The men's 20 kilometres was one of seven track cycling

Track cycling

Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using track bicycles....

 events on the Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics

Cycling at the 1908 Summer Olympics

At the 1908 Summer Olympics, seven track cycling events were contested, all for men only. The weather was poor, flooding the track on occasion. The track was 660 yards long ; some events used full laps of the track; the others used metric distances.-Medal summary:-Medal...

 programme. Its distance was the second longest of the individual event distances. The time limit for the race was 40 minutes.

Semifinals

There were two methods of qualifying for the final. A cyclist could either finish first in one of the six semifinals or be the leader "of the greatest number of laps in the three fastest heats."

Semifinal 1

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Leon Meredith		33:21.0
2	Hermann Martens Hermann Martens Hermann Martens was a German track cyclist who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics.He won the silver medal together with his teammates Karl Neumer, Max Götze, and Rudolf Katzer in the team pursuit...		33:21.2
3	Joseph Werbrouck Joseph Werbrouck Joseph Werbrouck was a Belgian track cycling racer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics.In 1908 he won the bronze medal in the 20 kilometres competition. He also competed in the 660 yards event but was eliminated in the first round.-External links:*...		33:21.4
4	André Lapize		Unknown
5	Georgius Damen		Unknown
6	Frederick McCarthy		Unknown
7-8	Pierre Hostein		Unknown
	Rudolf Katzer Rudolf Katzer Rudolf Katzer was a German track cycling racer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics.With his teammates Karl Neumer, Max Götze and Hermann Martens he won the silver medal in the team pursuit. He also competed in the 660 yards sprint, in the 5000 metres race, and in the 20 kilometres race, but...		Unknown
—	Daniel Flynn		Did not finish

Semifinal 2

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Clarence Kingsbury Clarence Kingsbury Clarence Brickwood Kingsbury was a British track cyclist who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics. He belonged to the Paddington and North End cycling clubs....		32:33.8
2	Colin Brooks		32:34.0
3	Floris Venter		32:34.4
4	G. C. Lutz		Unknown
5	Gerard Bosch van Drakenstein		Unknown
6	François Bonnet		Unknown
7-9	Walter Andrews		Unknown
	Jean van Benthem		Unknown
	Paul Schulze		Unknown

Semifinal 3

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Louis Weintz		33:39.8
2	F. Shore		33:40.0
3	Harry Young		33:45.2
4	Herbert Bouffler		Unknown
5	Max Triebsch		Unknown
6-7	H. Cunault		Unknown
	Dorus Nijland		Unknown
—	Frederick Hamlin		Did not finish

Semifinal 4

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Benjamin Jones Benjamin Jones (cyclist) Benjamin "Ben" Jones was a British track cycling racer who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics....		32:39.0
2	George Cameron		32:39.2
3	T. H. E. Passmore		32:39.4
4	Octave Lapize Octave Lapize Octave Lapize was a French professional road racing cyclist and track cyclist.Most famous for winning the 1910 Tour de France and a bronze medal at the 1908 Summer Olympics in the men's 100 kilometres, he was a three-time winner of one-day classics, Paris–Roubaix and Paris–Brussels.In his first...		Unknown
5	Henri Baumler		Unknown
6-7	Alwin Boldt		Unknown
	Johannes van Spengen		Unknown
—	W. Lower		Did not finish

Semifinal 5

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Andrew Hansson		34:53.6
2	D. C. Robertson		34:53.8
3	William Anderson		34:55.6
—	Ioannis Santorinaios		Did not finish
	Pierre Texier		Did not finish

Semifinal 6

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Arthur J. Denny		33:40.6
2	C. Avrillon		33:40.8
3	Gustaf Westerberg		33:41.4
4	Guglielmo Morisetti		Unknown
—	Léon Couckelberg		Disqualified

Final

Place	Cyclist	Nation	Time
1	Clarence Kingsbury		34:13.6
2	Benjamin Jones		Unknown
3	Joseph Werbrouck		Unknown
4	Louis Weintz		Unknown
5-9	François Bonnet		Unknown
	Arthur Denny		Unknown
	Andrew Hansson		Unknown
	Octave Lapize		Unknown
	Leon Meredith		Unknown

Sources

• De Wael, Herman. Herman's Full Olympians: "Cycling 1908". Accessed 7 April 2006. Available electronically at .