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Cycling at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's points race

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Men's points race
at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad
Silvio Martinello (2014)
VenueStone Mountain Velodrome
Date28 July
Competitors28 from 28 nations
Winning score37 (0 laps behind)
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Silvio Martinello
 Italy
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Brian Walton
 Canada
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Stuart O'Grady
 Australia
← 1992
2000 →

The men's points race was an event at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. There were 28 participants from 28 nations, with 24 cyclists completing the final, which was held on July 28, 1996.[1] Each nation was limited to one cyclist in the event. The event was won by Silvio Martinello of Italy, the nation's second consecutive and third overall victory in the men's points race (no other nation had more than one win). Silver went to Brian Walton of Canada and bronze to Stuart O'Grady of Australia; it was the first medal in the event for both nations.

Background

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This was the fifth 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.[2]

Four of the 24 finalists from the 1992 Games returned: fourth-place finisher Glenn McLeay of New Zealand, seventh-place finisher Guido Fulst of Germany, ninth-place finisher Franz Stocher of Austria, and non-finisher Vasyl Yakovlev of the Unified Team (now competing for Ukraine). Etienne De Wilde of Belgium was the 1993 World Champion; Silvio Martinello of Italy had won in 1994 and 1995.[2]

Guatemala, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Puerto Rico, Russia, and Ukraine each made their debut in the event. France and Italy both competed for the fifth time, the only nations to have competed in all five Olympic men's points races.

Competition format

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The contest normally consisted of two rounds, semifinals and a final, but with only 28 cyclists competing in 1996 the first round was skipped and only a final was held. The distance was reduced from 50 kilometres in previous finals to 40 kilometres in this competition. Placement was determined first by how many laps behind the leader the cyclist was and second by how many sprint points the cyclist accumulated. That is, a cyclist with more sprint points but who was lapped once would be ranked behind a cyclist with fewer points but who had not been lapped. Sprint points could be gained only by cyclists who had not been lapped.

There were 20 sprints—one every 2 kilometres (8 laps). Points were awarded based on the position of the cyclists at the end of the sprint. Most of the sprints were worth 5 points for the leader, 3 to the second-place cyclist, 2 to third, and 1 to fourth. The final sprint was worth double: 10 points, 6, 4, and 2.[2]

Schedule

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All times are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-4)

Date Time Round
Sunday, 28 July 1996 11:15 Final

Results

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Rank Cyclist Nation Laps behind Points
1st place, gold medalist(s) Silvio Martinello  Italy 0 37
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Brian Walton  Canada 0 29
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Stuart O'Grady  Australia 0 25
4 Vasyl Yakovlev  Ukraine 0 24
5 Francis Moreau  France 0 21
6 Juan Llaneras  Spain 0 17
7 Cho Ho-Sung  South Korea 0 6
8 Glenn McLeay  New Zealand 1 14
9 Guido Fulst  Germany 1 8
10 Sergey Lavrenenko  Kazakhstan 1 7
11 Milton Wynants  Uruguay 1 6
12 Franz Stocher  Austria 1 5
13 Remigijus Lupeikis  Lithuania 1 4
14 Pavel Khamidulin  Russia 1 4
15 Masahiro Yasuhara  Japan 1 2
16 Yevgeny Vakker  Kyrgyzstan 1 1
17 Bruno Risi  Switzerland 2 8
18 Jan Bo Petersen  Denmark 2 7
19 Brian McDonough  United States 2 5
20 Sergio Godoy  Guatemala 2 0
21 Peter Pieters  Netherlands 2 0
22 Declan Lonergan  Ireland 2 0
23 Juan Curuchet  Argentina 2 0
24 Etienne De Wilde  Belgium 2 0
David George  South Africa DNF
Juan Merheb  Puerto Rico DNF
Marlon Pérez  Colombia DNF
Marco Zaragoza  Mexico DNF

References

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  1. ^ "Cycling at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games: Men's Points Race". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 5 March 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Points Race, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 8 February 2021.

Sources

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