Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's road race
Encyclopedia
The men's road race, a part of the cycling events
at the 2008 Summer Olympics
, took place on August 9 at the Urban Road Cycling Course
in Beijing
. It started at 11:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8
), and was scheduled to last until 17:30 later that day. The 245.4 kilometres (152.5 mi) course ran north across the heart of the Beijing
metropolitan area, passing such landmarks as the Temple of Heaven
, the Great Hall of the People
, Tiananmen Square
and the Beijing National Stadium
. After rolling over relatively flat terrain for 78.8 km (49 mi) north of the Beijing city center, the route entered a decisive circuit encompassing seven loops on a 23.8 km (14.8 mi) section up and down the Badaling Pass
, including ramps as steep as a 10 percent gradient.
The race was won by the Spanish rider Samuel Sánchez
in 6 hours, 23 minutes, 49 seconds, after a six-man breakaway group contested a sprint finish. Davide Rebellin
of Italy and Fabian Cancellara
of Switzerland, finishing second and third place with the same time as Sánchez, received silver and bronze medals respectively for the event. The hot and humid conditions were in 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 2008 Summer Olympics, 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 were apparent in the race.
In April 2009, it was announced that Rebellin had tested positive for Continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA, a third-generation form of erythropoietin
) during the Olympics. After his B-sample subsequently confirmed initial results, he returned his medal and repaid the prize money he had won from the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) while still maintaining his innocence. Cancellara and original fourth-place finisher Alexandr Kolobnev
were later awarded new medals corresponding to their updated finishing positions.
(NOC), providing that these athletes qualified through the Union Cycliste Internationale
(UCI) rankings, with the UCI ProTour
considered to be superior to the UCI Continental Circuits
. The number of qualification places allocated varied among the different UCI tours, which all maintain their own ranking system. 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, from the "B" World Championship. The number of places allocated to each tour were thus (in descending order): 70 riders from the ProTour, 38 from the Europe tour, 15 from the America tour, nine from the Asia tour, five from the Africa tour, and three from the Oceania tour. Five entrants qualified through the "B" World Championships
.
The final number of competitors was set to be 145, but only 143 athletes started the race. 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
. Portugal's Sérgio Paulinho
, the silver medalist at the 2004 event
, was said to be in insufficient shape to race. After Russian Vladimir Gusev was fired by his professional team for failing an internal doping check, he was replaced in this event by Denis Menchov
, who later competed in the time trial. While training earlier in the week before the race, Switzerland's Michael Albasini
crashed and broke his collarbone; there was not sufficient time to find a replacement for him.
was keen to play down the risk that athletes faced from pollution; however, the organizing body considered re-scheduling of endurance events (such as the cycling road race) if the pollution levels were 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. Fifty-three of the 143 cyclists pulled out during the race; however, this is not unusual (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 (78.8 °F)) 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.
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 countrymen 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
, twice a runner-up in the Tour de France
(2007 and 2008). 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.
(one of Beijing's nine temporary venues) was 102.6 km (63.8 mi) in its entirety, and the men's race was a distance of 245.4 km (152.5 mi), the longest in Olympic history. The race's 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 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 into 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 (49 mi) point in the race the riders reached the Badaling section of the Great Wall, and began their first of seven 23.8 km (14.8 mi) loops. The riders encountered an increase in the gradient at this point, with the Badaling Pass gaining 338.2 metres (1,109.6 ft) in elevation over a distance of 12.4 km (7.7 mi) 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 (1,148.3 ft) 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.
Due to security regulations put in place by the Olympic organizers, no spectators were permitted to stand roadside along the course. This decision proved to be controversial: several prominent figures in cycling, including UCI president Pat McQuaid
and riders Stuart O'Grady
and Cadel Evans
(both Australia), spoke out against it. McQuaid and O'Grady both felt that the absence of people along the course deprived the race of the atmosphere present at other cycling events, and said that it failed to take supporters' wishes into consideration. 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.
) and within 3 km (1.9 mi) 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 (37.3 mi) 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 seven 23.8 km (14.8 mi) 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.
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 bring 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 km (37.3 mi) 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.
The next attack, one that would later be described as "audacious" and "brave", came from Christian Pfannberger
(Austria), who went free of the main field toward the end of the sixth lap. His maximum advantage never grew to more than a minute, but he did stay away until well into the seventh and final lap, being caught with 20 km (12.4 mi) to go. Within five minutes of fierce attacks, fewer 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 now 13 due to repeated attacks from Schleck. Sánchez, Rebellin, and Schleck reached the summit of the Badaling climb, with 12.7 km (7.9 mi) 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 leading group's advantage over the two-man chase was 15 seconds with 10 km (6.2 mi) to go.
With 5 km (3.1 mi) 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 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) to go, and there were six riders contesting the final sprint. Sánchez won the gold medal, Rebellin the silver, and Cancellara the bronze.
, but faces further punishment, and Rebellin subsequently had his medal removed by the UCI and the IOC. On 27 November, Rebellin returned his silver medal to CONI, per their and the UCI's request. Per UCI regulations, Cancellara and Kolobnev were moved up to second and third in the official results, but did not initially receive new medals. On December 18, 2010, Cancellara received the same physical medal initially given to Rebellin, in a ceremony held in his hometown of Ittigen
, Switzerland. The medal originally given to Cancellara will in turn be given to Kolobnev.
Rebellin had appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport
(CAS) against the decision to remove his silver medal, but in July 2010, this was rejected.
There had been controversy in the months before the men's road race when, in the aftermath of doping revelations at the Tour de France, International Olympic Committee
vice-president Thomas Bach
had suggested that the men's road race's place in the Olympics should be reconsidered, and said that the credibility of the sport had been damaged; although he clarified that there was no immediate threat. Pat McQuaid had reacted angrily to these comments, saying, "Why should they [the majority of cyclists] be threatened because of a few bad apples?"
Source: Official results
There were 53 withdrawals in this race, listed in chronological order:
Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Cycling competitions at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from August 9 to August 23 at the Laoshan Velodrome , Laoshan Mountain Bike Course, Laoshan BMX Field and the Beijing Cycling Road Course...
at the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
, took place on August 9 at the Urban Road Cycling Course
Urban Road Cycling Course
The Urban Cycling Road Course was one of nine temporary venues used during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The road cycling race started at the North Square of Yongdingmen in Beijing's Chongwen District and finished at Juyong Pass in Changping District...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
. It started at 11:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8
UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as .With an estimated population of 1.53 billion living within the time zone, roughly 22.5% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in world, as well as a possible...
), and was scheduled to last until 17:30 later that day. The 245.4 kilometres (152.5 mi) course ran north across the heart of the Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
metropolitan area, passing such landmarks as the Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest...
, the Great Hall of the People
Great Hall of the People
The Great Hall of the People is located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square, Beijing, People's Republic of China, and is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the People's Republic of China's...
, Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
and the Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium, also known officially as the National Stadium, or colloquially as the Bird's Nest , is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.-History:...
. After rolling over relatively flat terrain for 78.8 km (49 mi) north of the Beijing city center, the route entered a decisive circuit encompassing seven loops on a 23.8 km (14.8 mi) section up and down the Badaling Pass
Badaling
Badaling is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately northwest of urban Beijing city in Yanqing County, which is within the Beijing municipality. The portion of the wall running through the site was built during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military...
, including ramps as steep as a 10 percent gradient.
The race was won by the Spanish rider Samuel Sánchez
Samuel Sánchez
Samuel Sánchez González is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer. He was the gold medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men's Road Race. In recent years Sánchez has proven himself in hilly classics and stage races as one of the most important riders in the peloton...
in 6 hours, 23 minutes, 49 seconds, after a six-man breakaway group contested a sprint finish. Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin is an Italian road bicycle racer, currently riding for the Italian Miche-Guerciotti team. He served a 2-year suspension for testing positive for Mircera at the 2008 Olympic Games...
of Italy and Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . A time trial specialist, he is a four-time World Time Trial Champion and is the current Olympic gold medalist...
of Switzerland, finishing second and third place with the same time as Sánchez, received silver and bronze medals respectively for the event. The hot and humid conditions were in 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 2008 Summer Olympics, 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 were apparent in the race.
In April 2009, it was announced that Rebellin had tested positive for Continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA, a third-generation form of erythropoietin
Erythropoietin
Erythropoietin, or its alternatives erythropoetin or erthropoyetin or EPO, is a glycoprotein hormone that controls erythropoiesis, or red blood cell production...
) during the Olympics. After his B-sample subsequently confirmed initial results, he returned his medal and repaid the prize money he had won from the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) while still maintaining his innocence. Cancellara and original fourth-place finisher Alexandr Kolobnev
Alexandr Kolobnev
Alexandr Viktorovich Kolobnev is a Russian professional road bicycle racer on the UCI ProTour with , currently suspended after his A sample revealed doping products.-Career:...
were later awarded new medals corresponding to their updated finishing positions.
Qualification
Qualification for the race was restricted to five athletes per National Olympic CommitteeNational Olympic Committee
National Olympic Committees are the national constituents of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, they are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games...
(NOC), providing that these athletes qualified through the Union Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale
Union Cycliste Internationale is the world governing body for sports cycling and oversees international competitive cycling events. The UCI is based in Aigle, Switzerland....
(UCI) rankings, with the UCI ProTour
UCI ProTour
The UCI ProTour was a series of road bicycle races in Europe, Australia and Canada organised by the UCI . Created by Hein Verbruggen, former president of the UCI, it comprises a number of 'ProTour' cycling teams, each of whom are required to compete in every round of the series...
considered to be superior to the UCI Continental Circuits
UCI Continental Circuits
The UCI Continental Circuits are road bicycle racing competitions contested under the auspices of the Union Cycliste Internationale . The five circuits are inferior to the UCI ProTour. Both the ProTour and the circuits comprise a series of races in which various cycling teams compete regularly...
. The number of qualification places allocated varied among the different UCI tours, which all maintain their own ranking system. 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, from the "B" World Championship. The number of places allocated to each tour were thus (in descending order): 70 riders from the ProTour, 38 from the Europe tour, 15 from the America tour, nine from the Asia tour, five from the Africa tour, and three from the Oceania tour. Five entrants qualified through the "B" World Championships
UCI B World Championship Cycling
The UCI B World Championships is the annual world championship for Level B bicycle road racing and bicycle time trials organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale for nations with developing competitive pro cycling. The UCI B World Championships includes events for both elite men's and women's...
.
The final number of competitors was set to be 145, but only 143 athletes started the race. Four cyclists were scratched from the race shortly before it took place. Damiano Cunego
Damiano Cunego
Damiano Cunego is an Italian professional road racing cyclist who rides for the Italian UCI ProTeam . His biggest wins are the 2004 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Amstel Gold Race, and the Giro di Lombardia in 2004, 2007, 2008. He finished second in the UCI Road World Championships in 2008 and in the...
of Italy had not yet recovered from the injuries he sustained in the 2008 Tour de France, so he was replaced by Vincenzo Nibali
Vincenzo Nibali
Vincenzo Nibali is an Italian professional road bicycle racer who rides UCI ProTeam . Born near the Strait of Messina, Nibali's nickname is the "shark of the strait" or simply "the shark." His first major win came at the 2006 GP Ouest-France, where he beat an impressive field on a tough course...
. Portugal's Sérgio Paulinho
Sérgio Paulinho
Sérgio Miguel Moreira Paulinho is a Portuguese road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . He was a domestique in the 2007, 2009 and 2010 Tour de France....
, the silver medalist at the 2004 event
Cycling at the 2004 Summer Olympics - Men's road race
Men's Road Race at the 2004 Summer Olympics .In a race that showed numerous break away attempts, it wasn't until Paolo Bettini and Sérgio Paulinho broke away from the group with a couple of laps remaining and opened up a comfortable gap on the final lap that an idea of the medal positions could be...
, was said to be in insufficient shape to race. After Russian Vladimir Gusev was fired by his professional team for failing an internal doping check, he was replaced in this event by Denis Menchov
Denis Menchov
Denis Nikolayevich Menchov , born 25 January 1978 in Oryol, is a professional Russian road bicycle racer for . He is a general classification rider and a climber. In 2005 he won the Vuelta a España, which he won for a second time in 2007...
, who later competed in the time trial. While training earlier in the week before the race, Switzerland's Michael Albasini
Michael Albasini
Michael Albasini is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . Albasini began his career in 2003 with , moved to at the beginning of 2005, and signed with for the 2009 season...
crashed and broke his collarbone; there was not sufficient time to find a replacement for him.
Pollution issues
Prior to the opening of the Games, the International Olympic CommitteeInternational Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
was keen to play down the risk that athletes faced from pollution; however, the organizing body considered re-scheduling of endurance events (such as the cycling road race) if the pollution levels were 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
Asthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
.
Independent sources showed that pollution levels were above the limit deemed safe by the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
on August 9. However, the cycling event went ahead as scheduled with no objections from the athletes. Fifty-three of the 143 cyclists pulled out during the race; however, this is not unusual (over half withdrew mid-race at the 2004 Summer Olympics). Post-race, a number of riders highlighted the punishing conditions, in particular the heat
Heat
In physics and thermodynamics, heat is energy transferred from one body, region, or thermodynamic system to another due to thermal contact or thermal radiation when the systems are at different temperatures. It is often described as one of the fundamental processes of energy transfer between...
