Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's individual pursuit


The men's individual pursuit event in cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics consisted of matches between two cyclists. The riders would start at opposite ends of the track. Each had 16 laps in which to catch the other cyclist. If neither was caught before one had gone 16 laps, the times for the distance were used to determine the victor. In the thirteen matches of the 2004 event, no cyclist was lapped.

Medalists

Records

Results

Qualifying round

20 August, 16:30
The sixteen riders raced against each other in matches of two. Qualification for the next round was not based on who won those matches, however. The cyclists with the eight fastest times advanced, regardless of whether they won or lost their match.
HeatNameTimeRank
14:29.67614
14:39.30215
24:22.3929
24:29.00513
34:27.87112
3DNS
44:18.169 Q5
44:26.76011
54:20.606 Q8
54:25.52010
64:15.165 Q1
64:19.353 Q7
74:17.930 Q4
74:18.991 Q6
84:16.862 Q2
84:17.510 Q3

Match round

In the first round of actual match competition, cyclists were seeded into matches based on their times from the qualifying round. The fastest cyclist faced the eighth-fastest, the second-fastest faced the third, and so forth. Winners advanced to the finals while losers in each match received a final ranking based on their time in the round.
;Heat 1
4:19.559 Q
4:22.720

;Heat 2
4:17.978 Q
4:26.184

;Heat 3
4:19.581 Q
4:20.336

;Heat 4
4:17.215 Q
4:21.235

Medal round

Cyclists were again re-seeded, this time based on their times in the match round. The third- and fourth-fastest riders faced off in the bronze medal match, while the fastest two riders competed for the gold and silver medals.
;Bronze medal match
4:17.947
4:22.291

;Gold medal match
In a reversal of the 2002 Commonwealth Games final, where McGee had caught Wiggins before the end, the Brit took the title to make up for the disappointment of his teammate losing the bronze medal match.
4:16.304
4:20.436

Final classification

The final results were
Did not start: