Cycling at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics was held from August 17 to August 24. The events took place at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center and Laoshan National Forest Park in Nanjing, China. Format For the Youth Olympics, athletes competed in teams instead of competing separately. In the boys' and girls' team event, two athletes compete together. Each of the two riders must compete in two of the following events, with only one team member competing per event: BMX, Mountain Bike Cross-country Race, Mountain Bike Cross-country Eliminator and Road Time Trial. Both members will also have to compete in the Road Race event. For the mixed team relay, two boys and two girls formed a team. The event was composed of a Mountain Bike Cross-country Race, performed by one boy and one girl and a Road Race, performed by the other two team members. For NOCs who qualified, only two men or women lots will be drawn to form combined teams. Qualification Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter a maximum of two teams of two athletes, one per each gender. As hosts, China was given the maximum quota, but only elected to send a female team and a further six teams. Three teams in each gender was initially given to the Tripartite Commission, but only three spots were given. The other spots were reallocated. The remaining 28 teams were decided by rankings from the 2013 Junior Mountain Bike World Championships, 2013 Junior BMX World Championships, 2013 Women's Junior Road World Championships and 2013 Men's Junior Road Nations Cup (events between 1 April 2013 and 31 March 2014 are considered). After the rankings were published, teams qualified based on the following criteria until 28 teams were listed. To be eligible to participate at the 2014 Youth Olympics, athletes must have been born between 1 January 1996 and 31 December 1997. Furthermore, at least two athletes from qualified NOCs were required to take part with in the men's event and/or two athletes in the women's event. Criterion 1 The nations ranked in all three rankings (Road, Mountain Bike and BMX) qualify their NOC. If the qualification place quotas are exceeded, priority will be as follows: NOCs ranked highest in the Road rankings NOCs ranked highest in the Mountain Bike rankings NOCs ranked highest in the BMX rankings Criterion 2 If there are quota places remaining after criterion 1 the nations ranked