Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's team pursuit

Olympic cycling event

The men's team pursuit event at the 2020 Summer Olympics took place from 2 to 4 August 2021 at the Izu Velodrome.^[1] 32 cyclists (8 teams of 4) from 8 nations competed.^[2]

Background

This was the 25th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since its introduction in 1908 except for 1912, when no track cycling was held.

The reigning Olympic champions were Ed Clancy, Steven Burke, Owain Doull, and Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain; Great Britain had won the last three Olympic events (with Clancy on the team for all three, Wiggins for the first and third, and Burke for the last two). The reigning (2020) World Champions were Lasse Norman Hansen, Julius Johansen, Frederik Rodenberg, and Rasmus Pedersen of Denmark.

In a particularly competitive event in 2021, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy, and Germany were all tipped to challenge British dominance in the event.^[3]

Qualification

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 1 team of 4 cyclists in the team pursuit. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. Qualification was entirely through the 2018–20 UCI nation rankings. The eight top nations in the rankings qualify for the team pursuit event. These nations also automatically qualified a team in the Madison.^[2] Because qualification was complete by the end of the 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Competition format

A team pursuit race involves two teams of four cyclists. Each team starts at opposite sides of the track. There are two ways to win: finish 16 laps (4 km) before the other team does or catch the other team. The time for each team is determined by the third cyclist to cross the finish line; the fourth cyclist does not need to finish.

The tournament consists of three rounds:^[4][5]

• Qualifying round: Each team does a time trial for seeding. Only the top 4 teams are able to compete for the gold medal; the 5th place and lower teams can do no better than bronze.
• First round: Four heats of 2 teams each. The top 4 teams are seeded against each other (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) while the bottom 4 teams are seeded against each other (5 vs. 8, 6 vs. 7). The winners of the top bracket advance to the gold medal final. The other 6 teams are ranked by time and advance to finals based on those rankings.
• Finals: Four finals, each with 2 teams. There is a gold medal final (gold and silver medals), a bronze medal final (bronze medal and 4th place), and 5th/6th and 7th/8th classification finals.

Schedule

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)^[6]

Results

Qualifying

First round

Denmark caught the team from Great Britain, thereby advancing to the Gold Medal final, but did not record a time as their third rider crashed into the caught third British rider, who had lost contact to the front two of his team.^[9]

Finals

References

1. "Cycling Track Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
2. "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Road Cycling" (PDF). Union Cycliste Internationale. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
3. "Olympic Track Cycling at Tokyo 2020: Top Five Things to Know". Retrieved 28 June 2021.
4. "UCI CYCLING REGULATIONS PART 3 TRACK RACES" (PDF). UCI. 6 December 2020. Retrieved 18 November 2020.
5. Liam Nee (26 March 2021). "Cycling 101: Competition format". NBC. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
6. "Cycling Track – Competition Schedule" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 12 July 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 August 2021. Retrieved 1 August 2021.
7. "Cycling Track – Men's Team Pursuit – Qualifying Results" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 2 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
8. "Cycling Track – Men's Team Pursuit – First Round Results" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 3 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
9. "Olympics: Crash between Denmark and Great Britain in men's Team Pursuit". cyclingnews.com. 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
10. "Cycling Track – Men's Team Pursuit – Final Classification" (PDF). olympics.com. TOCOG. 4 August 2021. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2021.