Date | 30 July 1996 — 10:00 | |
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Status | Olympic | |
Location | Mountainbike Course, Georgia International Horse Park, Conyers, Georgia | |
Participants | 43 from 26 countries | |
Format | 48.7 km. (30.3 miles). |
This was the Olympic début for mountain biking at the Olympics. World Championships had been conducted since 1990, with American Ned Overend winning the first title in Durango, Colorado. Denmark’s Henrik Djernis won the world title in 1992-94, but did not compete in Atlanta. The 1995 World Champion was Bart Brentjens (NED), and he was favored along with Switzerland’s Thomas Frischknecht, runner-up at the three first World Championships, and he would win the world title later in 1996. Brentjens took an immediate lead in the race, as he and Italy’s Luca Bramati broke away early. But Brentjens broke Bramati by the halfway point, and Brentjen pulled away to an easy victory, winning by over 2½ minutes from Frischknecht.