Cycling is rather easy or not so easy, depending on the disciplines you choose.
Cycling is usually divided into 4 main categories:
BMX
Cyclo-cross
Mountain bike
Road cycling
Track cycling
Of those, only cyclo-cross is not an Olympic sport. Albeit not all track is at the Olympics (which is really sad as single pursuit is a show of the man athlete like not many others).
BMX is the one that I know less. In the Olympics, it is divided into racing, where they run down a steep ramp and through a short U shaped up-and-down track where the first through wins, and the freestyle which is more akin to a freestyle skiing or snowboard event, where they do tricks in an arena of sort and the win depends on their scores.
Mountain bike and Cyclo-cross are very similar: they both happen in closed circuits were the athletes run for a certain number of times and the first through wins. Their main difference is that mountain bike happens in spring and summer, so mainly dry tracks, while, on the opposite, Cyclo-cross happens in autumn and winter and there, the mud is, more often than not, the king. Many athletes do both, albeit Cyclo-cross is the one with the larger following. Examples of athletes are: Mathieu Van der Poel, Wout Van Aert and Tom Pidcock.
Road cycling is, of all cycling, probably the most well known. Giro d'Italia, The Tour de France, the Monument classics, are names etched into the history of this sport. It's either a race where the first to cross the finish line wins, or a time trial: there the clock is the rule, the one doing the lowest time is the winner. Examples of athletes are: Eddy Merckx (historic), Tadej Pogachar, Jonas Vingegaard.
Track cycling is a complete different world compared to the ones presented now. First of all, the bikes used in track cycling are fixed-gear bicycles without freewheel or brakes. Then, track cycling is done inside a velodrome, a ellyptic shaped track of wood with inclined sides.
In the track cycling, there are 2 main categories: the sprint and the endurance. Sprints are short races, with a small amount of riders and focused on raw power and riders doing sprint generally doesn't do endurance. Endurance, as the name implies, it's about endurance and they have longer, more difficult races with more opponents.
At the Olympics we will see the following:
for Sprint
Sprint: a 1v1 match, you look at your adversary, you track him, and you have to push harder than him. The first crossing the finish line wins.
Keirin: born in Japan, the race start with a small group of raiders following a small bike, called derby, which sets the pace and then the riders sprints for victory.
for Endurance
Madison: in two for the win. In a team of two, your goal is to complete more laps than everyone else but you take turns, alternating moment of race and moment of rest after you hand over to the teammate.
Team pursuit: the apex of team effort, 4 people against the clock. The time is taken on the third rider crossing the line. Teams need to reach harmony because if one team member pushes too far, or too little, it can endanger the whole team's result.
Omnium: a race of races. Each race gives points which, summed together, give the final results.
Scratch race: the first over the finish line after a certain number of laps is the winner, simple as that.
Tempo race: with a fixed number of laps, each lap gives points. Who have the most points wins.
Elimination race: every 2 laps, there is one sprint and the rider at the end of the group is eliminated.
Points race: same as the tempo race but much longer. It's the final event of the Omnium.
In general cycling is one of those sports to be seen. Especially in track cycling there are nuances, details in the positioning, tactics that can hardly be explained clearly. In road cycling, teams strategies can decide the win and the loss of the single as much as the single's effort.
