# 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, and Hadleigh Farm, in Essex, for mountain biking. The road races took place over a course starting and ending in The Mall in central London 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 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. 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, 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. Road racing in the Paralympics took place at Brands Hatch. The Olympic mountain bike event took place at Hadleigh Farm after the UCI labeled the course at Weald Country Park "too easy" in July 2008. It was touted that the course could be created in Wales. A location in Kent was also considered.

## Participating nations

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 :
| Event↓/Date → | Sat 28 | Sun 29 | Wed 1 | Wed 8 | Thu 9 | Fri 10 | 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 :
| Date → | Thu 2 | Thu 2 | Thu 2 | Fri 3 | Fri 3 | Sat 4 | Sat 4 | Sat 4 | Sun 5 | Sun 5 | Sun 5 | Mon 6 | Mon 6 | Mon 6 | Mon 6 | Tue 7 | Tue 7 | Tue 7 |
| Event ↓ | A | A | A | A | A | M | A | A | M | A | A | A | A | A | A | M | A | A |
| Men's Keirin | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | H | ½ | F |
| Men's Omnium | | | | | | FL | PR | ER | IP | SR | TT | | | | | | | |
| Men's sprint | | | | | | H | H | H | | ¼ | ¼ | ½ | ½ | F | F | | | |
| Men's team pursuit | H | H | H | ½ | F | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Men's team sprint | H | ½ | F | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Women's Keirin | | | | H | F | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Women's Omnium | | | | | | | | | | | | FL | PR | PR | ER | IP | SR | TT |
| Women's sprint | | | | | | | | | H | H | H | ¼ | ¼ | ¼ | ¼ | | ½ | F |
| Women's team pursuit | | | | H | H | | ½ | F | | | | | | | | | | |
| Women's team sprint | H | ½ | F | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |

## 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 |
| 8 | Denmark | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Kazakhstan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | 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 |
| 16 | Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | Italy | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 16 | Norway | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (19 entries) | 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 |
| Keirin details | Chris Hoy Great Britain | Maximilian Levy Germany | 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

| Event | Name | Nation | Score | Date | Record |
| Women's team sprint | Gong Jinjie Guo Shuang | China | 32.447 s | 2 August | WR, OR |
| Women's team sprint | 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 |
| Men's team sprint | 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 |
| Men's team pursuit | 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 |
| Women's team pursuit | Dani King Laura Trott Joanna Rowsell | Great Britain | 3:14.682 | 4 August | WR, OR |
| Women's team pursuit | 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 |