Track biking is likely one of the unique sports activities contested within the trendy Olympic Games, after they had been restored in 1896 at Athens, Greece. Track biking was certainly one of 43 whole occasions contested by 280 athletes, all males, from 13 nations and its a number of disciplines have appeared in all however one Olympic Games since, apart from Stockholm 1912 when solely a time trial was held.
The Team Pursuit is taken into account an endurance occasion, although the occasions are round 4 minutes for ladies and have dipped beneath the four-minute mark for males for the 4,000-metre race. It’s about clockwork precision along with excessive velocity.
The Team Pursuit was first an Olympic occasion for males in 1908 with the ladies added to the programme in 2012.
In the primary look, ladies raced with three-rider groups over a 3,000-metre distance, however beginning in 2016 in Rio, each males’s and ladies’s occasions used four-rider groups competing over 4,000 metres.
After a interval of domination by Great Britain at current Games, different nations have now stepped up and brought excessive step of the rostrum, and information have tumbled.
The finest time for males on the Olympics was set by Italy in Tokyo, 2020, with 3:42.032, whereas the ladies’s quartet from Germany set a brand new document of 4:04.242 on the similar Games.
Basics of Team Pursuit
Each workforce consists of 4 riders who race collectively throughout 16 laps (4,000 kilometres), every taking turns pulling with the others drafting in a straight line.
Each spherical is contested by two groups beginning on reverse sides of the observe to cowl the 4,000. The time is taken because the third rider’s entrance wheel crosses the end line.
One of essentially the most swish biking occasions, the lead rider powers the workforce right into a flip then pulls off excessive on the banking and dives right down to rejoin within the draft of the final rider. The higher a rider is at pulling off an efficient change, the extra environment friendly they’re at saving vitality and thus the quicker they will journey.
The occasion combines technical ability, tools innovation for optimum aerodynamics in addition to pacing and technique. Stronger riders would possibly take longer pulls or save their power for late within the race. Weaker riders would possibly bury themselves for so long as doable earlier than being dropped. Riders should know one another’s skills nicely and make sure that not less than three riders keep collectively to the end.
Teams are allowed to enter 5 riders and mix in numerous methods into groups of 4 for every spherical.
If a workforce makes the ultimate, they are going to have endured three rounds: the primary is a qualifying spherical the place every workforce is on the observe alone, aiming to set their quickest doable time. Only the highest 4 groups have a chance to race for the gold medal, whereas the subsequent 4 quickest might solely at finest earn bronze.
On the subsequent spherical (referred to as the primary spherical), the groups face off in line with their rating in qualifying: sixth vs seventh, fifth vs eighth, 2nd vs third and 1st vs 4th. The winners of the final two heats will compete for the gold medal within the ultimate.
The occasions of losers of the final two heats are grouped along with the primary two heats, and the 2 quickest groups of these six will make the bronze medal ultimate.
The medals are then awarded in one other head-to-head spherical the place the quickest workforce wins. If a workforce will get inside one metre of catching their opponent, they win robotically.
