Cycling Road at the 2004 Summer Olympics

The Olympic road cycling program remain unchanged. The men and women contested two road events – an individual mass start race and an individual time trial. The mass start road races were conducted in the streets of Athina, circling the Akropolis, while the road time trials were held at the Vouliagmeni Olympic Centre. Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel defended her gold medal in the individual time trial, while Australian Sara Carrigan won the women’s road race.

Italy’s Paolo Bettini won the men’s road race but the men’s time trial was controversial. It was initially won by American Tyler Hamilton, but he turned out to have a doping positive on his A sample. His B sample had been frozen, however, and could not be tested, so Hamilton was absolved – at first. He was later implicated in the Operación Puerto doping scandal and was suspended after a positive drug test at the 2004 Vuelta à España. He eventually admitted to long-time use of PEDs, and his Olympic gold medal was stripped. It reverted to Vyacheslav Yekimov of Russia, who had won the time trial in 2000.