Cycling
SPORTS
Bicycles designed for racing in velodromes have no brakes.
Cyclists slow down by pushing back against the pedals.Most riders to finish a Tour de France
A total of 174 riders finished the 2016 Tour de
France, held on 2–24 Jul. The previous record
was 170, set in 2010. Four mass-finish stages
of the 2016 race were won by sprinter Mark
Cavendish (UK), taking his total to 30 – the most
mass-finish stage wins of the Tour de France.Fastest 500 m from an
unpaced standing start (female)
Jessica Salazar Valles (MEX) covered 500 m
in just 32.268 sec from a standing start at the
Pan American Championships in Aguascalientes,
Mexico, on 7 Oct 2016. Valles broke the record
of 32.794 sec that had been set in Grenchen,
Switzerland, almost a year earlier by Anastasia
Voynova (RUS) – who had become only the
second woman to break the 33-sec barrier.Fastest team sprint in
track cycling (women)
On 12 Aug 2016, Tianshi Zhong and Jinjie Gong
(both CHN) completed the qualification round
of the team sprint in 31.928 sec at the Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They went on to
beat Russia in the final to claim the gold medal.FASTEST 4 KM TEAM PURSUIT
IN TRACK CYCLING (MEN)
Bradley Wiggins, Ed Clancy, Owain Doull and Steven
Burke (all UK) completed the 4 km team pursuit in
a time of 3 min 50.265 sec on 12 Aug 2016 at the
Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was
actually the second time that Great Britain broke
the record at the Rio Olympics: the first came in
the heats, with a time of 3 min 50.570 sec.To prepare
for his time
trial race in Qatar,
Martin trained in his
bathroom with the
heater on.
FASTEST 4 KM TEAM PURSUIT
IN TRACK CYCLING (WOMEN)
On 13 Aug 2016, at the Rio Olympics in Brazil,
Joanna Rowsell-Shand, Elinor Barker, Laura Trott
and Katie Archibald (all UK) won the 4 km team
pursuit in a time of 4 min 10.236 sec. The team
achieved a new world-record time in all three
of their races, the last of which saw them beat
the USA by more than 2 sec.MOST WINS OF THE UCI TIME TRIAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (MALE)
Tony Martin (DEU) has won the UCI Time Trial World Championships four
times, in 2011–13 and 2016. In doing so, he matched the mark of Fabian
Cancellara (CHE), who won in 2006–07 and 2009–10. Martin won his fourth
and most recent title in Doha, Qatar, finishing the 40-km (24.8-mi) course
in just 44 min 42.99 sec. In all, he has won seven medals at the event.MOST UCI MOUNTAIN-BIKE CROSS-
COUNTRY WORLD CUP WINS (MALE)
Julien Absalon (FRA) has won seven World Cup
titles: in 2003, 2006–09, 2014 and 2016. Absalon
won his 33rd World Cup race in securing the
seventh title. He had also been hotly tipped to
win Olympic gold at London 2012, but suffered
a puncture soon after the start of the race and
was unable to recover the lost time.MOST OLYMPIC TRACK
CYCLING MEDALS (FEMALE)
Between 20 04 and 20 16, Anna
Meares (AUS) won six Olympic
medals across four different events.
Her collection comprises two golds,
one silver and three bronze. Behind
Meares, there are three women riders
with four Olympic medals: Shuang
Guo (CHN), Laura Trott (UK) and Sarah
Hammer (USA). Trott is the only cyclist
whose medal tally comprises only gold.Most wins of the UCI
Cross‑Country Mountain Bike
World Championships (male)
Nino Schurter (CHE) won the 2016 Union Cycliste
Internationale (UCI) Cross-Country Mountain
Bike World Championships, held in Nové Město na
Moravě in the Czech Republic. It was Schurter’s
fifth victory in the event, equalling the feat
of Julien Absalon (FRA).Fastest individual B pursuit
in track cycling (male)
Stephen Bate (UK) completed the men’s
individual B pursuit in 4 min 8.146 sec
at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil, on 8 Sep. Paralympic
disciplines are categorized according
to the level of an athlete’s physical
restriction. The B classification is for
athletes with a visual impairment who
compete on a tandem with a sighted pilot at the
front. Adam Duggleby (UK) was Bate’s partner.Fastest women’s individual
C5 pursuit in track cycling
On 8 Sep 2016, Sarah Storey (UK)
won the women’s individual C5
pursuit in 3 min 31.394 sec at
the Paralympic Games in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil. In cycling, C1
denotes significantly reduced
functionality, while C5 indicates
less marked impairment.Meares’s
silver medal at
the Beijing Olympics
in 2008 came just
seven months after she
broke her neck while
racing in Los Angeles,
USA. Hers was the
Australian cycling
team’s only medal
at Beijing.