Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's individual road race

2008 Men's Olympic road race

Race details
Dates	August 9
Stages	1
Distance	245 km (152.2 mi)
Winning time	6:23:49
Results
Winner  Samuel Sánchez (ESP)   Second  Davide Rebellin (ITA)   Third  Fabian Cancellara (SUI)

The Men's road race at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 9 at the Urban Road Cycling Course. It started at 11:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8), and was scheduled to last until 17:30 later that day. The course passed such landmarks as the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square and the Beijing National Stadium as the race route sliced north across the heart of the Beijing metropolitan area. After rolling over relatively flat terrain 78.8 km north of the Beijing city center, the course entered a decisive seven loops on a 23.8 km circuit up and down the Badaling Pass, including ramps as steep as 10 percent gradient.

The race was won by Spanish rider Samuel Sánchez in six hours, 23 minutes, and 49 seconds. A six-man break-away group contested a sprint finish. The race was fought in hot and humid conditions, which formed a sharp contrast to the heavy rain weathered in the women's road race the following day.

The event was one of the earliest to be concluded at the Olympic Games, taking place on the first day of competition. Concerns were raised before the Olympics about the threat of pollution in endurance sports, but no major problems materialized in this race.

Qualification

Main article: Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Qualification § Road

Qualification for the men's road race was restricted to five athletes per National Olympic Committee (NOC), providing that these athletes qualified through the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) rankings. The number of places allocated to each NOC was determined by the number of athletes representing that NOC, who fell within the qualification criteria. The number of riders who qualified per NOC varied among the different UCI tours: for example, from the UCI ProTour, 70 riders were granted places, whereas only 3 entered from the UCI Oceania Tour (the continental circuits are considered to be inferior to the ProTour). Five entrants also qualified through the "B" World Championships. Any NOC unable to fill its quota of athletes from the ProTour was permitted to enter athletes from one of the continental tours, and if that was not feasible, then the "B" World Championship.

The final number of competitors was set to be 145, but eventually 143 athletes appeared. Four cyclists were scratched from the race shortly before it took place. Damiano Cunego of Italy had not yet recovered from the injuries he sustained in the 2008 Tour de France, so he was replaced by Vincenzo Nibali. The silver medalist from Athens, Portugal's Sergio Paulinho was said to not be in good enough shape to race. After Russian Vladimir Gusev was fired by his professional team Astana for failing an internal doping check, he was replaced in this event by Denis Menchov, who would then compete both in the road race and the time trial. Switzerland's Michael Albasini crashed in training and broke his collarbone the Tuesday before the race; there was not sufficient time to find a replacement for him.

Preview

Pollution issues

Prior to the opening of the Games, the International Olympic Committee was keen to play down the risk that athletes faced from pollution; however, the organizing body did say that re-scheduling of endurance events (such as the cycling road race) was a possibility were the pollution levels too high. Athletes partaking in these events can consume 20 times the amount of oxygen as a sedentary person. A higher level of pollution in the air could adversely affect performance, damage or irritate an athlete's lungs, or exacerbate respiratory conditions, such as asthma.

Independent sources showed that pollution levels were above the limit deemed safe by the World Health Organization on August 9. However, the cycling event went ahead as scheduled with no objections from the athletes. 53 of the 143 cyclists pulled out during the race, however, this is not unusual, as over half withdrew mid-race at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Post-race, a number of riders highlighted the punishing conditions, in particular the heat (26 °C) and humidity (90%), which were much higher than in Europe, where the majority of UCI ProTour races are held. Pollution, however, was not widely cited as a problem, though Stefan Schumacher of Germany, who had been considered an outside favorite for victory in the event, said the elements and the pollution played a role in his withdrawal.

Pre-race favorites

Paolo Bettini (left) and Kim Kirchen (right), pre-race favorites.

Among the pre-race favorites was the entire Spanish contingent of riders. It included two winners of Grand Tours in Alberto Contador and Carlos Sastre, along with highly-regarded countreymen Alejandro Valverde, winner of the 2008 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the reigning Spanish national road race champion, and Samuel Sánchez, who had won three stages in the 2007 Vuelta a España. They also had 2008 Tour de France points classification winner and three-time world champion Óscar Freire available to work on their behalf. Valverde was seen as the strongest threat among the Spaniards. Other medal hopefuls included the defending Olympic champion Paolo Bettini of Italy, Germany's Stefan Schumacher, and Australian Cadel Evans, runner-up in the Tour de France back-to-back years. It was thought that members of the overall strong squads from Germany and Luxembourg could also contend for victory. The German team contained Schumacher and many veterans of Grand Tours such as Jens Voigt to work in support, while Luxembourg had the Schleck brothers Andy and Fränk along with Kim Kirchen, all of whom had worn leader's jerseys during the 2008 Tour de France.

