Cycling - Cycling Sports in UK

Historically, Britain is one of the major cycling sports nations in the world with notable successes across a broad range of categories, including, road racing, time trials and mountain bike racing. In fact, in July 2017, modern-day legend Chris Froome comfortably won his fourth Tour De France, arguably the toughest sporting competition in the world, and led Team Sky to the team title.

Meanwhile, in the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships held several months earlier in Luxembourg, cyclists Tom Pidcock and Dan Tulett won the gold and silver medals respectively in the Junior Men category. Not to be outdone, the ladies from Team Great Britain, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald, returned with impressive goal medals in the points race and Omnium in the UCI Track Cycling World Championships.

However, it is in the Summer Olympics which Great Britain has made a name for itself. As of the Rio 2016 Olympics, Britain is ranked third in the all-time medals tally with 32 goals, 30 silvers and 25 bronzes. Although France leads the table with 41 goals, 25 silvers and 22 bronzes, a sizable number of their medals came during the first two Olympics. If we discount the 1896 and 1900 Olympics, Britain would be perched at the top of the medals table. The country's strength was on full display in the 2016 edition when Britain dominated cycling by winning six of the 18 gold medals and 12 of the 54 medals on offer.

Nevertheless, in the eyes of many, the modern day genesis of British cycling dominance came following the heroics of 1992 Olympic gold medallist Chris Boardman, which attracted the attention of the world with his multiple record-breaking time in the individual pursuit category using the British-made Lotus 108, a revolutionary bicycle built using carbon fibre mouldings. It fired up a whole generation of youngsters which have continued Boardman's legacy a quarter of a century later.