(26 °C (78.8 °F)) and humidity
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
(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
Stefan Schumacher
Stefan Schumacher is a German professional road racing cyclist.-Career:First professionally employed with Team Telekom in 2002, he was released the following year...
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
Grand Tour (cycling)
In road bicycle racing, a Grand Tour refers to one of the three major European professional cycling stage races:* Tour de France – Tour of France , held in July* Giro d'Italia – Tour of Italy , held in May...
in Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador
Alberto Contador Velasco is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . He was the winner of the 2007 Tour de France with the team. With the Astana team he has won the 2008 Giro d'Italia, the 2008 Vuelta a España, the 2009 Tour de France, the 2010 Tour de France and won 2011 Giro...
and Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre Candil is a retired Spanish professional road bicycle racer and champion of the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre rides in 2011 for UCI Professional Continental team...
, along with highly regarded countrymen Alejandro Valverde
Alejandro Valverde
Alejandro Valverde Belmonte is a Spanish road racing cyclist currently under suspension. He last rode for UCI ProTour team . Valverde's biggest wins have been the 2009 Vuelta a España, the Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 2006, 2008 and 2006 UCI ProTour series championship...
, winner of the 2008 Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré and the reigning Spanish national road race champion, and Samuel Sánchez
Samuel Sánchez
Samuel Sánchez González is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer. He was the gold medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men's Road Race. In recent years Sánchez has proven himself in hilly classics and stage races as one of the most important riders in the peloton...
, who had won three stages in the 2007 Vuelta a España
2007 Vuelta a España
The 2007 Vuelta a España, the sixty-second edition of the cycle race, took place from September 1 until September 23, 2007. For the first time in a decade, the race started in the region of Galicia, at Vigo, home to Óscar Pereiro, with a flat stage...
. They also had 2008 Tour de France points classification
Points classification
The points classification is a secondary award category in road bicycle racing. Points are given for high finishes and, in some cases, for winning intermediate sprints. The points classification is the top prize for many cycling sprinters and therefore is often known as the Sprint Classification;...
winner and three-time world champion Óscar Freire
Óscar Freire
Óscar Freire Gómez is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer, riding for the UCI ProTeam Rabobank. He is one of the top sprinters in road bicycle racing, having won the world championship a three times, equalling Alfredo Binda, Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx...
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
Paolo Bettini
Paolo Bettini is an Italian former champion road racing cyclist, and the coach of the Italian national cycling team. Considered the best classics specialist of his generation, and probably one of the strongest of all times, he won gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics road race and in the 2006...
of Italy, Germany's Stefan Schumacher
Stefan Schumacher
Stefan Schumacher is a German professional road racing cyclist.-Career:First professionally employed with Team Telekom in 2002, he was released the following year...
, and Australian Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans
Cadel Lee Evans is an Australian professional racing cyclist and winner of the 2011 Tour de France. Early in his career, Evans was a champion mountain biker, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men's cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in...
, twice a runner-up in the Tour de France
Tour de France
The Tour de France is an annual bicycle race held in France and nearby countries. First staged in 1903, the race covers more than and lasts three weeks. As the best known and most prestigious of cycling's three "Grand Tours", the Tour de France attracts riders and teams from around the world. The...
(2007 and 2008). 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
Jens Voigt
Jens Voigt is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . Voigt is known for his propensity to attack, and for his positive racing attitude. He is capable of repeated attacking, holding a high tempo, and breaking away from the peloton...
to work in support, while Luxembourg had the Schleck brothers Andy
Andy Schleck
Andy Raymond Schleck is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, who also rides for . Their father Johny Schleck rode the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 1965 and 1974...
and Fränk
Fränk Schleck
Fränk René Schleck is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . At the start of 2005, Schleck was joined by his younger brother Andy on , and they split the 2005 national championships between them, with Fränk winning the road race and Andy winning the time trial...
, along with Kim Kirchen
Kim Kirchen
Kim Kirchen is a former Luxembourg road racing cyclist.-Career:Kirchen signed as a professional cyclist in 2000 with De Nardi-Pasta Montegrappa, and went on to join in 2001...
, all of whom had worn leader's jerseys
Cycling jersey
A cycling jersey is a specialized jersey for cycling. While the vast majority of cyclists worldwide wear conventional clothing while riding, a jersey offers certain advantages for the serious cyclist. A cycling jersey is cut long in the back to accommodate the bent-over position used in serious...
during the 2008 Tour de France.