Course

The Urban Road Cycling Course (one of Beijing's nine temporary venues), in its entirety, was 102.6 km, and the men's race was a distance of 245.4 km, the longest in Olympic history. The race starting line was located at the Yongdingmen Gate, a remnant of Beijing's old city wall, which is a part of the Chongwen District of northern Beijing. The course ended at the Juyong Pass in the Changping District.

The Yonghe Temple.

The route passed through a total of eight districts, Chongwen, Xuanwu, Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Changping and Yanqing. The course's scenery, described by The Guardian newspaper (UK) as "visually sumptuous", included landmarks such as the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square, the Yonghe Temple, and sections of the Great Wall of China which were passed through as the course journeyed from urban Beijing in to the countryside. It also passed the architecture of the 2008 Olympics, including the Beijing National Stadium and Beijing National Aquatics Center (known colloquially as the "Bird's Nest" and "Water Cube").

The men's race layout, which differed most significantly from the women's in that it was over double its length, saw the riders make seven loops back-and-forth between the Badaling and Juyong Passes. The early sections of the race took place within central Beijing; consequently, the gradient of this part of the race was relatively flat. At approximately the 78.8 km point in the race the riders reached the Badaling section of the Great Wall, and began their first of seven 23.8 km loops. The riders encountered the first truly steep section of the race at this point, with the Badaling Pass gaining 338.2 m in elevation over a distance of 12.4 km from the start of the circuit to the highest point. From there the cyclists rode over a false flat before descending a highway towards the Juyong Pass. The final 350 m of the race gave the riders a moderately steep climb to contend with, which was designed to ensure an exciting finale should several riders have been grouped together at the end of the race, as there were.

There were no spectators along the course. This was a security decision made by the Olympic organizers, and it proved controversial with a few riders such as Australians Stuart O'Grady and Cadel Evans, who spoke up about it and said one of the reasons that prestigious cycling events such as the Tour de France are popular is because of the closeness spectators at roadside can have with the athletes. Cycling Australia's reaction to the cyclists' complaints was to request that security restrictions be eased for the time trial to follow, but they were not.

Race

Samuel Sánchez, gold medalist

The men's road race began at 11:00 local time (UTC+8) and within 3 km of the start, Horacio Gallardo (Bolivia) and Patricio Almonacid (Chile) formed a two man breakaway. They held a maximum advantage of 15 minutes, but were never really seen as a threat, and in fact neither went on to finish the race. With no single team willing to force the pace, a 26 man breakaway formed at the 60 km mark, including Carlos Sastre (Spain), Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg), Jens Voigt (Germany), Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic) and Simon Gerrans (Australia). Shortly after the race reached the finish line to begin the first of 7 x 24 km loops, Gallardo was dropped by Almonacid. The lone Chilean leader was then caught by the now 24 man chase group at the summit on the second loop, after riding solo ahead of the pack for over an hour and a half.

Davide Rebellin, silver medalist

Under the impetus of Sastre and Kreuziger in particular, the 24-strong breakaway group built their lead to over six minutes at the half-way point of the race, after four of the seven circuits. At that point, the Italian-paced main field increased its speed in order to bringing them back. Aleksandr Kuschynski (Belarus) and Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukraine) went clear of the leading group afterward and gained an advantage of a minute and 40 seconds over the Sastre group and 2 minutes, 45 seconds over the main field by the start of the fifth lap over the hilly circuit. The Sastre group was absorbed by the main field at the 60 kilometers to go mark, leaving just Kuschynski and Pidgornyy out front. Not long after, shortly before the end of the fifth circuit, Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden), Rigoberto Urán (Colombia) and Johan Van Summeren (Belgium) attacked from the peloton and reeled in Kuschynski and Pidgornyy.

