Cycling Track at the 1968 Summer Olympics

The 1968 Olympic cycling program was exactly the same as in 1964. There were five track events – kilometre time trial, match sprint, tandem match sprint, individual pursuit, and team pursuit, all raced at the Agustín Melgar Olympic Velodrome, which had a 333.33 metre wooden track with 48° banked curves and 9° banked straights. Because of the rarified air of Mexico City, many of the track times were very fast, breaking the existing world records multiple times. This was similar to the World Hour Record, in which riders would often choose to ride at altitude in an attempt to break that hallowed record. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) would eventually differentiate between “sea-level” and “altitude-assisted” records.

Denmark won the team pursuit, but France won the other four gold medals, with Daniel Morelon winning the match sprint and Pierre Trentin the kilometre time trial, and the two would combine to win the tandem sprint. Morelon would return in 1972 to defend his title in the match sprint, the first Olympic cyclist to do so.