Cycling

About Cycling

Cycling at the Olympics encompasses various disciplines from road events which include the individual time trial and the mass-start road race; track cycling which is held on a velodrome across sprint and endurance disciplines; mountain biking, which is raced over rough off-road circuits; and BMX with racing and freestyle events featuring explosive and acrobatic formats.

Cycling has featured on Irish Olympic teams since the 1960s. Stephen Roche, who would go on to win the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and World Championship in 1987, competed at the Moscow 1980 Games. Nicolas Roche competed at four consecutive Games from Beijing 2008 to Tokyo 2020, and Dan Martin, one of Ireland's finest road racers, competed at London 2012 and Rio 2016.

At Paris 2024, Ben Healy was in medal contention deep into the men's road race before finishing tenth, while Lara Gillespie finished tenth in the women's omnium and Ireland's women's team pursuit squad - Gillespie, Mia Griffin, Alice Sharpe and Kelly Murphy - made history as Ireland's first ever Olympic team pursuit quartet, setting a new national record despite having no home velodrome.