A Cycling Fan’s Guide: What To Watch, How To Watch, Who To Watch At Paralympic Games

The Paralympic Games Paris 2024 begin this week, and Team USA fans will have plenty to cheer for — and plenty of opportunities to follow the action live.

The cycling portion of the Games will be stacked into a pair of four-day windows — four for road cycling and four for track.

And just in case you’re not going to Paris, these Games will be the most televised and streamed ever, beginning with yesterday's Opening Ceremony.

Beyond that, Peacock will provide 1,500 hours of Paralympics coverage, while NBC, USA Network and CNBC will add another 140 hours on TV. Additionally, coverage will be streamed over NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.

Peacock’s Gold Zone and Multiview, which were big hits during this summer’s Olympic Games, both return for the Paralympic Games. Gold Zone, hosted by Carolyn Manno, will stream on Peacock every day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET from Aug. 29 to Sept. 7. The Closing Ceremony is Sept. 8.

For Openers

More than 4,000 athletes participated in the Opening Ceremony on the Champs-Elysees at the Place de la Concorde.

It was a unique event that many were looking forward to, including Team USA’s Brandon Lyons, who’ll make his Paralympic debut in Paris.

“It’ll be really, really neat,” Lyons said before the ceremony. “Selfishly, from being a cycling athlete, that’s where the Tour de France typically ends. Kind of iconic to be able to be rolling down there and that’s where our Parade of Nations will take place from.”

The Cycling Lineup

Cycling competition begins with the track events, starting Thursday Aug. 29 and running through Sunday, Sept. 1. After a two-day break, the road competition will be held over four days, from Sept. 4 to Sept. 7.

Racing will begin in the early morning, as early as 4 a.m. ET for the track competition and 2 a.m. for road time trials. But with so many medal events, competitions will continue throughout the day in Paris, and several events will be shown on CBNC and USA Network.

Check out the full schedule for more details.

The Cycling Venues

Track events will be held at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, which is the same venue used for the Olympic Games. The venue is near the Palace of Versailles and about 17 miles from central Paris.

The road course begins and finishes on the other side of the city in Clichy-sous-Bois, an eastern suburb that features a mix of high-rise buildings and the historic Notre-Dame-des-Anges chapel that was built in the 13th century.

U.S. cyclists got a practice run of the road course in May, between world cup stops in Belgium and Italy.

“I loved the course because it had a little of everything from a couple punchy steep hills to fast decent turns and even a small cobblestone section,” three-time Paralympian Jamie Whitmore said. “In one section it even had a forest feel versus the rest of the course, which went straight through neighborhoods.”

“I love all courses,” added Samantha Bosco, who will be competing in her second Paralympics. “I think everything about each course gives a challenge, and the one in Paris is no different than any other one in terms of challenging athletes to bring out the best.”

The Cycling Classes

Para-cycling is divided into four broad categories: regular bicycles (C), handcycles (H), tricycles (T) and tandem bicycles (B). Within each category are different classes that represent the severity of the athlete’s impairment, with 1 being the most severe and 5 being the least. Some classes are combined in the Paralympic Games, such as C1-3 or H4-5.

Track cycling only includes events in the C and B classifications, while all four are represented in road cycling. Athletes compete in time trials, individual pursuits and a mixed team sprint on the track. The road events include road races and time trials.

Meet Team USA

Team USA wound up with a 17-member team, including two tandem teams. The top three teams in terms of numbers are the U.S., Great Britain and host France.

“I’m really proud of the athletes because as a team we worked really hard over the last three years to race all over the world and earn the points that earned us our slots,” said Ian Lawless, the director of U.S. Paralympics Cycling.

Oksana’s Journey

Oksana Masters competed in her first Paralympic Games 12 years ago as a rower in London, where she helped become the first American to win a bronze medal in the trunk and arms mixed double sculls. She continued her Paralympic journey as a Nordic skier and cyclist, and she’s competed in every Winter Games or Summer Games since.

Though she’s won 14 of her 17 medals as a skier — in the process becoming the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian — Masters will be competing in her third Games as a cyclist, and this time she’ll have a target on her back as the defending road race and time trial champion in her H5 classification.

Born with multiple congenital disabilities as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine, Masters was adopted at the age of 7 by a University of Buffalo professor and has become one of the biggest global stars in Para sports.

“We have so many incredible women cyclists,” said Masters, who is also the defending road race world champion. “I’m really excited for the women of U.S. Para Cycling.”

Bounce-Back Games

Samantha Bosco won a pair of bronze medals when she made her Paralympic debut in Rio in 2016. A bike crash during training, resulting in a severe skull injury, kept her out of the Tokyo Games three years ago.

Since then, the Californian has dominated the C4 class. Bosco has won both road time trial and road race world titles the last two years and has proven virtually unbeatable on the world cup tour.

In Paris, she is a medal contender in both road and track disciplines. Bosco has won a combined 21 world medals in road and track.

Three Times the Thrills

Shawn Morelli, whose four Paralympic medals include a gold medal in the C4 time trial in Tokyo, is competing in her third Paralympic Games, along with two-time medalist Jamie Whitmore and Travis Gaertner.

Whitmore, who won a gold medal in her Paralympic debut in Rio, competes in C3.

While Gaertner, an H4 handcyclist, is reaching the Paralympic Games for the third time, it’s his first with the United States and his first in 20 years after winning gold medals in wheelchair basketball with Canada in 2000 and 20004.

Meanwhile, Clara Brown, in the C3 class, is headed to her second Paralympics where she’ll seek her first medal to go with 11 from the world championships.

Debut Time

A number of Americans will make their Paralympic debuts in Paris, including Kate Brim, a handcyclist who won a pair of world titles in her world championship debut in 2022.

Joining her for their Paralympic debuts: Dennis Connors, Brandon Lyons, Cody Wills, Bryan Larsen, Matt Tingley, 18-year-old Elouan Gardon, and the tandem teams of Hannah Chadwick and Skyler Espinoza, and Branden Walton and Spencer Seggebruch.

Paul D. Bowker has been writing about Olympic and Paralympic sports since 1996, when he was an assistant bureau chief in Atlanta. He is a freelance contributor to USParaCycling.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.