Sky Sports - Summer Olympics - Beijing 2008 - Sponsored by Puma

There will be four different categories of cycling at this year's Olympics following the inclusion of BMX racing for the very first time. The other three disciplines are road, track and mountain biking.

In the BMX competition, riders will race on a specially-designed track of around 300 to 400 meters in length and featuring a variety of extreme jumps, banked corners and obstacles.

Both the men's and women's events will begin with a seeding stage, where each individual runs the track twice with their fastest time determining their starting rank.

The 32 men will then compete in four quarter-finals, which consist of three separate runs with points allocated after each one in relation to the riders' finishing positions. For example, the winner gets one point and last place gets eight. The four with the lowest overall scores in each progress to the semi-finals, also over three runs, and once again the same principle applies. The final, however, is just over one run and that's when the medals are decided.

Meanwhile there will be 16 starting the women's event so they'll advance directly from the seeding run to the three-run semi-finals.

As with the BMX, there are just two gold medals up for grabs in Mountain Biking - one for the men and one for the women - but it's much simpler in terms of format.

The riders all start at the same time and the first to complete the set number of laps of the undulating circuit will be declared the winner. The race lasts roughly two hours.

There are two sub-disciplines in the Road Cycling category - the classic Road Race and the Individual Time Trial.

For the Road Race, the riders start at the same time like a regular stage of the Tour de France and the first across the finish line will be deemed the winner. Men will compete over seven laps of a course which will see them cover 245.4km, while the women will race over 126.4km.

The Individual Time Trial is takes place on a 23.8km circuit between the Great Wall Badaling section and Juyongguan section, with men completing two laps and women one. Unlike the road race, the riders start at two-minute intervals with the final positions decided by fastest times.

The Track Cycling takes place at the Laoshan Velodrome with seven different events on show - the sprint, individual pursuit, points race, Madison, team sprint, team pursuit and Keirin. Women only compete in the first three of these.

The Sprint is over three laps as riders go head-to-head with the winners progressing through the rounds in a bid to reach the final, where the gold and silver will be decided.

In the Individual Pursuit two riders are on the track at the same time but start the race on opposite straights. A rider can win the race by completing the set distance (4km for men, 3km for women) or by overtaking his/her opponent. The eight quickest competitors following a qualifying stage will contest the first round and the four winners of these will fight for the medals - the two fastest going for gold and the others for bronze.

The Team Pursuit is exactly the same principle except that four riders make up a team with each of the members taking it in turns to lead from the front and set the pace.

For the Points Race riders will cover a total distance of 40km for men (160 laps) and 25km for women (100 laps) and intermediate sprints occur every 10 laps, where points are awarded. The competitor with the most points wins.

In the Madison, teams of two riders work together to score points in a series of sprints every 20 laps over a distance of 50km (200 laps). Although the main objective is to gain a lap on your opponents, the points will decide positions if teams finish the race on the same lap.

In Team Sprint there are two teams of three battling it out over three laps of the track. Each member has to lead his team for one lap.

Keirin riders complete five and a half laps behind a motorised pace bike called a derny before it moves aside prompting a two and a half lap sprint to the finish.

History

Road race cycling made its Olympic debut at the first modern Summer Games in Athens in 1896 and although it was absent for the next three, the event has been part of the schedule ever since. A team road race was introduced in 1912 but was replaced by a 100km team time trial, although this too came to an end in 1992 when the individual time trial was added to the programme instead. Women made their road race bow in 1984 and were handed an individual time trial at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

Track racing has been included in every Olympics, apart from Stockholm in 1912, although there have been plenty of changes in length, format and bike design over the years. The Madison, Keirin and Team Sprint events were added in 2000 but the men's 1km time trial and women's 500m time trial have been removed ahead of Beijing to make way for the debut of the BMX discipline.

Mountain Bike racing is still regarded as a new cycling discipline as far as the Olympics are concerned, having been first introduced in Atlanta in 1996.

Olympic Greats:

Britain's Chris Boardman virtually revolutionised track racing in 1992 when the introduction of his ultra-lightweight full carbon-fibre bike saw him smash world records and lap the world champion Jens Lehmann in the final of the individual pursuit. He famously adopted the "Superman" position and became Britain's first Olympic cycling gold medallist for 72 years and more importantly sparked a surge of long-term interest and success in the sport in his country.

Jan Ullrich, regarded as one of the most talented cyclists of his generation, was agonisingly close to a double gold in Sydney but nevertheless will be remembered for his outstanding performance in the road race which saw him lead his Telekom teammates Alexandre Vinokourov and Andreas Klöden to a 1-2-3. In the time-trial event he just missed out in a frantic sprint finish to Viatcheslav Ekimov by just 0.08 seconds although he did manage to beat his arch-rival Lance Armstrong into third place.

Five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Indurain wrote his name into Olympic folklore when racing away to time-trial gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games, where professional cyclists were allowed to compete for the first time. Fellow Spaniard Abraham Olano took the silver while Boardman added another medal to his collection with the bronze.

