CyclistParis 2024 Olympics Cycling: Events, schedule, TV guide and everything you need to knowIt calls itself the greatest show on earth. After a shorter wait of just three years, the Olympic Games are back. Its time to brush off your armchair knowledge of taekwondo and diving and embrace new sports such as climbing and breakdancing, which will make its Olympic debut this year.Paris is hosting the Games, so for the road riders fresh from the Tour de France, this will be an easy transition. The cycling events will span the entire length of the games including road racing, mountain biking, BMX and track cycling.The 33rd Olympic Games will kick off on Friday 26th July with an opening ceremony on the River Seine in the French capital. Theres no time to waste as the time-trial events will take place the following day on the 27th July 2024. The track racing will round out the cycling at Paris 2024 on Sunday 11th August.Paris 2024 Olympics: Key informationTim de Waele/Getty ImagesDate: 27th July-11th August (cycling events)Location: Paris (road cycling), Vlodrome National de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (track cycling and BMX), lancourt (mountain biking), Place de la Concorde (BMX)Number of cycling events: 22Live UK TV coverage: BBC, Discovery+ Related Posts The 21 best photos from the Tour de France 2024 Who won the most prize money at the 2024 Tour de France? Does cycling have a problem with over-the-counter medication? Part 1 Who are Britains future Tour de France stars? Paris 2024 Olympics: Discipline-by-discipline previewTim de Waele/Getty ImagesThe Paris 2024 Olympics will be the big goal for many riders looking to enter the exclusive club of Olympic champions. In total, 512 athletes will compete across all cycling disciplines during the 2024 Games with 66 medals up for grabs.At the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, Great Britain topped the medal table with six golds. The Netherlands came in second with five golds and Switzerland finished in third with one gold medal (and six medals across the board).Road cycling: Mens and womens road race and time-trial GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty ImagesRoad racing is an old stalwart of the Olympics schedule. The road races are often hard to predict, but it will give us a chance to see the riders in their national colours instead of their trade kits. There are four gold medals on offer for road racers at Paris 2024. The road schedule kicks off with the time-trials during the opening weekend of the Games.At Tokyo 2020, Richard Carapaz of Ecuador took the gold medal in the mens road race and Primo Rogli secured a surprise gold medal in the mens time-trial. No surprise was bigger than Anna Kiesenhofers win in the womens road race though. Annemiek van Vleuten thought shed won the road race, but she had to settle for silver and a win in the womens time-trial instead.A.S.O./Paris 2024The men and women will tackle the same 32.4km route. Along the way, the race will move eastwards, passing through the Bois de Valenciennes. This park used to host the Tours arrival back in the days of Eddy Merckx in the 1960s and 70s. From here, the race moves into the city centre again., The course will pass through Place de la Bastille towards the finishing line outside Les Invalides, an old military hospital that now hosts the Muse de lArme. The profile is pan-flat and should favour the purists.A.S.O./Paris 2024The road racing will take place on the streets of central Paris. The focal point of both mens and womens road races will be the cobbled climb to Montmartre (1km at 6.5%), the much-photographed neighbourhood formerly of French impressionists. The men will take this climb on three occasions over the 273km-long route. The mens race clocks up a total elevation gain of 2,800m, similar to the Tour of Flanders. The favourites for the mens race will include the Netherlands Mathieu van der Poel, who will be looking to improve his relationship with the Olympics after crashing out of Tokyo 2020. Wout van Aert and Mads Pedersen have specifically targeted the Olympics, but their preparation has been altered due to injury and a lack of form. Elsewhere, Tadej Pogaar has revealed that he will not compete in Paris.A.S.O./Paris 2024The womens road race will consist of a shorter route of 158km. The women will also negotiate the climb to Montmartre three times. In total, the womens race takes in 1,700m of altitude gain, similar to their Tour of Flanders. Both races will end just across the river from the iconic Eiffel Tower at Trocadro. For Tour de France purists, this will be a wildly different arrival to the Tours Champs-Elyses finale.For the blue ribbon womens event, Lotte Kopecky will start as the favourite. GC riders Elisa Longo Borghini and Demi Vollering will be co-favourites. Looking beyond these galacticos, Grace Brown and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig have a solid chance of winning a medal in the road race. Dates of road cycling eventsWomens time-trial: Saturday 27th JulyMens time-trial: Saturday 27th JulyMens road race: Saturday 3rd AugustWomens road race: Sunday 4th AugustTrack cycling: Mens and womens team pursuit, sprint, madison, keirin and omniumTim de Waele/Getty ImagesTrack cycling will take place from Monday 5th August to Sunday 11th August. The programme spans 12 events and will take place at