The most recent cycling event to be added to the Olympic Games, the BMX will be held over three days at the 5000 seater Olympic BMX Centre in Rio.
BMX Events – August 18, 19 and 20 (NZST Time)
Maris Štrombergs (Latvia) and Mariana Pajón (Colombia) won gold in London with Štrombergs looking for the hat-trick in Rio. And of course, best of luck to our own Trent Jones!
- Thursday 18th August 4:30 AM NZST: Women’s BMX seeding run.
- Thursday 18th August 5:30 AM NZST: Men’s BMX seeding run;
- Friday 19th August 4:30 AM NZST: Men’s BMX quarter finals.
- Saturday 20th August 4:30AM NZST: Women’s individual Semifinals · Heat 1
- Saturday 20th August 4:34 AM NZST: Heat 2 Women’s individual Semifinals
- Saturday 20th August 4:38 AM NZST: Heat 1 Men’s individual Semifinals
- Saturday 20th August 4:42 AM NZST: Heat 2 Men’s individual Semifinals ·
- Saturday 20th August 6:00 AM NZST: Women’s individual Final
- Saturday 20th August 6:10 AM NZST: Men’s individual Final
Road Race Events – August 7 and 8 (NZST Time)
The road race events will start at Fort Copacabana, head west via the coastal road passing Ipanema, Barra, and Reserva Maripendi Beaches to the 24.8 km Pontal / Grumari circuit loop where the peloton will complete four laps. The riders then head East back along the coastal road for the three-laps of the Vista Chinesa Circuit loop then finish back at Fort Copacabana.
Chris Froome (Great Britain), Vincenzo Nibali (Italy), Alejandro Valverde (Spain) are considered favourites for the gold but there will be plenty of outsiders such as Tim Wellens (Belgium) and a strong Dutch squad that are in contention to cause an upset.
The women’s race also contains several potential winners with Ana van der Breggen (Netherlands) and Lizzie Armitstead (Great Britain) as the leading contenders.
- Sunday, 7 August 2016 at 12:30:00 a.m. NZST: The men’s 256.4km road race starts at around 9:30am local time.
- Monday, 8 August 2016 at 3:30:00 a.m. NZST: The women’s 141km road race starts at around 12.30pm local time.
Time Trial Events – August 11 (NZST Time)
The next cycling gold medals to be decided in Rio will be against the clock in Pontal with the riders tackling the 29.8km Grumari circuit from the road race. The women will complete one lap of the circuit to decide the gold medal with the men to complete two laps.
The men’s pre-race favourites includes Froome, Dutchman Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) and Rohan Dennis (Australia). The women’s favourites include Lisa Brennauer (Germany), Emma Pooley (Great Britain), Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) and defending champion Kristin Armstrong (USA).
- Thursday, 11 August 2016 at 3:30:00 a.m. NZST: The women’s 29.8km road time trial starts at 12:30pm local time.
- Thursday, 11 August 2016 at 5:00:00 a.m. NZST: The men’s 59.6km road time trial starts at 2pm local time.
Track Events – August 12-17 (NZST Time)
With the road events completed, cycling moves indoors and onto the velodrome with six days of track events. Ten gold medals will be up for grabs in the men and women’s sprint, team sprint, Keirin, team pursuit, and omnium. Great Britain won seven of the ten gold medals in London 2012 and will be the nation to beat across the ten events.
- Thursday 11th August: Men’s team sprint qualifying, first round and finals; men’s team pursuit qualifying; women’s team pursuit qualifying.
- Friday 12th August: Men’s sprint qualifying and 1/16 finals; men’s team pursuit first round and finals; women’s team pursuit qualifying; women’s team sprint first round and finals.
- Saturday 13th August: Men’s sprint 1/8 finals, quarter finals and semi finals; women’s Keirin first round, second round and finals; women’s team pursuit first round and finals.
- Sunday 14th August: Men’s omnium scratch race, omnium individual pursuit and omnium elimination race; men’s sprint finals; women’s sprint qualifying and finals.
- Monday 15th August: Men’s omnium time trial, omnium flying lap and omnium points race; women’s sprint 1/8 finals; women’s omnium scratch race, omnium individual pursuit and omnium elimination race.
- Tuesday 16th August: Men’s Keirin first round, second round and finals; women’s sprint quarter finals, semi-finals and finals; women’s omnium time trial, omnium flying lap and omnium points race.
MTB Events – August 21-22 (NZST Time)
The final cycling events of the 2016 Olympic Games are the men and women’s cross-country races at the Mountain Bike Center in Deodoro Pentathlon Park to held over the weekend of August 20-21. Jaroslav Kulhavý (Czech Republic) and Julie Bresset (France) are the defending champions with both riders set to line up in Rio. Road World Champion Peter Sagan will be a rider to watch as he takes to the dirt with the road race not suited to his characteristics.
- Sunday, 21 August 2016 at 3:30:00 a.m. NZST: The women’s cross-country mountain bike race 12:30pm local time
- Monday, 22 August 2016 at 3:30:00 a.m. NZST: The men’s cross-country mountain bike race starts 12:30pm local time.
– cyclingnews.com
Ummm current world champion Linda Villumsen from New Zealand and you don’t mention her?
Thanks for pointing that out Manu – this article was sourced from Cyclingnews.com and edited with NZ times. Remember that this site is BMX biased. You are more than welcome to contribute to articles on here. Use the contact us form here: http://bmx.net.nz/contact-us/ to submit your story.