The cycling competition at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne consisted of two road cycling events and four track cycling events, all for men only.
At the age of 16 years, 121 days, Pakistan's Saleem Farooqi was the youngest of the 161 cycling competitors. The oldest, Australia's Jim Nestor, was 36 years, 331 days old. Out of the 18 medals up for grabs, Italy took 5, followed by France with 4.
161 cyclists from 30 nations competed.