Cycling Preview

The 2020 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships took place at the end of January in Milton, Ontario, and saw Team USA return home with 13 medals. Clara Brown took her first step toward making the Paralympic team, tying for the Team USA lead with six medals. Brown’s four medals, including two golds, were her first world championship medals on the track. 

Two-time Paralympic medalists Shawn Morelli and Sam Bosco also earned medals, with Morelli notching her 16th world championship medal of her career and Bosco claiming two silvers to bring her career-total to 10. 

The track world championships were just the start of the Paralympic qualification process that also included the UCI Para-cycling Road World Cup in May 2021 and the U.S. Paralympic Team Trials for Cycling in June 2021. At the end of it all, 14 athletes qualified for the team. In addition to the athletes above, the team for Tokyo consists of Alicia Dana, Tom Davis, Freddie De Los Santos, Will Groulx, Cody Jung, Aaron Keith, Oksana Masters, Chris Murphy, Ryan Pinney, Matthew Rodriguez and Monica Sereda. The team was later expended to 16 when Joe Berenyi and Jill Walsh earned bids via the Bipartite Commission Invitation Allocation by the UCI and IPC.

Fifty gold medals in cycling will be awarded at Tokyo 2020, with a total of 230 athletes competing.

Updated on July 20, 2021. For more information, contact the sport press officer.

Will this be the year for Oksana Masters to get a Para-cycling medal? The multi-sport athlete already has eight Paralympic medals from rowing and Nordic skiing, but a cycling medal has eluded her thus far. She came close in Rio, finishing just off the podium in the road race and time trial. Masters earned a gold and a silver medal at the May world cup.

Will Team USA be able to catch Great Britain? The U.S. has more total medals all time than Team GB, but the British have the most gold medals and were dominant in 2016, particularly in track. In Rio, Great Britain won seven gold medals out of a possible 16 on track. 
Will Groulx, 47, will be making his fifth Paralympic Games, the most on the team along with Oksana Masters. But Tokyo will be just the second Games in cycling for Groulx, who previously competed on the U.S. wheelchair rugby team at the Games. Groulx has a gold and two bronze medals from his rugby career, and a gold and two silver medals in road cycling. At the most recent world championships, Groulx won a silver medal in team relay and bronze medals in the time trial and road race.

Shawn Morelli, 45, will look to defend her double gold medals from Rio in the road team trial and track pursuit. Morelli owns 16 career world championship medals — 12 of them gold — winning a bronze in individual pursuit at the most recent track world championships in 2020. At the 2019 road world championships, Morelli won gold in the road race and silver in the time trial.

Like Masters, Tom Davis also finished just off the podium in his two races in Rio. The Army veteran, 44, is focused on changing that in Tokyo. He could be on his way with the top men's finish at the Paralympic trials. During the pandemic and in need of some cycling action, Davis, who lives in the small town of Angola, Indiana, put on the Angola Handcycling & Cycling Weekend, which included group rides and races for handcyclists and able-bodied cyclists.

Watch out for Clara Brown. The 25-year-old from Falmouth, Maine, is one of the rising stars in the sport, having already won six medals, two of them gold, at the world championships. Brown competes on both the road and track. She also won three gold medals at the 2019 Pan American Games.
August 25, 2021: Paralympic track competition begins; finals in women’s C1-3 3,000 individual pursuit, women’s C4 3,000 individual pursuit, women’s C5 3,000 individual pursuit and men’s B 4,000 individual pursuit
August 26, 2021: Finals in women’s B 1,000 time trial, men’s C4-5 1,000 time trial, men’s C1 3,000 individual pursuit, men’s C2 3,000 individual pursuit and men’s C3 3,000 individual pursuit
August 27, 2021: Finals in women’s C1-3 500 time trial, men’s C1-3 1,000 time trial, women’s C4-5 500 time trial, men’s C4 4,000 individual pursuit and men’s C5 4,000 individual pursuit
August 28, 2021: Finals in men’s B 1,000 time trial, women’s B 3,000 individual pursuit, mixed C1-5 750 team sprint
August 31, 2021: Road competition begins with all time trials 
September 1, 2021: Road races in men’s H5, H1-2, H4 and H3 and women’s H5 and H1-4
September 2, 2021: Road races in women’s C4-5 and T1-2 and men’s C1-3 and T1-2 and mixed H1-5 team
September 3, 2021: Road races in men’s C4-5, women’s C1-3, women’s B and men’s B