The individual pursuit is a track cycling event where two cyclists begin the race from a stationary position on opposite sides of the track. The event is held over 4 km for men and 3 km for women. The two riders start at the same time and set off to complete the race distance in the fastest time. They will ride on the pursuit line at the bottom of the track in order to find the fastest line. This race makes for a good spectacle as the two riders pursue each other attempting to catch the other rider that started on the other side of the track. If the catch is achieved, then the successful pursuer is declared the winner. However they can continue to ride the rest of the race distance in order to set the fastest time in a qualifying race or a record in a final. The current Men's Olympic champion in this event is Great Britain's Bradley Wiggins. The current Men's World Champion in this event is Australia's Jack Bobridge.
Read more about Individual Pursuit: Qualification and Race Format, Notable Performers
Famous quotes containing the words individual and/or pursuit:
“Only that which points the human spirit beyond its own limitations into what is universally human gives the individual strength superior to his own. Only in suprahuman demands which can hardly be fulfilled do human beings and peoples feel their true and sacred measure.”
—Stefan Zweig (18811942)
“We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometime stop that motion.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)