Course
The Urban Road Cycling CourseUrban Road Cycling Course
The Urban Cycling Road Course was one of nine temporary venues used during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China. The road cycling race started at the North Square of Yongdingmen in Beijing's Chongwen District and finished at Juyong Pass in Changping District...
(one of Beijing's nine temporary venues) was 102.6 km (63.8 mi) in its entirety, and the men's race was a distance of 245.4 km (152.5 mi), the longest in Olympic history. The race's starting line was located at the Yongdingmen
Yongdingmen
Yongdingmen was the former front gate of the outer section of Beijing's old city wall. Originally built in 1553, it was torn down in the 1950s to make way for the new road system in Beijing. In 2005, the Yongdingmen was reconstructed at the site of the old city gate...
Gate, a remnant of Beijing's old city wall
Chinese city wall
Chinese city walls refer to civic defensive systems used to protect towns and cities in China in pre-modern times. The system consisted of walls, towers, and gates, which were often built to a uniform standard throughout the Empire....
, which is a part of the Chongwen District
Chongwen District
Chongwen is a former district of the Municipality of Beijing, located relatively southeast to the city center , and was situated between Yongdingmen and Qianmen. It spanned an area of 16.46 square kilometers. It bordered Dongcheng District to the north, Fengtai District to the south, Chaoyang to...
of northern Beijing. The course ended at the Juyong Pass
Juyongguan
Juyongguan or Juyong Pass is located in an -long valley named "Guangou" which is inside Changping County more than from Beijing City. It is one of the three greatest passes of the Great Wall of China. The other two passes are Jiayuguan and Shanhaiguan....
in the Changping District
Changping District
Changping District , formerly Changping County , is situated in the suburbs of northwest Beijing.Changping District, covering an area of 1,430 square kilometers, has 2 subdistricts of the city of Changping and 15 towns with total population of 614,821...
.
Dongcheng District, Beijing
Dongcheng District is an urban district in Beijing covering the eastern half of Beijing's urban core. It is 24.7 square kilometres in area and has a population of 535,558 . Dongcheng District covers several important parts of Beijing...
, Xicheng
Xicheng District
Xicheng District is a district in Beijing, China. Xicheng District spans 32 square kilometres, making it the largest portion of the old city , and has 706,691 inhabitants . Its postal code is 100032. Xicheng is subdivided into 15 subdistricts of the city proper of Beijing...
, Chaoyang
Chaoyang District, Beijing
Chaoyang District is a district of Beijing, China.Chaoyang is home to the majority of Beijing's many foreign embassies, the well-known Sanlitun bar street, as well as Beijing's growing CBD. The Olympic Park, built for the 2008 Summer Olympics, is also in Chaoyang...
, Haidian, Changping, and Yanqing
Yanqing County
Yanqing County is a subdivision of the municipality of Beijing located northwest of the city proper of Beijing...
. The course's scenery, described by The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper (UK) as "visually sumptuous", included landmarks such as the Temple of Heaven
Temple of Heaven
The Temple of Heaven, literally the Altar of Heaven is a complex of Taoist buildings situated in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The complex was visited by the Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties for annual ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest...
, the Great Hall of the People
Great Hall of the People
The Great Hall of the People is located at the western edge of Tiananmen Square, Beijing, People's Republic of China, and is used for legislative and ceremonial activities by the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party of China. It functions as the People's Republic of China's...
, Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate located to its North, separating it from the Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square is the third largest city square in the world...
, the Yonghe Temple
Yonghe Temple
The Yonghe Temple , also known as the "Palace of Peace and Harmony Lama Temple", the "Yonghe Lamasery", or - popularly - the "Lama Temple" is a temple and monastery of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism located in the northeastern part of Beijing, China. It is one of the largest and most...
, and sections of the Great Wall of China
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups...
, which were passed through as the course journeyed from urban Beijing into the countryside. It also passed the architecture of the 2008 Olympics, including the Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium
Beijing National Stadium, also known officially as the National Stadium, or colloquially as the Bird's Nest , is a stadium in Beijing, China. The stadium was designed for use throughout the 2008 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.-History:...
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
Badaling
Badaling is the site of the most visited section of the Great Wall of China, approximately northwest of urban Beijing city in Yanqing County, which is within the Beijing municipality. The portion of the wall running through the site was built during the Ming Dynasty, along with a military...
