The men's

team pursuit The team pursuit is a track cycling event similar to the individual pursuit, except that two teams, each of up to four riders, compete, starting on opposite sides of the velodrome. Race format Both men's and women's events are competed over ...

event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

took place from 2 to 4 August 2021 at the

Izu Velodrome The Izu Velodrome is a velodrome in Izu, Shizuoka, Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Shizuoka, Japan. It has a 250-metre cycling track and spectator facilities for 3,600 people. It was opened in 2011, and was selected as the venue to host the track cyc ...

. 32 cyclists (8 teams of 4) from 8 nations competed.

Background

This was the 25th appearance of the event, which has been held at every Summer Olympics since its introduction in 1908 except for 1912, when no track cycling was held. The reigning Olympic champions were

Ed Clancy Edward Franklin Clancy (born 12 March 1985) is a British former professional Track cycling, track and road bicycle racer, who competed between 2004 and 2021. During his career, Clancy won four medals (three gold, one bronze) at the Summer Olym ...

Steven Burke Steven James Burke (born 4 March 1988) is a former English track and road cyclist, who rode for the now disbanded cycling team.

Owain Doull Owain Daniel Doull (born 2 May 1993) is a Welsh people, Welsh road and track cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . Doull specialises in the team pursuit on the track, and won a gold medal in the discipline at the Cycling at the 2016 S ...

, and

Bradley Wiggins Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins (born 28 April 1980) is a British former professional Road bicycle racing, road and track cycling, track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016. He began his cycling career on the track, but ...

of Great Britain; Great Britain had won the last three Olympic events (with Clancy on the team for all three, Wiggins for the first and third, and Burke for the last two). The reigning (

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

) World Champions were

Lasse Norman Hansen Lasse Norman Leth; né Norman Hansen; (born 11 February 1992) is a Danish professional road and track racing cyclist, who currently rides for Danish club team Team CO:PLAY–Giant Store. During his track cycling career, he has won five medals (i ...

Julius Johansen Julius Johansen (born 13 September 1999) is a Danish professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He rode in the men's team pursuit event at the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships and won gold at the 2017 UCI Ro ...

Frederik Rodenberg Frederik Rodenberg Madsen (born 22 January 1998) is a Danish professional road and track cyclist, who currently rides for club team Team CO:PLAY–Giant Store. He rode in the men's team pursuit at the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships ...

, and

Rasmus Pedersen Rasmus Lund Pedersen (born 9 July 1998) is a Danish road and track cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Continental team . He competed at the 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, winning a bronze medal. Major results Road ;2015 : 1st Ro ...

of Denmark. In a particularly competitive event in 2021, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Italy, and Germany were all tipped to challenge British dominance in the event.

Qualification

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) could enter up to 1 team of 4 cyclists in the team pursuit. Quota places are allocated to the NOC, which selects the cyclists. Qualification was entirely through the 2018–20 UCI nation rankings. The eight top nations in the rankings qualify for the team pursuit event. These nations also automatically qualified a team in the

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

. Because qualification was complete by the end of the

2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships The 2020 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were held in Berlin, Germany from 26 February to 1 March 2020. Schedule 20 events were held: ''All times are local (UTC+1).'' Medal summary Medal table Men Women *Shaded events are non ...

on 1 March 2020 (the last event that contributed to the 2018–20 rankings), qualification was unaffected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Competition format

A team pursuit race involves two teams of four cyclists. Each team starts at opposite sides of the track. There are two ways to win: finish 16 laps (4 km) before the other team does or catch the other team. The time for each team is determined by the third cyclist to cross the finish line; the fourth cyclist does not need to finish. The tournament consists of three rounds: * Qualifying round: Each team does a time trial for seeding. Only the top 4 teams are able to compete for the gold medal; the 5th place and lower teams can do no better than bronze. * First round: Four heats of 2 teams each. The top 4 teams are seeded against each other (1 vs. 4, 2 vs. 3) while the bottom 4 teams are seeded against each other (5 vs. 8, 6 vs. 7). The winners of the top bracket advance to the gold medal final. The other 6 teams are ranked by time and advance to finals based on those rankings. * Finals: Four finals, each with 2 teams. There is a gold medal final (gold and silver medals), a bronze medal final (bronze medal and 4th place), and 5th/6th and 7th/8th classification finals.

Schedule

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC (UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

)

Results

Qualifying

First round

Denmark caught the team from Great Britain, thereby advancing to the Gold Medal final, but did not record a time as their third rider crashed into the caught third British rider, who had lost contact to the front two of his team.

Finals

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Men's team pursuit Men's team pursuit Cycling at the Summer Olympics – Men's team pursuit Men's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics