General Cycling Discussion - Should cycling be an Olympic event??

Road racing like the Tour De France, or Mountain biking, it doesn't matter to me. Just wondering what others think.

Originally posted by Crazy Cyclist
Road racing like the Tour De France, or Mountain biking, it doesn't matter to me. Just wondering what others think.

Huh? I thought it already was. :confused:

I thought it already was also. I remember trying to stay up to see the MTB races that seemed to be aired exclusively at 2 and 3 in the morning on the stations around here.

-Moab

Are you asking if we think these events should stay in the games or were you unaware that they already are?

I didn't know that they already were in the Olympics, I don't recall ever seeing or hearing of them.

I'm sure you'll find plenty on line about the various events but after a quick check I found this page. (http://espn.go.com/oly/summer00/cycling/s/viewers.html)

There were 18 different cycling medal events at the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia, 4 more than were held in Atlanta in 1996.

The events included:

Road
1. Men's Road Race (239km)
2. Men's Time Trial (46.8km) (Reintroduced for 2000)
3. Women's Road Race (120km)
4. Women's Time Trial (31.2km) (Reintroduced for 2000)

Track
5. Men's Time Trial
6. Men's Sprint
7. Men's Individual-Pursuit
8. Men's 4000m Pursuit
9. Men's Madison (New in 2000)
10. Men's Keirin (New in 2000)
11. Men's Olympic Sprint
12. Men's Overall Points
13. Women's Time Trial
14. Women's Sprint
15. Women's Individual-Pursuit
16. Women's Overall Points

Off-Road
17. Men's Cross Country (40-50km)
18. Women's Cross Country (30-40km)

Originally posted by Crazy Cyclist
Road racing like the Tour De France, or Mountain biking, it doesn't matter to me. Just wondering what others think.
there's nothing wrong in asking, yes dude, cycling is indeed in the Olympics, I don't know when it was introduce thou

Originally posted by orguasch
there's nothing wrong in asking, yes dude, cycling is indeed in the Olympics, I don't know when it was introduce thou

Cycling has been a part of the Modern Olympics since it began in Athens in 1896. There were 5 events -- Sprint, 2000m, 10,000m, 100k, 12 Hr, and 87km "marathon".

Aside from the war years, the only other Olympics which did not include cycling were the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, MO.

IS, AND SHOULD ALWAYS BE

A more worthy olympic sport than Basketball, thats for certain.

Gonna have to agree with stumpjumper there. I remember watching the "dream team" back in '92 or whenever that was. The event kinda made a farce out of the idea of competition. The NBA has recruited most of the good players from the other countries anyway.

You mean it isn't ? I recall Lance Armstrong temporarily being made an amateur, so he could participate in Sydney...

I recall Lance Armstrong temporarily being made an amateur
Professional athletes have been able to compete in the Olympics for a while now. I think the US started to push for changes so they could get their Basketball players into the games. Lance would not have had to pretend to be an amateur, he could legally race as a pro.

CHEERS.

Mark

Sadly, the sports channels don't promote cycling events with the same enthusiasm as the other big sports in athletics. But cycling's been in there for quite a while and I'm sure quite a few of the TDF riders came to prominence as a result of where they started in the games.