Cycling – Mountain bike

History

Mountain bike started in the 1970s in California (United States). Cyclists were looking for a different experience in relation to the tarmac of the roads. Therefore, they decided to try out trails and rough ground on their bikes.

A group from San Francisco helped to disseminate the sport by staging the first mountain bike competitions. The events, held between 1976 and 1979, took place near the famous Golden Gate Bridge and ended up attracting a lot of attention to this new version of the sport.

The first ever mountain bike World Championship was held in 1990, already under the authority of the International Cycling Union (UCI). From then on, it was not long before the sport was included in the Olympic programme. In fact, the sport made its Olympic debut at its birthplace - the United States -, featuring at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Mountain bikes have wider tyres than road bicycles, as well as front and back shock absorbers in order to reduce the impact for athletes over the course's rough ground.

Curiosities

Two double Olympic champions

Mountain bike has already awarded ten gold medals up until now at the Olympics. In Rio de Janeiro, another two will be up for grabs. From Atlanta 1996 to London 2012, only two athletes managed to win the gold medal twice, which means that the sport has seen eight different Olympic champions throughout its history.

The only two athletes to have been crowned Olympic champions twice were Paola Pezzo from Italy, taking the gold in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000 and Frenchman Julien Absalon, who scooped up the gold in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008. The two current Olympic champions - Julie Bresset from France and Jaroslav Kulhavy from the Czech Republic – will have a chance to try and repeat their feats in Brazil.

See also

Brazilian Cycling Federation (CBC)
www.cbc.esp.br

International Cycling Federation (UCI)
www.uci.ch