Going for Gold: Chloe Dygert, Jennifer Valente, Brandon McNulty and Team USA’s top medal contenders in the Olympic cycling events

The countdown is on for the 2024 Paris Games. The opening ceremonies take place on Friday evening, and the first cycling event, the individual time trial, gets going the very next day. With it comes Team USA's first chance at a medal, and a gold one at that, if Chloe Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) has her say.

One of the fastest women on two wheels, the 27-year-old Indiana native is already a two-time Olympic medalist and nine-time world champion. She's making her third Olympic appearance and will compete in the individual time trial, the road race and the team pursuit.

With a bronze and silver medal already to her name, Dygert won't settle for anything but gold.

"I want to be better than the best," Dygert recently told news station WGRZ-TV . "That's how I have to look at it, or else I'm going to stand still. I want to continue growing as an athlete, as a person, and for me to stand on that top step, I want to do it bigger and better every time."

As the reigning world champion in the races against the clock, both on the road and in the velodrome, Dygert is a big-time favourite for the medals. However, her run-in to the Games was, as has so often been the case in Dygert's career, marred by setbacks.

Dygert suffered an Achilles injury in December and then returned to racing a tad too soon. The two crashes she sustained in the Tour of Flanders set back her recovery and she was once again forced to rest. The hits kept coming when, upon her return to the bike at a team training camp, she got infected with COVID-19. This has left her with a mere three race appearances this 2024 season, and a question mark looms over her race readiness.

Still, Dygert is optimistic, telling our sister site Cycling News that in her recent training block, she "started to break times that I hadn't broken ever and see power numbers I hadn't seen in a very long time."

Should Dygert's form be anything like it was at the UCI World Championships in Glasgow last year, then the question won't be whether she'll win a medal but rather of what colour and how many.

But Dygert certainly isn't Team USA's only medal contender. There are 23 American cyclists competing across the five cycling disciplines, and the national federation has set the ambitious goal of securing 7-10 medals . Many are looking to track cyclist Jennifer Valente (Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY24) to contribute to that count.

The 29-year-old is America's most decorated track cyclist to date, with three Olympic and 18 UCI World Championship medals in her possession. The Paris Games mark her third appearance at the Olympics, where she hopes to defend her Omnium gold medal from the Tokyo Olympics while helping her teammates in the Team Pursuit net America's first gold medal in the discipline. Valente will also partner up with Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) for the Women's Madison, a race that made its Olympic debut in Tokyo, but Team USA missed out on the podium at the time.

In Paris, Valente, the current Omnium world champion, is heavily favoured to add to her already astonishing medal collection and be a crucial contributor to USA Cycling's Olympic goals.

Team USA's Olympic hopes sure appear to be landing on the shoulders of its female athletes with Hannah Roberts being another favourite for the medals in BMX. Roberts is returning to her second Olympics after netting the silver medal in Tokyo. The 22-year-old is a five-time BMX freestyle world champion, and known for her consistent performances in international competitions. When she won her most recent BMX freestyle rainbow jersey last August, it was her fourth consecutive title, and she's going into the Paris Games as a top contender.

While the men's roster may be lacking in outright shoo-ins for the Olympic medals, there's no lack of potential.

Reigning U.S. national time trial champion Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) is leading the men's team on the road. He's making his second Olympic appearance after a stellar season in which we've seen him win on average once every six race days thus far.

In Tokyo, McNulty finished in sixth place –a result that he says motivates him still.

"The race was super aggressive, I relive it all the time. My goal? Bring back a medal!" says the 27-year-old.

With time trial victories at the Tour de Romandie, the UAE Tour and the U.S. National Championships, McNulty is certainly one to watch during Sunday's time trial. In the road race on August 3, he'll be teaming up with youngster Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) and Matteo Jorgenson (Team Visma – Lease a Bike) to form a formidable team.

Jorgenson is fresh off his impressive eight-place finish in this year's gruelling Tour de France while riding in service of second-place finisher Jonas Vingegaard . He even almost won a stag e but had to make do with second place on stage 19 instead. The talented climber from Boise, Idaho, is in his first year with the Team Visma – Lease a Bike squad, with whom he has been enjoying a breakout season that's seen him win Paris-Nice and Dwars door Vlaanderen and finish second in Critérium du Dauphiné. While bumpy, the course for the Olympic road race may not be mountainous enough for Jorgenson, who excels in the long, sustained climbs, but a medal could still come from this dynamic trio of riders.