Fabian Cancellara, bronze medalist

The next attack, one that would later be desribed as "audacious" and "brave," came from Christian Pfannberger (Austria), who went free of the main field toward the end of the sixth circuit. His maximum advantage never grew to more than a minute, but he did stay away until well into the seventh and final circuit, being caught with 20 kilometers to go. Within five minutes of fierce attacks, less than 20 riders were left in the front group, a group that included Cadel Evans (Australia), Levi Leipheimer (United States), Santiago Botero (Colombia), and Jérôme Pineau (France), with Valverde and Bettini left behind them. Five riders, Samuel Sánchez (Spain), Michael Rogers (Australia), Davide Rebellin (Italy), Andy Schleck (Luxembourg), and Alexandr Kolobnev (Russia), came further clear from the group of thirteen due to repeated attacks from Schleck. Sánchez, Rebellin, and Schleck reached the summit of the Badaling climb, with 12.7km to race, 10 seconds ahead of Rogers and Kolobnev, and 26 seconds ahead of the Evans group. Bettini, Valverde and Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) attacked from the main peloton and joined the Evans group at the top of the climb. The leader's lead was upwards of 15 seconds on the two chasers with 10 kilometers to go.

With 5 kilometers left, Cancellara attacked from the Evans group and caught up with the chasers that the group of three had left behind, Kolobnev and Rogers. The three of them successfully bridged the gap to the leaders with about a kilometer to go, and there were six riders contesting the final sprint. Sánchez won the gold medal, Rebellin the silver, and Cancellara the bronze.

Final classification

Source: Official results

Rank	Rider	Time
	Samuel Sánchez (ESP)	6:23:49
	Davide Rebellin (ITA)	6:23:49
	Fabian Cancellara (SUI)	6:23:49
4	Alexandr Kolobnev (RUS)	6:23:49
5	Andy Schleck (LUX)	6:23:49
6	Michael Rogers (AUS)	6:23:49
7	Santiago Botero (COL)	6:24:01
8	Mario Aerts (BEL)	6:24:01
9	Michael Barry (CAN)	6:24:05
10	Robert Gesink (NED)	6:24:07
11	Levi Leipheimer (USA)	6:24:09
12	Chris Anker Sørensen (DEN)	6:24:11
13	Alejandro Valverde (ESP)	6:24:11
14	Jérôme Pineau (FRA)	6:24:11
15	Cadel Evans (AUS)	6:24:11
16	Przemysław Niemiec (POL)	6:24:11
17	Christian Vandevelde (USA)	6:24:19
18	Paolo Bettini (ITA)	6:24:24
19	Vladimir Karpets (RUS)	6:24:59
20	Murilo Fischer (BRA)	6:26:17
21	Fabian Wegmann (GER)	6:26:17
22	Erik Hoffmann (NAM)	6:26:17
23	Christian Pfannberger (AUT)	6:26:17
24	Gustav Larsson (SWE)	6:26:17
25	Nicki Sørensen (DEN)	6:26:17
26	Radoslav Rogina (CRO)	6:26:17
27	John-Lee Augustyn (RSA)	6:26:17
28	Nuno Ribeiro (POR)	6:26:17
29	Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU)	6:26:17
30	Jesús Rodriguez (VEN)	6:26:17
31	Matthew Lloyd (AUS)	6:26:17
32	Kurt Asle Arvesen (NOR)	6:26:17
33	Kanstantsin Siutsou (BLR)	6:26:17
34	Rémi Pauriol (FRA)	6:26:17
35	Tadej Valjavec (SLO)	6:26:17
36	Yaroslav Popovych (UKR)	6:26:17
37	Simon Gerrans (AUS)	6:26:17
38	Thomas Lövkvist (SWE)	6:26:25
39	Thomas Rohregger (AUT)	6:26:25
40	George Hincapie (USA)	6:26:25
41	José Serpa (COL)	6:26:27
42	Johan Van Summeren (BEL)	6:26:27
43	Fränk Schleck (LUX)	6:26:27
44	Andrey Mizurov (KAZ)	6:26:27
45	Roman Kreuziger (CZE)	6:26:35

