Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics
The cycling competitions of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will feature 22 events.
Cycling competitions had been contested in every Summer Olympics programme since the first modern Olympiad in 1896 alongside athletics, artistic gymnastics, fencing and swimming.
Since the 1896 contests which featured five track events and an 87 km road race from Athens to Marathon and back, Olympic cycling had gradually evolved to include women's competitions, mountain bike and BMX to arrive at the current 22 events.
The cycling program for this edition was expanded with 4 more events than those held in 2016.BMX freestyle was added in the program for the first time and there will also be a return of madison's events on the track,that had been removed from the Olympic program in 2008.
Venues
Track cycling was planned for a temporary venue in Ariake. To save $100 million in construction costs, it was announced after months of negotiations that the venue for track cycling became the existing velodrome in Izu. The UCI resisted the move trackcycling 120 km outside Tokyo to Izu. The UCI feared it would detract from Olympic experience for both athletes and fans. Eventually the international cycling union agreed to change. The Japanese Cycling Federation and local authorities are committed to establish at Izu a multi-sport cycling center to create local cycling programs and develop the cycling sport.For road cycling the start and finish were originally planned at the Imperial Palace Garden. Later it was announced that the finishes would be at the Fuji International Speedway with the starts of the road races at the Musashinonomori Park.
| Venue | Cluster | Sport | Date | Medal events | Capacity |
| Fuji International Speedway | Outside Tokyo | Road cycling | 24 – 28 July | 4 | |
| Izu MTB Course | Outside Tokyo | Mountain biking | 26 – 27 July | 2 | |
| Ariake Urban Sports Park | Tokyo Bay Zone | BMX | 29 July – 1 August | 4 | 5,000 |
| Musashinonomori Park | Heritage Zone | Road cycling | 24 – 25 July | 0 | |
| Izu Velodrome | Outside Tokyo | Track cycling | 2 – 8 August | 12 | 4,300 |
Qualification
Japan, as the host country, receives 1 guaranteed quota place per gender in the BMX Racing, BMX Freestyle, and mountain bike events and 2 quota places per gender in the road race events. Most qualification is done through UCI ranking lists, with some spots allocated through world championship events or continental qualification events.Participation
Participating nations
Courses
Road races
The courses for the men's and women's road races were revealed in August 2018. The races will start in Musashinonomori Park in Chofu, western Tokyo with the finish at the Fuji Speedway circuit in the Shizuoka prefecture. The men's road race will be 234 kilometres long with a total elevation of 4865 m. The women's race will cover 137 km with a total elevation of 2692 metres.The first part of the men's and women's races is identical. The course will first pass through the mostly flat outskirts of Tokyo's metropolitan area. After 80 km there will be a long climb on Doushi Road with a total elevation of 1000 m. After reaching Lake Yamanakako in Yamanashi and crossing the Kagosaka Pass there will be a fast 15 km descent. From here the courses are different for men and women.
After the descent, the men's race will head towards the lower slopes of Mount Fuji, Japan's highest mountain, where they will go up a 14.3 km long climb with a 6.0% average incline. The riders will then head to the Fuji Speedway section, where they will cross the finish line twice before entering the last part of the race, which includes the Mikuni Pass peak at about 30 km to go. This climb is 6.8 km at a height of 1159 metres with an average incline of 10.2% including sections reaching 20%. After the climb, the race will return to Lake Yamanakako and the Kagosaka Pass before finishing on the Fuji Speedway circuit.
The women's race will not include the two tough climbs at Mount Fuji and Mikuni Pass. Instead, the race will remain on the Fuji Speedway circuit, where the women will ride 1.5 laps before the final crossing of the finish line.