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 (49 mi) point in the race the riders reached the Badaling section of the Great Wall, and began their first of seven 23.8 km (14.8 mi) loops. The riders encountered an increase in the gradient at this point, with the Badaling Pass gaining 338.2 metres (1,109.6 ft) in elevation over a distance of 12.4 km (7.7 mi) 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 (1,148.3 ft) 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.
Due to security regulations put in place by the Olympic organizers, no spectators were permitted to stand roadside along the course. This decision proved to be controversial: several prominent figures in cycling, including UCI president Pat McQuaid
Pat McQuaid
Patrick "Pat" McQuaid is a former Irish professional road racing cyclist and current president of the Union Cycliste Internationale .-Background:...
and riders Stuart O'Grady
Stuart O'Grady
Stuart O'Grady OAM , nicknamed Stuey, is an Australian professional road bicycle racer on UCI ProTeam , who started as a track cyclist. He and Graeme Brown won a gold medal in Men's Madison at the 2004 Summer Olympics...
and Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans
Cadel Lee Evans is an Australian professional racing cyclist and winner of the 2011 Tour de France. Early in his career, Evans was a champion mountain biker, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men's cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in...
(both Australia), spoke out against it. McQuaid and O'Grady both felt that the absence of people along the course deprived the race of the atmosphere present at other cycling events, and said that it failed to take supporters' wishes into consideration. 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
The men's road race began at 11:00 local time (UTC+8UTC+8
UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as .With an estimated population of 1.53 billion living within the time zone, roughly 22.5% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in world, as well as a possible...
) and within 3 km (1.9 mi) of the start, Horacio Gallardo
Horacio Gallardo
Horacio Gallardo Burgos is a Bolivian professional road bicycle racer. He represented Bolivia in 2008 Olympic Games- External links :...
(Bolivia) and Patricio Almonacid
Patricio Almonacid
Patricio Almonacid is a Chilean professional road bicycle racer.- External links :*...
(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 (37.3 mi) mark, including Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre
Carlos Sastre Candil is a retired Spanish professional road bicycle racer and champion of the 2008 Tour de France. Sastre rides in 2011 for UCI Professional Continental team...
(Spain), Kim Kirchen
Kim Kirchen
Kim Kirchen is a former Luxembourg road racing cyclist.-Career:Kirchen signed as a professional cyclist in 2000 with De Nardi-Pasta Montegrappa, and went on to join in 2001...
(Luxembourg), Jens Voigt
Jens Voigt
Jens Voigt is a German professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . Voigt is known for his propensity to attack, and for his positive racing attitude. He is capable of repeated attacking, holding a high tempo, and breaking away from the peloton...
(Germany), Roman Kreuziger
Roman Kreuziger
Roman Kreuziger is a Czech professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . Kreuziger is an all-rounder, with climbing and time trial abilities, becoming a contender for the General Classification of stage races...
(Czech Republic) and Simon Gerrans
Simon Gerrans
Simon Gerrans is an Australian professional road bicycle racer, who currently rides for the British UCI ProTour team, .-Biography:Gerrans was born in Melbourne, Victoria and grew up in Mansfield, Victoria....
(Australia). Shortly after the race reached the finish line to begin the first of seven 23.8 km (14.8 mi) 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.
Aleksandr Kuschynski
Aleksandr Kuschynski is a Belarusian professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . He turned pro in 2004.Kuschynski is the current Belarusian National Road Race Champion.-Victories:2004*...
(Belarus) and Ruslan Pidgornyy
Ruslan Pidgornyy
Ruslan Pidgornyy is a Ukrainian professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . He was born in Vinnytsia.In 2004, Pidgornyy, along with Juriy Ivanov, was released from due to his involvement in an investigation of assaulting and robbing a prostitute....
(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 km (37.3 mi) to go mark, leaving just Kuschynski and Pidgornyy out front. Not long after, shortly before the end of the fifth circuit, Marcus Ljungqvist
Marcus Ljungqvist
Marcus Ljungqvist is a Swedish former professional road bicycle racer. He turned professional in 1998, and retired from racing after the 2009 season...
(Sweden), Rigoberto Urán
Rigoberto Urán
Rigoberto Urán Urán is a Colombian professional road racing cyclist, currently riding for UCI ProTeam .-Early life:Urán's first cycling race was at the age of 14, three months before his father was accidentally killed in a gunfight related to the drug war in Colombia...