Rank	Rider	Time
46	Kim Kirchen (LUX)	6:26:40
47	Moises Aldape Chavez (MEX)	6:28:08
48	Rein Taaramäe (EST)	6:30:49
49	Carlos Sastre (ESP)	6:31:06
50	Franco Pellizotti (ITA)	6:31:06
51	Sergey Lagutin (UZB)	6:31:06
52	Hossein Askari (IRI)	6:34:22
53	Ruslan Pidgornyy (UKR)	6:34:22
54	Julian Dean (NZL)	6:34:26
55	Jacek Tadeusz Morajko (POL)	6:34:26
56	Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)	6:34:26
57	Matija Kvasina (CRO)	6:34:26
58	Marcus Ljungqvist (SWE)	6:34:26
59	Svein Tuft (CAN)	6:34:26
60	Denis Menchov (RUS)	6:34:26
61	Jure Golčer (SLO)	6:34:26
62	Ján Valach (SVK)	6:34:26
63	Marzio Bruseghin (ITA)	6:34:26
64	Nicholas Roche (IRL)	6:34:26
65	Laurens ten Dam (NED)	6:34:26
66	Peter Kusztor (HUN)	6:35:44
67	Ivan Stević (SRB)	6:35:44
68	Gatis Smukulis (LAT)	6:36:48
69	Tanel Kangert (EST)	6:36:48
70	Gonzalo Garrido (CHI)	6:36:48
71	Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)	6:36:48
72	André Cardoso (POR)	6:39:42
73	Aleksandr Kuschynski (BLR)	6:39:42
74	Dainius Kairelis (LTU)	6:39:42
75	Petr Benčík (CZE)	6:39:42
76	Alexandre Pliuschin (MDA)	6:39:42
77	Denys Kostyuk (UKR)	6:39:42
78	Sergey Ivanov (RUS)	6:39:42
79	Ghader Mizbani (IRI)	6:39:42
80	David George (RSA)	6:39:42
81	Philip Deignan (IRL)	6:39:42
82	Glen Chadwick (NZL)	6:39:42
83	Alexandre Usov (BLR)	6:49:59
84	Tomasz Marczyński (POL)	6:49:59
85	Nebojša Jovanović (SRB)	6:49:59
86	Takashi Miyazawa (JPN)	6:55:24
87	Rafâa Chtioui (TUN)	7:03:04
88	Park Sung-Baek (KOR)	7:03:04
89	Kin San Wu (HKG)	7:05:57
90	Luciano Pagliarini (BRA)	7:08:27

Did not finish

Many riders are not expected to finish one-day races, having worked in support for their teams (in this case, nations) to place their riders with better climbing skills in good positions once the mountainous part of a course begins. Many of these riders also sought to conserve themselves for the time trial that was to come. Additionally, if a rider was lapped by the race leader on the Badaling circuit, he would be forced to stop.

There were 53 withdrawals in this race, listed in chronological order:

David Zabriskie (USA) (time trial preparation)  Robert Hunter (RSA) (lapped, disqualified)  Alejandro Borrajo (ARG) (lapped, disqualified)  Niki Terpstra (NED) (mechanical problems, fatigue)  Matias Medici (ARG)  Daniel Petrov (BUL) (lapped, disqualified)  Laszlo Bodrogi (HUN) (time trial preparation)  Horacio Gallardo (BOL)  Jonathan Bellis (GBR) (breathing problems)  Raivis Belohvoščiks (LAT)  Gerald Ciolek (GER) (heat-related fatigue)  Ahmed Belgasem (LBA)  Zhang Liang (CHN) (lapped, disqualified)  Juan José Haedo (ARG) (breathing problems)  Hichem Chabane (ALG) (lapped, disqualified)  Roman Broniš (SVK)  Matej Jurčo (SVK) (heat-related fatigue)  Maxime Monfort (BEL) (crash)  Steve Cummings (GBR) (fatigue and time trial preparation)  Óscar Freire (ESP)  Karsten Kroon (NED) (heat-related fatigue)  Roger Hammond (GBR)  Jason McCartney (USA) (fatigue)  Vladimir Efimkin (RUS)  Andriy Hryvko (UKR)(heat-related fatigue)  Mario Contreras (ESA)

Mehdi Sohrabi (IRI) (lapped, disqualified)  Henry Raabe (CRC) (lapped, disqualified)  Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN)  Gabriel Rasch (NOR)  Maxim Iglinsky (KAZ)  Stuart O'Grady (AUS) (headache)  Borut Božič (SLO)  Evgeniy Gerganov (BUL)  Patricio Almonacid (CHI)  Timothy Gudsell (NZL) (fatigue)  Jurgen van den Broeck (BEL)  Brian Bach Vandborg (DEN)  Stefan Schumacher (GER) (heat/pollution-related fatigue)  Christophe Brandt (BEL)  Vladimir Miholjević (CRO) (crash with Špilak)  Lars Petter Nordhaug (NOR)  Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)  Bert Grabsch (GER)  Stef Clement (NED)  Ben Swift (GBR) (heat-related fatigue)  Rigoberto Urán (COL)  Pierre Rolland (FRA)  Cyril Dessel (FRA)  Pierrick Fédrigo (FRA)  Jens Voigt (GER) (heat/pollution-related fatigue)  Simon Špilak (SLO) (crash with Miholjević)  Alberto Contador (ESP) (fatigue)

External links

• Official page on the Beijing 2008 website