The world's best road cyclists will finally converge this weekend at the men's and women's Paris Olympic Games road races, following an unaccustomed three-year wait since the last Games in Tokyo.
Among the big favourites are two riders from Belgium – Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert, who have both already won medals in the time trial, Evenepoel striking gold, Van Aert bronze.
Evenepoel's win in that event was all the more impressive due to coming just a week after he finished third in the Tour de France.
The men who beat him in that race, Tadej Pogačar of Slovenia and Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark, will not be in Paris though, having chosen to sit this one out. Pogačar's absence in particular has raised eyebrows, with the non-selection of his girlfriend Urška Zigart apparently playing a role in his decision not to attend.
The British assault features a strong four-man team including Tom Pidcock – who has already won mountain bike gold at Paris – and Josh Tarling, whose heartbreakingly unlucky puncture in the time trial cost him a medal. They will be accompanied by super-climber Stevie Williams and strong all-rounder Fred Wright.
Great Britain is one of only five teams who have qualified the maximum four riders for the event – the others being Belgium, France, Slovenia and Denmark.
The USA's three-man team features Tour de France star Matteo Jorgensen, accompanied by Magnus Sheffield and Brandon McNulty.
This race is not all about the same old big names from the same old major cycling nations though, and there will be 89 participants from a total of 52 countries from all over the world.
Paris Olympic Games 2024 men's road race start list
Belgium
EVENEPOEL Remco
VAN AERT Wout
STUYVEN Jasper
BENOOT Tiesj
Great Britain
TARLING Joshua
WRIGHT Fred
WILLIAMS Stephen
PIDCOCK Thomas
United States
MCNULTY Brandon
JORGENSON Matteo
SHEFFIELD Magnus
Slovenia
TRATNIK Jan
MEZGEC Luka
MOHORIČ Matej
NOVAK Domen
France
VAUQUELIN Kévin
MADOUAS Valentin
LAPORTE Christophe
ALAPHILIPPE Julian
Spain
ARANBURU Alex
AYUSO Juan
LAZKANO Oier
Netherlands
HOOLE Daan
VAN BAARLE Dylan
VAN DER POEL Mathieu
Italy
BETTIOL Alberto
MOZZATO Luca
VIVIANI Elia
Australia
CLARKE Simon
O'CONNOR Ben
MATTHEWS Michael
Switzerland
KÜNG Stefan
HIRSCHI Marc
Portugal
COSTA Rui
OLIVEIRA Nelson
Colombia
BUITRAGO Santiago
MARTÍNEZ Daniel Felipe
Norway
WÆRENSKJOLD Søren
FOSS Tobias
Germany
POLITT Nils
SCHACHMANN Maximilian
Austria
HALLER Marco
GROßSCHARTNER Felix
Ireland
HEALY Ben
MULLEN Ryan
Canada
WOODS Michael
GEE Derek
Kazakhstan
LUTSENKO Alexey
FEDOROV Yevgeniy
New Zealand
PITHIE Laurence
STRONG Corbin
Eritrea
GIRMAY Biniam
Individual Neutral Athletes
SYRITSA Gleb
Ecuador
NARVÁEZ Jhonatan
Poland
ANIOŁKOWSKI Stanisław
Hungary
VALTER Attila
Latvia
SKUJIŅŠ Toms
Morocco
ED DOGHMY Achraf
Czech Republic
VACEK Mathias
Mongolia
SAINBAYAR Jambaljamts
Japan
ARASHIRO Yukiya
Algeria
HAMZA Yacine
Slovakia
KUBIŠ Lukáš
Uzbekistan
BOCHAROV Dmitriy
Luxembourg
KIRSCH Alex
Venezuela
AULAR Orluis
Israel
EINHORN Itamar
Estonia
MIHKELS Madis
Turkey
ABAY Burak
Panama
ARCHIBOLD Franklin
Thailand
CHAIYASOMBAT Thanakhan
Argentina
SEPÚLVEDA Eduardo
Ukraine
BUDYAK Anatoliy
China
LYU Xianjing
Iran
LABIB SHOTORBAN Ali
Hong Kong
LAU Wan Yau Vincent
Rwanda
MANIZABAYO Eric
South Korea
KIM Euro
Denmark
BJERG Mikkel
SKJELMOSE Mattias
PEDERSEN Mads
MØRKØV Michael
Brazil
RANGEL Vinicius
Uruguay
FAGÚNDEZ Eric Antonio
Sweden
SÖDERQVIST Jakob
South Africa
GIBBONS Ryan
Serbia
ILIĆ Ognje
Greece
BOUGLAS Georgios