Female riders have also had their fair share of Olympic glory, despite waiting until 1984 for their first opportunity.

Perhaps the most famous is Holland's Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel, who collected four golds, a silver and a bronze from the Sydney and Athens Games but it's her story leading up to 2000 which makes her achievements unforgettable. Having worked her way up to the top by becoming the world road race champion for the second time in 1993, she then dropped out of the sport the following year to battle against depression, anorexia and bulimia. But her return was explosive and at the age of 30 in Sydney she stormed to victory in the individual pursuit inside the velodrome before taking silver in the points race. Then Zijlaard-van Moorsel showcased her world-class versatility by claiming the road race gold and four days later stormed to a quite incredible triumph in the time trial by 37 seconds. If that wasn't enough she went on to etch her name into Dutch sporting immortality four years later in Athens by recovering from a bad fall in the road race to defend her time-trial title by a comfortable margin of 24.09s. There was no doubt she retired on a high note, but not before adding a bronze in the pursuit.

Another female cycling great is Jeannie Longo, who initially appeared cursed at the Olympics despite winning almost everywhere else throughout her illustrious career. At the age of 37 in Atlanta, the French heroine had already ten world crowns to her name - both on the road and on the track - but none on the greatest stage of all. In 1984 a late collision knocked her out of contention, a broken hip wrecked her chances four years later and in Barcelona she was pipped by Kathy Watt in the road race. But her fortune changed in 1996 when her hard work and perseverance saw her race away from Imelda Chiappa and Clara Hughes to win road race gold before taking silver in the time trial. Longo returned to the Olympics in 2000, aged 41, and won bronze in the time trial, although her age finally caught up with her in Athens where she missed out on the medals.

Best of British:

Most people think of Chris Boardman when asked to name successful British cyclists for the reasons mentioned earlier but he's not the only one to enjoy the national spotlight.

Bradley Wiggins shot to stardom thanks to his exploits in Athens four years ago when he became the first British athlete since Mary Rand in 1964 to win three medals in one Olympics.

Wiggins, who also won a bronze in Sydney, triumphed in the individual pursuit, took silver as part of the team pursuit effort and bronze in partnership with Rob Hayles in the Madison.

Scottish track hero Chris Hoy also topped the podium in Athens due to explosive efforts in the 1km time trial, although he can't defend that crown this time because the race has been dropped.

That said he will bid for treble gold in Beijing as he competes in the Sprint, Team Sprint and Keirin.

And who could forget Chorley's Jason Queally, who won the country's first gold of the 2000 Sydney Games in the 1km individual time trial. At the time many believed his performance was the springboard for Team GB's memorable overall achievement of claiming 11 golds that year.

Ones to Watch:

Team GB dominated March's track world championships in Manchester and they are expected to challenge for plenty of individual and team medals again.

Bradley Wiggins and Chris Hoy lead the men's hopes while sprint queen Victoria Pendleton and Rebecca Romero, who won silver in rowing four years ago, also have high expectations in this highly promising team.

Beyond the velodrome, BMX phenomenon Shanaze Reade has become world champion since advancing to the senior ranks last year and the 19-year-old is certainly one to watch in Beijing.

In the mountain bike event, look out for Frenchman Julien Absalon, who is favourite to collect a second successive Olympic gold medal. In addition to his success in Athens, the 28-year-old notched up four straight world championship wins between 2004 and 2007 although this year's event didn't go according to plan when he failed to finish. His main rival will be the new champion Christoph Sauser of Switzerland.

On the road it could well be Australia steeling the show Beijing. Cadel Evans leads a strong men's road race team which includes fellow Tour de France riders Stuart O'Grady and Simon Gerrans while in the women's event defending champion Sara Carrigan is hoping she can repeat her success this time round although teammate Kate Bates, who finished fourth last time, could be a strong challenger.

Team GB:

Liam Phillips - BMX

Shanaze Reade - BMX

Oliver Beckingsale - Mountain Biking

Liam Killeen - Mountain Biking

Jonny Bellis - Road Race

Steve Cummings - Road Race & Individual Time Trial

Roger Hammond - Road Race

Ben Swift - Road Race

Nicole Cooke - Road Race

Sharon Laws - Road Race

Emma Pooley - Road Race

Steven Burke - Team Pursuit

Edward Clancy - Team Pursuit

Geraint Thomas - Team Pursuit

Paul Manning - Team Pursuit

Mark Cavendish - Madison

Ross Edgar - Team Sprint and Keirin

Chris Hoy - Sprint, Team Sprint and Keirin

Jason Kenny - Sprint and Team Sprint

Jamie Staff - Team Sprint

Chris Newton - Points Race

Bradley Wiggins - Individual Pursuit, Team Pursuit and Madison

Victoria Pendleton - Sprint

Rebecca Romero - Individual Pursuit and Points Race

Wendy Houvenaghel - Women's Individual Pursuit

Medal Hopes - Wiggins, Hoy, Cavendish, Pendleton, Romero, Reade.