(Colombia) and Johan Van Summeren
Johan Van Summeren
Johan Vansummeren is a Belgian road racing cyclist who rides for UCI ProTeam .During the 2007 Tour de France, commentator Paul Sherwen repeatedly praised Vansummeren's work in support of his team leader, eventual second place finisher Cadel Evans, even going so far as to say "I would like to...
(Belgium) attacked from the peloton
Peloton
The peloton , field, bunch or pack is the large main group of riders in a road bicycle race. Riders in a group save energy by riding close near other riders...
and reeled in Kuschynski and Pidgornyy.
Christian Pfannberger
Christian Pfannberger is an Austrian former professional road racing cyclist. He was a two-time Austrian national road-race champion . Other achievements included winning the U23 National Championship in 2001 and the Giro del Capo, a stage race in South Africa in 2008...
(Austria), who went free of the main field toward the end of the sixth lap. His maximum advantage never grew to more than a minute, but he did stay away until well into the seventh and final lap, being caught with 20 km (12.4 mi) to go. Within five minutes of fierce attacks, fewer than 20 riders were left in the front group, a group that included Cadel Evans
Cadel Evans
Cadel Lee Evans is an Australian professional racing cyclist and winner of the 2011 Tour de France. Early in his career, Evans was a champion mountain biker, winning the World Cup in 1998 and 1999 and placing seventh in the men's cross-country mountain bike race at the 2000 Summer Olympics in...
(Australia), Levi Leipheimer
Levi Leipheimer
Levi Leipheimer is an American professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . His major results are winning the 2007–2009 editions of the Tour of California, the 2006 Dauphiné Libéré and the 2005 Deutschland Tour, coming in second in the 2008 Vuelta a España, third in the 2001 Vuelta a...
(United States), Santiago Botero
Santiago Botero
Santiago Botero Echeverry is a Colombian former professional road bicycle racer. He was a pro from 1996 to 2010, during which time he raced in three editions of the Tour de France and four editions of the Vuelta a España...
(Colombia), and Jérôme Pineau
Jérôme Pineau
Jérôme Pineau is a French professional road bicycle racer. In 2009, he rides on the UCI ProTour for .- Major achievements :20022003-External links:*...
(France), with Valverde and Bettini left behind them. Five riders, Samuel Sánchez
Samuel Sánchez
Samuel Sánchez González is a Spanish professional road bicycle racer. He was the gold medal winner in the 2008 Beijing Olympics Men's Road Race. In recent years Sánchez has proven himself in hilly classics and stage races as one of the most important riders in the peloton...
(Spain), Michael Rogers (Australia), Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin
Davide Rebellin is an Italian road bicycle racer, currently riding for the Italian Miche-Guerciotti team. He served a 2-year suspension for testing positive for Mircera at the 2008 Olympic Games...
(Italy), Andy Schleck
Andy Schleck
Andy Raymond Schleck is a Luxembourgish professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTour team . He is the younger brother of Fränk Schleck, who also rides for . Their father Johny Schleck rode the Tour de France and Vuelta a España between 1965 and 1974...
(Luxembourg), and Alexandr Kolobnev
Alexandr Kolobnev
Alexandr Viktorovich Kolobnev is a Russian professional road bicycle racer on the UCI ProTour with , currently suspended after his A sample revealed doping products.-Career:...
(Russia), came further clear from the group of now 13 due to repeated attacks from Schleck. Sánchez, Rebellin, and Schleck reached the summit of the Badaling climb, with 12.7 km (7.9 mi) to race, 10 seconds ahead of Rogers and Kolobnev, and 26 seconds ahead of the Evans group. Bettini, Valverde and Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara
Fabian Cancellara is a Swiss professional road bicycle racer for UCI ProTeam . A time trial specialist, he is a four-time World Time Trial Champion and is the current Olympic gold medalist...
(Switzerland) attacked from the main peloton and joined the Evans group at the top of the climb. The leading group's advantage over the two-man chase was 15 seconds with 10 km (6.2 mi) to go.
With 5 km (3.1 mi) 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 1 km (0.621372736649807 mi) to go, and there were six riders contesting the final sprint. Sánchez won the gold medal, Rebellin the silver, and Cancellara the bronze.
