The road cycling program was the same as in 1960 with an individual road race and a team time trial. The individual road race was a mass start race of 194.832 km., consisting of eight laps of the 24.354 km. Hachioji Road Course. The team time trial was raced over 109.893 km., with four-man teams covering three laps of the Hachioji Road Course. Mario Zanin of Italy won the individual gold medal, while the Netherlands took the team time trial.
The 12th place finisher in the road race, normally of no import, was a Belgian named Eddy Merckx. He would turn pro after Tokyo and become almost universally acclaimed as the greatest cyclist of all-time, winning five Tours de France, five Giro d’Italia, and more monument races than any other cyclist.