the Vlodrome National in the Parisian suburb of Yvelines. This track was opened in 2015 and has previously hosted the 2022 UCI Track World Championships.The events on offer span a smaller amount of races than a typical track programme. Sprint, keirin and the omnium (the cycling equivalent to the decathlon) will be available for individual riders. For teams, the team sprint, pursuit and madison events will offer a chance for collective glory. Track racing often entails a knockout process that includes quarter-finals and semi-finals, so its important to follow the track events over the course of the week.Madison will continue its Olympic comeback in 2024 after a successful reintroduction at Tokyo 2020. The main event will be the sprint and keirin events. These races will see some of the highest speeds on the boards at this years Olympics.After a close battle at the last Olympics, the mens team pursuit will be closely watched. Denmark and Italy will reopen their rivalry in this four-kilometre-long team effort against the clock.Dates of track cycling events*Womens team sprint: Monday 5th AugustMens team sprint: Tuesday 6th AugustWomens team pursuit: Wednesday 7th AugustMens team pursuit: Wednesday 7th AugustMens omnium: Thursday 8th AugustWomens keirin: Thursday 8th AugustMens sprint: Friday 9th AugustWomens madison: Friday 9th AugustMens madison: Saturday 10th AugustMens keirin: Sunday 11th AugustWomens sprint: Sunday 11th AugustWomens omnium: Sunday 11th August*Dates listed are for the gold medal races (some events span multiple days)Mountain biking: mens and womens cross-country Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesThe Olympics offer a stripped-back mountain biking schedule. After being added to the Olympics in 1996, mountain biking at the 2024 Games only comprises one race: the cross-country. There will be no downhill events at Paris 2024.In this race, the competitors will ride circuits around lancourt south of Paris. The details of the course are unknown, but the race should take around 90 minutes to complete.The reigning champion of the mens race is Tom Pidcock of Great Britain. He will be there to retain his title, however, the Yorkshireman suffered a Covid contraction during the Tour de France earlier this month. The gold medalist for the women from Tokyo 2020 was Jolanda Neff of Switzerland. She is also scheduled to compete at Paris 2024.Dates of mountain biking eventsWomens cross-country: Sunday 28th JulyMens cross-country: Monday 29th JulyBMX: mens and womens freestyle and raceEzra Shaw/Getty ImagesBMX is the newest cycling discipline to enter the Olympics. It has only been a part of the Olympic cycle since Beijing 2008. In Paris, the BMX events will take place outside the Vlodrome National in Yvelines.The BMX events at Paris 2024 cover two different race types. The first of these, the freestyle, is all about showing off. Riders will roll around a skate park-style stage in an attempt to wow the judges with their jumps and tricks. The event made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Olympics and will be one of the more extreme Olympic events at the 2024 Games.Later in the week, the BMX schedule will focus on the race event. The premise for this is simple. Riders will race head-to-head around a short track filled with steep corners and bumps. Its a high-adrenaline event filled with tricks and spills. Theres a demanding technical nature to this event which will only last around one minute.Last time, Great Britain swept the golds in the womens events courtesy of Beth Shriever and Charlotte Worthington. For the men, Dutchman Niek Kimmann won the mens race and Australias Logan Martin won gold in the freestyle.Dates of track cycling events*Mens freestyle: Wednesday 31st JulyWomens freestyle: Wednesday 31st JulyMens race: Friday 2nd AugustWomens race: Friday 2nd August* Dates listed are for the gold medal races (some events span multiple days)Where to watch the cycling at Paris 2024Tim de Waele/Getty ImagesThe Olympics will be available on free-to-air television across the world. In the UK, this is provided by the BBC. RT will be showing the cycling at Paris 2024 over in Ireland. NBC will broadcast the Olympics as usual in the US.Throughout Europe, Discovery and Eurosport will host live coverage of every event. This will be available online through the Discovery+ streaming service, which offers uninterrupted live coverage. This currently costs 6.99 per month.If its not being shown in your country, you may be able to watch coverage using a VPN Virtual Private Network which allows users to mask their IP address and watch geo-blocked content, provided they dont need to pay for a subscription. This is also helpful for watching paid-for coverage while abroad in countries without access. One such example isExpressVPN, which is verywell reviewed, helps users to find a way to watch cycling without having to pay for broadcasters services, and costs 5.36 per month, with three months free.Other options includeNordVPN,SurfsharkandKapersky. Related Posts The 21 best photos from the Tour de France 2024 Who won the most prize money at the 2024 Tour de France? Does cycling have a problem with over-the-counter medication? Part 1 Who are Britains future Tour de France stars? The post Paris 2024 Olympics Cycling: Events, schedule, TV guide and everything you need to know appeared first on Cyclist.