Team sprint

The Team sprint (also sometimes known as the Olympic sprint) is a track cycling event. Despite its name, it is not a conventional cycling sprint event - it is, in the men's event, a three-man team time trial held over three laps of a velodrome, and, in the women's event, a two-woman event held over two laps.

The current men's world best time is 42.950 seconds, set by the British team of Jamie Staff, Jason Kenny and Chris Hoy in heat 6 of the Team Sprint event at the 2008 Olympic Games. This is referred to as a world's best time as the race is held over three laps of a track, not a set distance in metres. As velodrome can vary in exact length this can only be referred to as a world's best time not a world record.

It was first introduced into championship racing in 1996.

Like the team pursuit event, two teams race against each other, starting on opposite sides of the track. At the end of the first lap, the leading rider in each team pulls up the banking leaving the second rider to lead for the next lap; at the end of the second lap, the second rider does the same, leaving the third rider to complete the last lap on his own. The team with the fastest time is the winner.

The third rider needs good endurance qualities to maintain high speed to the finish. Kilometre track time trial specialists are usually chosen for this role.

Rules and Qualifying/Race Format

The qualifying round sees each team racing by themselves against the clock. The aim of the qualifying round is to simply set the fastest possible time out of all the teams. In the Olympic Games qualfying teams will then progress into a knock round against another team, with the two eventual surviving teams competing for the Gold and Silver and the next two competing for the Bronze medal. In the World Championships and World Cup Classics meetings, the top two from the qualifying round progress straight to the final and the third and fourth quickest fight it out for the bronze medal.