Cycling Road at the 2000 Summer Olympics

The road race program in 2000 was the same as in 1996. Men and women contested an individual mass start road race, and individual road time trial. The road races were conducted on courses laid out around Sydney. The men’s road race was won by German Jan Ullrich, who had won the 1997 Tour de France. The men’s time trial went to Russian Vyacheslav Yekimov, known as a top sprinter in the pro peloton and a top lieutenant on Lance Armstrong’s team.

The star of cycling in Sydney was Dutchwoman Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel. Long one of the top riders in the world, she had battled personal demons, notably bouts of anorexia nervosa, but in Sydney won three gold medals in the road race, road time trial, individual pursuit on the track, and added a silver in the track points race. Through 2020 Zijlaard-van Moorsel’s Sydney performance remains the only time a cyclist won both individual road events at the same Olympics.