Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics – Men's track time trial

The men's time trial was one of the track cycling events in the 1896 Summer Olympics. It was the 4th cycling event. It was held on 11 April. This time trial was 1/3 of a kilometre in distance. When the event returned in the 1928 Summer Olympics, the distance was one kilometre.

Men's track time trial at the Games of the I Olympiad
Venue	Neo Phaliron Velodrome
Date	11 April 1896
Competitors	8 from 5 nations
Medalists
Paul Masson  France   Stamatios Nikolopoulos  Greece   Adolf Schmal  Austria
	1906 (Intercalated Games) 1928 (Summer Olympics)»

Background

This was time this event happened. The event would not be held until 1928. After 1928, the event would be helped at every Olympic Game until 2004. This was the only time the event was one-third of a kilometre. After the 1896 games, the time trial was one kilometre long. Paul Masson of France was the most important cyclist in this race.

Competition

The event was a time trial on the track. The distance was one-third of a kilometre. This was one lap around the track.

Schedule

The time when the event happened is not known. The cycling races happened after 2 p.m. The time trial was the 3rd event.

Date		Time	Round
Gregorian	Julian
Saturday, 11 April 1896	Saturday, 30 March 1896		Final

Results

8 cyclists raced. Paul Masson won his 3rd race that day. Adolf Schmal and Stamatios Nikolopoulos tied for 2nd place. They had to compete in a race-off to race for 2nd place.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time	Notes
	Paul Masson	France	24.0
2	Stamatios Nikolopoulos	Greece	26.0	Race-off
	Adolf Schmal	Austria	26.0	Race-off
4	Edward Battell	Great Britain	26.2
5	Frederick Keeping	Great Britain	27.0
5	Theodor Leupold	Germany	27.0
5	Léon Flameng	France	27.0
8	Joseph Rosemeyer	Germany	27.2

Race-off

In this race, Nikolopoulos won the race and beat his time from the first round. Schmal was slower in the 2nd race.

Rank	Cyclist	Nation	Time
	Stamatios Nikolopoulos	Greece	25.4
	Adolf Schmal	Austria	26.6

References

• Lampros, S.P.; Polites, N.G.; De Coubertin, Pierre; Philemon, P.J.; Anninos, C. (1897). The Olympic Games: BC 776 – AD 1896. Athens: Charles Beck. (Digitally available at [1] Archived 2008-05-27 at the Wayback Machine)
• Mallon, Bill; Widlund, Ture (1998). The 1896 Olympic Games. Results for All Competitors in All Events, with Commentary. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-0379-9. (Excerpt available at [2] Archived 2008-04-11 at the Wayback Machine)
• Smith, Michael Llewellyn (2004). Olympics in Athens 1896. The Invention of the Modern Olympic Games. London: Profile Books. ISBN 1-86197-342-X.