The men's

points race A points race is a mass start track cycling event involving large numbers of riders simultaneously on track. It was an Olympic event for men between 1984–2008 and for women 1996–2008. Starting in 2012, the points race is one of the omnium even ...

cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics consisted of 18 events in three disciplines: *Road cycling, held at the Athens historic centre (start and finish at Kotzia Square, for the road race events) and in Vouliagmeni Olympic Centre (for the time ...

consisted of a 160 lap (40 kilometre)

with 16 sprints where points were awarded. The event was held on 24 August 2004 at the

Athens Olympic Velodrome The Athens Olympic Velodrome is a velodrome stadium that is located in Marousi, Athens, Greece, at the Athens Olympic Sports Complex. The stadium, which seats 5,250 - though only 3,300 seats were made publicly available for the 2004 Summer Olym ...

. There were 23 competitors from 23 nations, with each nation limited to one cyclist in the event. The event was won by Mikhail Ignatiev of Russia, the nation's first victory in the men's points race. Spain's

Joan Llaneras Joan Llaneras Rosselló (born 17 May 1969 in Porreres, Majorca) is a former Spanish World and Olympic points race champion track cyclist. He specialises in the madison and points race events. Llaneras began his cycling career on the road with t ...

, the defending champion, took silver; he was the first and only person (of any gender) to win multiple medals in the relatively short-lived points race, and ended with three medals after another gold in 2008.

Guido Fulst Guido Fulst (born 7 June 1970) is a former German racing cyclist, who competed for the '' SG Dynamo Wernigerode'', SC Dynamo Berlin / Sportvereinigung (SV) Dynamo. He won many titles during his career. He won two gold medals and a bronze at the ...

of Germany took bronze, the first medal in the event for that nation since 1900.

Background

This was the seventh appearance of the event. It was first held in 1900 and not again until 1984; after that, it was held every Summer Games until 2008 when it was removed from the programme. The women's version was held from 1996 through 2008. 8 of the 23 cyclists from the 2000 Games returned: gold medalist

of Spain, silver medalist

Milton Wynants Milton Ariel Wynants Vázquez (born March 29, 1972 in Paysandú) is a racing cyclist from Uruguay, who was affiliated with the Veloz Club Sanducero. Wynants competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country (From Atlanta 199 ...

of Uruguay, sixth-place finisher

Franz Stocher Franz Stocher (born 23 March 1969) is a former Austrian racing cyclist. A specialist of the track, he was the world champion in 2003 in the points race event. He competed at five Olympic Games. Palmares Track ;2002 :1st World Cup Madison (wit ...

of Austria, eleventh-place finisher

Wong Kam Po Wong Kam-po SBS MH (, born 13 March 1973) is a Hong Kong racing cyclist. A specialist in road bicycle racing, at age 34 he became a track cycling world champion in the scratch race of the 2007 World Championships, which was not his specialt ...

of Hong Kong, fourteenth-place finisher

Juan Curuchet Juan Esteban Curuchet (born 4 February 1965 in Mar del Plata) is a road bicycle racer and track cyclist from Argentina. Curuchet represented Argentina at the Summer Olympics in 1984, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008. He won the madison at t ...

of Argentina, fifteenth-place finisher

Matthew Gilmore Matthew Gilmore (born 11 September 1972 in Ghent) is a Belgian-Australian retired track cyclist, who mostly competed and was most successful on track for Belgium. Although Gilmore was born in and represented Belgium, he is the son of Australian ...

of Belgium, sixteenth-place finisher

Makoto Iijima is a Japanese former professional road and track cyclist. Considered one of Japan's most successful cyclists in his decade, Iijima has claimed a total of nine track cycling medals (two golds, three silver, and four bronze) at the Asian Championshi ...

of Japan, and seventeenth-place finisher

Vasyl Yakovlev Vasyl Yakovlev (born 3 July 1972) is a Ukrainian former cyclist. He competed four Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and wi ...

of Ukraine. Llaneras, Wynants, Stocher, Curuchet, and Yakovlev had all competed in 1996 as well; Yakovlev was on his fourth Games. Llaneras won the World Championships in 1996, 1998, and 2000.

Chris Newton Christopher Malcolm Newton (born 29 September 1973, Middlesbrough, England) is a road and track racing cyclist. Newton is a multiple world champion and triple Olympic medalist. Biography Newton went to Linthorpe Juniors and Boynton Comprehens ...

of Great Britain was the 2002 World Champion. Stocher won in 2003, with Llaneras in second.

Franck Perque Franck Perque (born 30 November 1974 in Amiens) is a former French racing cyclist. Palmares Road ;1996 :1st Paris–Tours Espoirs ;;1998 :1st Stage 5 Tour de Normandie ;2004 :2nd Grand Prix de la Ville de Lillers ;2006 :1st Ronde de l'Oise Th ...

of France was the reigning (2004) champion. Belarus and the Czech Republic each made their debut in the event. France and Italy both competed for the seventh time, the only nations to have competed in all seven Olympic men's points races.

Competition format

The format changed slightly from previous incarnations of the Olympic points race. The event was still a single race at 40 kilometres distance, with points for 16 sprints (every 2.5 kilometres). The scoring of laps changed, however. Rather than riders a lap behind the leaders being automatically placed behind them, and unable to score sprint points, now cyclists earned a 20-point bonus for each lap ahead. This bonus was large enough that it had largely the same result in practice. 5 points were given to the first finisher of each sprint, with 3 going to the second-place finisher, 2 going to the third place cyclist, and 1 going to the fourth place rider. Cyclists could also score points by lapping the main body of riders, known as the

peloton In a road bicycle race, the peloton (from French, originally meaning 'platoon') is the main group or pack of riders. Riders in a group save energy by riding close ( drafting or slipstreaming) to (particularly behind) other riders. The reductio ...

. 20 points were gained by doing this, while 20 points were lost if the peloton lapped the cyclist.

Schedule

All times are Greece Standard Time (

UTC+2 UTC+02:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +02:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2020-11-08T23:41:45+02:00. This time is used in: As standard time (year-round) ''Principal cities: Cairo, Pretoria, Cape ...

)

Results

Ignatiev got a lap ahead of everyone else, giving him a 20-point advantage over the four-man chase group. Llaneras finished strong, winning 3 of the last 4 laps for 15 points. This gave him a total of 22 sprint points, most in the field and 9 more than Ignatiev, but the lap difference kept the Spaniard in second place.

References

External links

Official Olympic Report
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling At The 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's Points Race M Cycling at the Summer Olympics – Men's points race Track cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics Men's events at the 2004 Summer Olympics