Cycling factbox for Athens 2004

ATHENS, July 7 (Reuters) -- Factbox on cycling at the August 13-29 Athens Olympics:

HISTORY

Road and track cycling were included in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

France's Paul Masson won three of the five track events and Greek Aristidis Konstantinidis took gold in the road race.

The International Cycling Association, which later became the International Cycling Union (UCI), had been founded in 1892 and the first official world championships were held a year later in Cologne, Germany.

Mountain biking made its Olympic debut in 1996 at the Atlanta Games. In the same year, professional cyclists were admitted to the Games for the first time.

EVENTS

Track:

Men: 1km individual time trial, sprint, individual pursuit, team pursuit, points race, Madison, Keirin, team sprint.

Women: 500m individual time trial, sprint, individual pursuit, points race.

Road:

Men: Road race, time trial.

Women: Road race, time trial.

Mountain biking: Men's and women's races.

2000 CHAMPIONS

TRACK

Men

Individual pursuit: Robert Bartko (Germany)

1km time trial: Jason Queally (Britain)

Sprint: Marty Nothstein (U.S.)

Points race: Juan Llaneras (Spain)

Keirin: Florian Rousseau (France)

Madison: Australia

Team pursuit: Germany (Guido Fulst, Robert Bartko, Daniel

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Becke, Jens Lehmann)

Team sprint: France (Florian Rousseau, Arnaud Tournant,

Laurent Gane)

Women

Individual pursuit: Leontien Zijlaard (Netherlands)

500 metres time trial: Felicia Ballanger (France)

Sprint: Ballanger

Points race: Antonella Bellutti (Italy)

ROAD

Men

Road race: Jan Ullrich (Germany)

Time trial: Viacheslav Ekimov (Russia)

Women:

Road race: Zijlaard

Time trial: Zijlaard

MOUNTAIN BIKING

Men: Miguel Martinez (France)

Women: Paola Pezzo (Italy)

OLYMPIC PROGRAMME

ROAD

August 14: Men's road race

August 15: Women's road race

August 18: Women's individual time trial

Men's individual time trial

TRACK (FINALS)

August 20: Women's 500 metres time trial

Men's 1km time trial

August 21: Men's individual pursuit

Men's team sprint

August 22: Women's individual pursuit

August 23: Men's team pursuit

August 24: Men's points race

Women's sprint

Men's sprint

August 25: Women's points race

Men's Madison

Men's Keirin

MOUNTAIN BIKING

August 27: Women's cross country

August 28: Men's cross country

VENUES

The road race will be held in Athens and the individual time

trials at the Vouliagmeni Olympic Centre, where 3,000 temporary seats are being built.

The track events will be in the 3,500-seat Olympic Velodrome at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex and the mountain biking takes place at Parnitha Olympic mountain bike venue which can accommodate 15,000 spectators.

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

www.uci.ch

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