Defending mountain bike champion Tom Pidcock, European time trial champion Josh Tarling, and world track sprint champion Emma Finucane are among the first riders officially selected to represent Team GB at next month’s Paris Olympics.
Team GB made the first of two squad announcements on Monday, listing 21 athletes selected across track, road and mountain bike disciplines.
Pidcock will compete in both the men’s cross-country mountain bike event and the road race in Paris. Newly crowned national road champion Ethan Hayter will also race across disciplines, as part of the road and track squad.
Joining Pidcock and Hayter in the road squad will be former national champion Fred Wright and La Flèche Wallonne winner Stevie Williams, as well as Tarling, who will carry British hopes in the time trial.
The men’s track endurance squad will comprise Ollie Wood, Ethan Vernon, Dan Bigham and Hayter – the four riders who won the team pursuit world title in 2022. Charlie Tanfield is also part of the squad, while Mark Stewart will travel as a reserve.
The women’s track sprint squad, which failed to qualify for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, return to the Olympics this year as medal favourites across the three events (team sprint, keirin and individual sprint). Finucane will race alongside Sophie Capewell and Rio bronze medallist Katy Marchant in the team sprint. Lowri Thomas will be the team’s reserve rider.
Tokyo silver and bronze medallist Jack Carlin leads the men’s track sprint squad, alongside Hamish Turnball, Ed Lowe, and travelling reserve Joe Truman.
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“We’re blessed with an incredibly talented, passionate and hungry squad of riders,” said performance director Stephen Park. “We are now fully focused on supporting their final preparations so that they can be at their very best come Paris.”
Team GB is yet to announce the women’s road squad, women’s track endurance squad, and BMX squads for the Games. A second squad announcement is expected on 4 July.
Last week, it was revealed that two-time gold medallist Katie Archibald will miss this year’s Olympics, after breaking her ankle in a freak accident.
“I tripped over a step in the garden and managed to, somehow, dislocate my ankle; break my tibia and fibula; and rip two ligaments off the bone,” Archibald wrote on Instagram. “A hundred apologies for what this means for the Olympic team, which I’ve been told won’t involve me.”
The cycling events at the Paris Olympics begin on 27 July with the men’s and women’s time trials, and conclude with the final races on the track on 11 August. The road races will take place on the weekend of 3-4 August, starting and finishing in front of the Eiffel Tower.
The 21 riders selected in the first squad announcement are listed below.
Riders selected in first squad announcement
Men’s road:
Ethan Hayter (TT only)
Tom Pidcock
Josh Tarling (TT and road race)
Stevie Williams
Fred Wright
Men’s track endurance:
Dan Bigham
Ethan Hayter
Charlie Tanfield
Ethan Vernon
Ollie Wood
Mark Stewart (reserve)
Women’s track sprint:
Sophie Capewell
Emma Finucane
Katy Marchant
Lowri Thomas (reserve)
Men’s track sprint:
Jack Carlin
Ed Lowe
Hamis Turnball
Joe Truman (reserve)
Men’s mountain bike:
Tom Pidcock
Charlie Aldridge
Women’s mountain bike:
Evie Richards
Ella Maclean-Howell
