Overview

Road Cycling became part of the Paralympic programme at the Stoke Mandeville & New York 1984 Games, with Track events first included at Atlanta 1996. The popularity of the sport with both athletes and spectators is reflected in the fact that 50 gold medals in Cycling will be awarded at Tokyo 2020, with a total of 230 athletes competing.

Athletes with physical or visual impairments compete in Cycling, divided into four classes: impairment to all four limbs (C), use of upper half of body only (H), cerebral palsy (T), and visual impairments (B). Finer divisions exist to account for the degree of impairment and events are split by gender.

The Track programme comprises events for athletes in classes B and C, including time trials, pursuit races and team sprints, demanding acceleration and absolute speed in order to win over a short distance. Road events include time trials, road races and an H2-5 mixed team relay, and require the careful timing of pace changes and tactics to preserve energy over long distances.

Find out more on the British Cycling website.