There’s no doubting the strength in depth of the British Olympic Cycling Squad with 18 members in the men’s team and 5 in the women’s team: Medals could certainly come in all disciplines. The track team is stronger than ever so we should do even better than in Sydney four years ago. As for TV, the BBC will be well aware of the fact that cycling is a possible medal sport, so for once we should have plenty of coverage. The dates are confirmed, but keep an eye out for changes in the team.
The big question has to be: will Nicole Cooke ride into the record books and take on three gold medals?
Men’s Track Team:
Steve Cummings (Team Pursuit)
Ross Edgar (Sprint, Keirin)
Rob Hayles (Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit/Madison)
Chris Hoy (Kilo/Team Sprint)
Craig MacLean (Kilo/Team Sprint)
Paul Manning (Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit)
Chris Newton (Team Pursuit/Mens Points Race)
Jason Queally (Kilo/Team Sprint)
Jamie Staff (Kilo, Team Sprint, Keirin)
Bryan Steel (Team Pursuit)
Bradley Wiggins (Individual Pursuit/Team Pursuit/Madison)
Women’s Track team:
Emma Davies (3000m individual pursuit)
Victoria Pendleton (Sprint, 500m TT)
Plus possible: Nicole Cooke (Points Race)
Men’s Road team:
Stuart Dangerfield (Road Time Trial)
Roger Hammond (Road Race)
Charly Wegelius (Road Race)
Julian Winn (Road Race)
Women’s Road team:
Nicole Cooke (Road Race and Time Trial)
Rachel Heal (Road Race)
Sara Symington (Road Race)
Men’s Mountain Bike X-Country team:
Oli Beckingsale (Mountain Biking)
Liam Killeen: (Mountain Biking)
Road event dates and preview
14/08/2004
Men’s road race
This is without doubt our strongest and most experienced men’s road team for an olympic event. Expect to see Roger Hammond on the podium, if all things go to plan…
15/08/2004
Women’s road race
Road racing may be an unpredictable sport but if we had to put the mortgage on one rider it would be Nicole Cooke. If she doesn’t win expect her to take on the Time Trial and blitz the field. Then there’s the Points race to consider. Nicole has a realistic chance of 3 gold medals…
18/08/2004
Women’s individual time trial and Men’s individual time trial
Stuart Dangerfield has been a late call up to cover the Time Trial duties. He’s a fast rider and has done well domestically this year, but against road hardened continental pros like Andreas Klöden and Jan Ullrich I’d expect him to have a hard task getting on the podium. But he could surprise a few as he’s a tough rider and a big event on a hard circuit like this one suits his style.
Dates for Track events and preview
Take your pick from any one of the events and we have a medal prospect. For the team events we should make the finals of the Pursuit and the Team Sprint, what colour medal is anyone’s guess. Individual medals in the men’s events look likely from Bradley Wiggins in the individual pursuit, anyone of the sprinters in the Kilo, Chris Newton in the Points race and Jamie Staff in the Keirin. The women should both make the finals and if Nicole Cooke has her way she’ll frighten the living daylights out of the trackies if she decides to ride the points race.
20/08/2004
Women’s 500m time trial, Men’s 1 km time trial, and Men’s individual 4000m pursuit heats
21/08/2004
Men’s individual 4000m pursuit finals, Men’s team sprint finals and Women’s individual pursuit 3000 m
22/08/2004
Women’s sprint, Women’s individual pursuit 3000 m finals, Men’s team pursuit 4000 m heats and Men’s sprint heats
23/08/2004
Men’s sprint heats, Women’s sprint heats and Men’s team pursuit 4000m
24/08/2004
Men’s points race, Women’s sprint finals and Men’s sprint finals
25/08/2004
Women’s points race, Men’s Madison and Men’s Keirin
Mountain Biking events and preview
Liam Killeen has been producing some excellent results on the World Cup circuit and with good form he could make a medal place, with good luck he could even strike Gold.
27/08/2004
Women’s individual XC mountain bike
28/08/2004
Men’s individual XC mountain bike
- For more on the British team
- For details on how you can get this and more of the TV schedule go to the BBC timetables.
- Also there is a full itinerary of events there too.