Doping incident
In April 2009, the IOC announced that six athletes had tested positive during the 2008 Summer Olympics, without mentioning names or sports. Later, rumours emerged that the athletes included two cyclists, one of them a medal winner. The Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) then confirmed that a male Italian cyclist had tested positive for Continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA) during the men's road race, without identifying him. The next day, on 29 April 2009, the Committee confirmed that Rebellin was an involved athlete. Rebellin's agent sent a request for the analysis of the B sample. On 8 July 2009, Rebellin, along with Schumacher, were confirmed as having tested positive. Schumacher was already serving a ban after testing positive in the 2008 Tour de France2008 Tour de France
The 2008 Tour de France was the 95th Tour de France. The event took place from 5–27 July 2008. Starting in the French city of Brest, the tour entered Italy on the 15th stage and returned to France during the 16th, heading for Paris, its regular final destination, which was reached in the 21st stage...
, but faces further punishment, and Rebellin subsequently had his medal removed by the UCI and the IOC. On 27 November, Rebellin returned his silver medal to CONI, per their and the UCI's request. Per UCI regulations, Cancellara and Kolobnev were moved up to second and third in the official results, but did not initially receive new medals. On December 18, 2010, Cancellara received the same physical medal initially given to Rebellin, in a ceremony held in his hometown of Ittigen
Ittigen
Ittigen is a municipality in the Bern-Mittelland administrative district in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.The municipality was formed in 1983 when it and Ostermundigen were separated from territory once part of Bolligen.-History:...
, Switzerland. The medal originally given to Cancellara will in turn be given to Kolobnev.
Rebellin had appealed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international arbitration body set up to settle disputes related to sport. Its headquarters are in Lausanne and its courts are located in New York, Sydney and Lausanne, Switzerland...
(CAS) against the decision to remove his silver medal, but in July 2010, this was rejected.
There had been controversy in the months before the men's road race when, in the aftermath of doping revelations at the Tour de France, International Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
vice-president Thomas Bach
Thomas Bach
Thomas Bach is a German fencer and, as of 2009, a vice-president and member of the executive board of the International Olympic Committee...
had suggested that the men's road race's place in the Olympics should be reconsidered, and said that the credibility of the sport had been damaged; although he clarified that there was no immediate threat. Pat McQuaid had reacted angrily to these comments, saying, "Why should they [the majority of cyclists] be threatened because of a few bad apples?"
Final classification
The notation "s.t." indicates that the rider crossed the finish line in the same group as the one receiving the time above him, and was therefore credited with the same finishing time.Source: Official results
| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
 |
6:23:49 | |
 |
||
 |
||
| 4 | ||
| 5 | ||
| 6 | 6:24:01 | |
| 7 | ||
| 8 | 6:24:05 | |
| 9 | 6:24:07 | |
| 10 | 6:24:09 | |
| 11 | 6:24:11 | |
| 12 | ||
| 13 | ||
| 14 | ||
| 15 | ||
| 16 | 6:24:19 | |
| 17 | 6:24:24 | |
| 18 | 6:24:59 | |
| 19 | 6:26:17 | |
| 20 | ||
| 21 | ||
| 22 | ||
| 23 | ||
| 24 | ||
| 25 | ||
| 26 | ||
| 27 | ||
| 28 | ||
| 29 | ||
| 30 | ||
| 31 | ||
| 32 | ||
| 33 | ||
| 34 | ||
| 35 | ||
| 36 | ||
| 37 | 6:26:25 | |
| 38 | ||
| 39 | ||
| 40 | 6:26:27 | |
| 41 | ||
| 42 | ||
| 43 | ||
| 44 | 6:26:35 |
| Rank | Rider | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 45 | 6:26:40 | |
| 46 | 6:28:08 | |
| 47 | 6:30:49 | |
| 48 | 6:31:06 | |
| 49 | ||
| 50 | ||
| 51 | 6:34:22 | |
| 52 | ||
| 53 | 6:34:26 | |
| 54 | ||
| 55 | ||
| 56 | ||
| 57 | ||
| 58 | ||
| 59 | ||
| 60 | ||
| 61 | ||
| 62 | ||
| 63 | ||
| 64 | ||
| 65 | 6:35:44 | |
| 66 | ||
| 67 | 6:36:48 | |
| 68 | ||
| 69 | ||
| 70 | ||
| 71 | 6:39:42 | |
| 72 | ||
| 73 | ||
| 74 | ||
| 75 | ||
| 76 | ||
| 77 | ||
| 78 | ||
| 79 | ||
| 80 | ||
| 81 | ||
| 82 | 6:49:59 | |
| 83 | ||
| 84 | ||
| 85 | 6:55:24 | |
| 86 | 7:03:04 | |
| 87 | ||
| 88 | 7:05:57 | |
| 89 | 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:
|