 to be decided across the team sprint, sprint, team pursuit, keirin, omnium and Madison race formats. Can Team GB improve on their three golds from Tokyo 2020?
‘Absolutely delivered’ - Knight takes glory in women’s individual pursuit
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While the cycling action on the road concluded on the streets of the French capital with the women’s road race on Sunday, August 4, the sport now heads inside at Paris 2024 with the start of the track competition.
A mainstay of every Olympic Games of the modern era since Athens 1896, the track is the setting for the majority of cycling’s medals, with 12 gold medals up for grabs that are split evenly across men and women.
The 250m banked track of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome, which will host the opening round of the 2024 UCI Track Champions League, will be the setting for the seven days of racing.
And with gold medals on the line during every single day of racing, it’s set to be a pulsating contest.
The action kicks off with the women’s team sprint on Monday, August 5 and concludes with the final stage of the women’s omnium just hours before the closing ceremony on Sunday, August 11.
From breathless sprinting disciplines to all-out endurance, here’s a breakdown of what to expect on the boards at Paris 2024.
Team sPRINT
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Four in a row! Netherlands win men's team sprint again at European Track Championships
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The team-based sprint event sees groups of three riders cover three laps of the velodrome as quickly as they can from a standing start. The race format will also be the first two gold medals that are decided on the track, with the men’s team sprint a day after the women’s on Tuesday, August 6.
Reigning women’s world champions Germany set the world record back in 2021 and are favourites to battle it out for top spot once more. Team Great Britain could only manage silver at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow, and Sophie Capewell, Emma Finucane and Katy Marchant will be looking to make amends in Paris.
In the men’s, it’s hard to look beyond the Netherlands. The reigning Olympic and world champions are led by the double UCI Track Champions League sprint champion Harrie Lavreysen, but Team Great Britain’s Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe and Hamish Turnbull will be looking to spoil the Dutch party and improve on the team’s silver from Tokyo 2020.
Team Pursuit
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'And now they are winners' - Italy win the women's team pursuit
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Team sprint settled, Wednesday, August 7 sees the turn of the team-based endurance event – Team Pursuit. Held over 16 laps of the velodrome, each team starts with four riders who crank up the pace to a lactic acid-inducing tempo as they try to cover the 4km distance as quickly as they can. Three riders have to finish the event, with the clock stopped when the final rider's front wheel crosses the line.
Again, this is set to be a straight shoot-out between women's world champions Great Britain and Olympic champions Germany, but with Britain’s endurance linchpin Katie Archibald breaking her leg in two places just weeks before the Olympic Games, there are question marks over how settled the team is.
Less than an hour before, it is the turn of the men’s team pursuit, where reigning Olympic champions Italy’s Filippo Ganna is expected to add to the silver he’s already won at Paris 2024 in the men’s individual time trail on the road.
Keirin
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‘This man is on a different planet’ - Lavreysen storms to keirin win at European Championships
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One of the most engaging formats on the track, the keirin sees a group of five riders led around the track by a derny – essentially a small motorbike. As the laps progress, the derny gradually picks up the pace before reaches 50kph and pulls off the track, which is when the race-proper starts. A three-lap dash for the line, it is fast and furious and often decided by a photo finish.
The women’s keirin concludes on Thursday, August 8, where world champion, New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews, will be targetting Olympic gold to go with her rainbow bands and first place in the 2023 UCI Track Champions League sprint competition.
The men’s finishes up on Sunday, August 11, and will witness the changing of the guard, with it the first Olympic Games since reigning champion and Great Britain’s most decorated Olympian Jason Kenny retired – his victory at Tokyo 2020 his seventh and final gold medal in a career that stretched back to Beijing 2008.
Omnium
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'Amazing, he's done it!' - Walls wins gold for Team GB in omnium
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Arguably the most intense event of the track, the omnium pits each competitor against four different races in the same session – the scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race.
Team Great Britain are the reigning Olympic champions in the men’s discipline, but Matthew Walls isn’t in Paris to defend his title. Ollie Wood represented Great Britain at last summer’s World Championships, and will be hoping to improve on his ninth place when the action gets underway on Thursday, August 8.
For the women’s event, Team USA’s Jennifer Valente will take some beating – the 2022 UCI Track Champions League champion and reigning Olympic and world champion dominant in the discipline and kicking off her defence on Sunday, August 11.
Sprint
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Finucane makes history by becoming GB's first ever women's sprint European champion
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Friday, August 9 will see the return of the fast men, as the individual sprint races take to the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome. A three-lap contest where competitors try to psyche each other out with track stands and gravity-defying riding on the velodrome’s banked berms until the final 250m, it is a game of cat and mouse where the winner is raw power.
Just like the team sprint, it is hard to look past the Netherlands and their superstar sprinter Harrie Lavreysen, who will be aiming to make it back-to-back golds in the event.
The women’s sprint is one of the final medals to be decided on Sunday, August 11, and Team GB’s Emma Finucane is a clear favourite after her World Championships win in Glasgow last summer.
Madison
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'A great fight' -Germany win men's madison ahead of France and Denmark
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The longest race of the track discipline kicks off with the women’s event on Friday, August 9. A 120-lap (or 200-lap for the men’s madison) points race, 16 pairs attempt to rack up as many points as they can through intermediate sprints, lapping the field, and avoiding being lapped. Only one rider is in the race at any one time, but can be substituted using a thrilling slingshot move that propels their team-mate forwards.
Team GB are reigning Olympic and world champions in the women’s event, but with both Katie Archibald (injured) and Laura Trott (retired) not at Paris 2024, it remains to be seen whether their replacements can retain gold on Friday, August 9.
The men’s the following day is a more open affair. World champions Netherlands will fancy their chances, while Great Britain will be hoping to go one better than their silver at Tokyo 2020.
discovery+ is the streaming home of the Olympic Games, and the only place you can watch every moment of Paris 2024 this summer.
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