Bike Racing Takes 20 Years To Return To Perform At The Olympics

JAKARTA The track-disciplined cycling sport takes 20 years to return to the Olympics.

Bernard Benyamin van Aert has confirmed that he will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will take place in Paris, France from July 26 to August 11, 2024.

Bernard qualified through state qualifications for the men's omnium track number discipline, such as official information released by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), Monday, April 22, 2024.

Under UCI rules, there are 22 countries that can qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics from three competition numbers in the disciplinary track endurance.

"After 20 years of long wait, Indonesia finally passed the bicycle racing athlete again from the track discipline, the omnium number at the Olympics," said Chairman of the Indonesian Olympic Committee, Raja Sapta Oktohari.

Indonesia previously passed cycling athletes from track discipline to the Olympics, to be precise in Athens, Greece, in 2004.

Atlet yang lolos pada saat itu adalah Santia Tri Kusuma. Dia turun di nomor point race putri untuk memperwakili Indonesia di ajang empat tahunan paling grandbar dunia itu.

The head coach of Indonesian bicycle racing, Dadang Haries Poernomo, said that Bernard had had to go through a long journey since 2023 to catch a ticket to Paris.

"The Indonesian cycling national team has targeted Bernard to qualify. The struggle is very tough and long against the onslaught of technology from the large teams of countries that develop every year," he said.

In 2023, the qualifying points will be taken from the two best in the three UCI Nations Cup series which will be held in Jakarta, Egypt, and Canada. At that time, Bernard was stopped in qualifying so he did not get points.

Meanwhile, at the 2023 Asian Championships, the 27-year-old was ranked fifth so he failed to get points again. Then in the World Championship in Glasgow, he finished in 20th place.

Bernard then got a pretty big point in Road to Paris 2024 after he brought home a silver medal from the Asian Track Championship championship in New Delhi, India.

The athlete's journey then continued to the UCI Track Nations Cup. He managed to enter the final of all in this event so that his points increased dramatically.

He finished in 15th position in Adelaide. Then, he was in 17th place in Hong Kong. Finally, he is 11th in Canada.

This achievement made him able to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Later, the track endurance disciplined bicycle racing branch will have three events contested at the 2024 Paris Olympics, namely the pursuit, madison, and omnium teams.

There are 10 quotas of countries that have passed the pursuit team, 15 countries in the medical number, and 22 countries for the omnium number.

The pattern of quota collection is that from 10 countries that have passed the pursuit team, they have the right to step down in Madeison and Omnium.

Then, of the 15 quotas of MDison numbers, 10 were taken from the pursuit team plus five from the special qualification in Madison.

"As for the omnium, 10 quotas were taken from 10 pursuit teams that had passed, plus five countries that passed the special qualification from the MAdison, plus seven countries that passed through special qualifications in the omnium number," said Dadang.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Indonesia is targeting to qualify more than 28 athletes and bring home more than two gold medals for the first time in history.