Lastly, while the cross-country mountain bike fields are incredibly competitive at the Olympics, the U.S. men may have an outside chance to land on the podium.

Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) is making his second Olympic appearance after finishing 14th in Tokyo in 2021. The 26-year-old from Durango, Colorado, had a great start to the 2024 season, winning the UCI World Cup in Brazil in April and landing on the podium twice in the short-track World Cup series.

His fellow Durangoan Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing) will be joining him in Paris. The 22-year-old has been on a tear, winning five consecutive races in the U23 Cross-country World Cup series this season.

While the Olympic mountain bike races are contested by fewer riders than the World Cup –just 36 men and 36 women–the competition will be fierce with riders like reigning champion Tom Pidcock , fifth-time Olympian Nino Schurter and consistent XCO World Cup podium finisher Swiss rider Mathias Flückiger all vying for gold.

The Olympic Cycling Schedule

July 27 - Men’s and women’s time trials
Time: 2:30-6:30 p.m. CEST / 1:30-5:30 p.m. BST / 8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. ET

July 28 - Women’s cross-country mountain biking
Time: 2:10 p.m. CEST / 1:10 p.m. BST / 8:10 a.m.. ET

July 29 - Men’s cross-country mountain biking
Time: 2:10 p.m. CEST / 1:10 p.m. BST / 8:10 a.m. ET

July 30 - Men’s and Women’s BMX Freestyle Qualifications
Times:
Women’s qualification rounds start at 1:25 p.m. CEST / 12:25 p.m. BST / 7:25 a.m. ET
Men’s qualification rounds start at 6:11 p.m. CEST / 5:11 p.m. BST / 12:11 p.m. ET

July 31 - Men’s and Women’s BMX Freestyle Finals
Times:
Women’s qualification rounds start at 1:10 p.m. CEST / 12:10 p.m. BST / 7:10 a.m ET
Men’s qualification rounds start at 1:44 p.m. CEST / 2:44 p.m. BST / 8:44 a.m. ET

August 3 - Men’s road race
Time: 11:00 a.m. - 6:15 p.m. CEST / 10 a.m. - 5:15 p.m. BST / 5 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. ET

August 4 - Women’s road race
Time: 2:00-6:45 p.m. CEST / 1:00-5:45 p.m. BST / 8 a.m. - 12:45 p.m. ET

August 5 - Women’s Team Sprint, Men’s Team Pursuit, Men’s Team Sprint
Time: 5 p.m. CEST / 6 p.m. BST / 11 a.m. ET to 7:58 p.m. CEST / 6:58 p.m. BST / 1:58 p.m. ET

August 6 - Women’s Team Pursuit, Men’s Team Sprint, Men’s Team Pursuit
Time: 5:30 p.m. CEST / 4:30 p.m. BST / 11:30 a.m. ET to 8:07 p.m. CEST / 7:07 p.m. BST / 2:07 p.m. ET

August 7 - Men’s Sprint, Women’s Keirin, Women’s Team Pursuit, Men’s Team Pursuit
Time: 12:45 p.m. CEST / 11:45 a.m. BST / 6:45 a.m. ET to 8:14 p.m. CEST / 7:14 p.m. BST / 2:15 p.m. ET

August 8 - Men’s Omnium, Women’s Keirin, Men’s Sprint
Time: 5 p.m. CEST / 4 p.m. BST / 11 a.m. ET to 8:04 p.m. CEST / 7:04 p.m. BST / 2:04 p.m. ET

August 9 - Women’s Sprint, Men’s Sprint, Women’s Madison
Time: 6 p.m. CEST / 5 p.m. BST / 12 p.m. ET to 7:58 p.m. CEST / 6:58 p.m. BST / 1:58 p.m. ET

August 10 -  Women’s Sprint, Men’s Keirin, Men’s Madison
Time: 5 p.m. CEST / 4 p.m. BST / 11 a.m. ET to 8:14 p.m. CEST / 7:14 p.m. BST / 2:14 p.m. ET

August 11 - Women’s Omnium, Women’s Sprint, Men’s Keirin
Time: 11 a.m. CEST / 10 a.m. BST / 5 a.m. ET to 1:56 p.m. CEST / 12:56 p.m. BST / 7:56 a.m. ET