Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics

The 2012 London Olympics featured cycling events from July 28 to August 12, spread across five different sites. Track cycling and BMX were held at the London Velopark, while mountain biking took place at Hadleigh Farm in Essex.

The road races began and ended on The Mall in central London, with a route heading into Surrey, and the time trials started and finished at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames. In total, 18 events were contested, with roughly 500 athletes taking part. Cycling has been a part of every Summer Olympics since the first modern Games in 1896, alongside athletics, artistic gymnastics, fencing, and swimming.

The track cycling program saw several changes from the 2008 Beijing Games. The men’s and women’s individual pursuit and points race, as well as the men’s Madison, were dropped.

New events for women included the team sprint, team pursuit, and keirin, while the Omnium was introduced for both men and women. A new rule limited each country to one entry per track event, a move widely seen as targeting the British team, which had won two medals in four different track events in 2008. Despite this, Britain dominated the cycling competitions once again, taking eight gold medals—the only nation to win more than one gold in the sport.

The original plan for Olympic road racing had placed it in Regent’s Park and Hampstead Heath, but the actual route started and finished on The Mall, heading southwest to include loops around Box Hill in Surrey. Paralympic road racing was held at Brands Hatch.

For mountain biking, the course at Weald Country Park was deemed “too easy” by the UCI in July 2008, so the event moved to Hadleigh Farm. There had been talk of building a course in Wales, and a location in Kent was also considered. Cyclists from 74 nations competed in the 2012 Games.