| | Event type

Road Race, Men

Date	9 August 2008 — 11:00
Status	Olympic
Location	Gonglu Zixingche Saichang, Juyongguan
Participants	143 from 55 countries
Format	245 km. mass start race.

The road race was conducted over a 245.4 km. course, the longest in Olympic history, with seven laps back-and-forth between the Juyong and Badaling Passes, finishing on the Badaling Pass climb of 700 metres at 6% grade. The race was held in hot and humid conditions. Prior to the Beijing Olympics, many endurance athletes had complained about the air pollution in Beijing but, on the day of the road race, it was relatively clear for the Chinese capital city. The first major break occurred at 60 km., with 26 riders going away. They were in front for almost 125 km. The peleton caught them with 60 km. remaining in the race, but by then two riders, Aleksandr Kuchinsky (BLR) and Ruslan Pidhorniy (UKR), had broken away. They were reeled in after only a few kilometers in the lead.

On the last lap, repeated attacks left only 20 riders in the front group. From this group six riders got into a breakaway – Samuel Sánchez (ESP), Davide Rebellin (ITA), Fabian Cancellara (SUI), Aleksandr Kolobnev (RUS), Andy Schleck (LUX), and Michael Rogers (AUS). Sánchez and Rebellin were the most aggressive riders in the break, until Cancellara tried to go off the front, but he was quickly pulled back. Cancellara was not known as a sprinter, but was a great time trialist, and he often used this strength to get away before the sprint. The final sprint was close with all six finishing within a bike length, but Sánchez was the fastest off the top of the Badaling climb, and edged our Rebellin for the gold medal, with Cancellara taking bronze, or so it seemed.

In November 2009, however, Davide Rebellin, the original silver medalist, was disqualified when his sample from Beijing tested positive for CERA (continuous erythropoietin receptor activator), which stimulates erythropoietin (EPO) production and increases hemoglobin levels for better oxygen usage. Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara, who won the individual time trial gold medal in Beijing, was moved up to the silver medal position and Russian Aleksandr Kolobnev was awarded the bronze medal.

Pos	Number	Competitor	NOC	Time	Margin
1	–	Samuel Sánchez	ESP	6-23:49	–	Gold
2	51	Fabian Cancellara	SUI	6-23:49	same time	Silver
3	44	Aleksandr Kolobnev	RUS	6-23:49	same time	Bronze
4	–	Andy Schleck	LUX	6-23:49	same time
5	–	Mick Rogers	AUS	6-23:49	same time
6	–	Santiago Botero	COL	6-24:01	at 0:12
7	–	Mario Aerts	BEL	6-24:01	at 0:12
8	–	Michael Barry	CAN	6-24:05	at 0:16
9	–	Robert Gesink	NED	6-24:07	at 0:18
10	–	Levi Leipheimer	USA	6-24:09	at 0:20
11	–	Chris Anker Sørensen	DEN	6-24:11	at 0:22
12	–	Alejandro Valverde	ESP	6-24:11	at 0:22
13	–	Jérôme Pineau	FRA	6-24:11	at 0:22
14	–	Cadel Evans	AUS	6-24:11	at 0:22
15	–	Przemysław Niemiec	POL	6-24:11	at 0:22
16	–	Christian Vande Velde	USA	6-24:19	at 0:30
17	–	Paolo Bettini	ITA	6-24:24	at 0:35
18	–	Vladimir Karpets	RUS	6-24:59	at 1:10
19	–	Murilo Fischer	BRA	6-26:17	at 2:28
20	–	Fabian Wegmann	GER	6-26:17	at 2:28
21	–	Erik Hoffmann	NAM	6-26:17	at 2:28
22	–	Christian Pfannberger	AUT	6-26:17	at 2:28
23	–	Gustav Larsson	SWE	6-26:17	at 2:28
24	–	Nicki Sørensen	DEN	6-26:17	at 2:28
25	–	Radoslav Rogina	CRO	6-26:17	at 2:28
26	–	John Augustyn	RSA	6-26:17	at 2:28
27	–	Nuno Ribeiro	POR	6-26:17	at 2:28
28	–	Ignatas Konovalovas	LTU	6-26:17	at 2:28
29	–	Jackson Rodríguez	VEN	6-26:17	at 2:28
30	–	Matt Lloyd	AUS	6-26:17	at 2:28
31	–	Kurt Asle Arvesen	NOR	6-26:17	at 2:28
32	–	Kanstantsin Siutsou	BLR	6-26:17	at 2:28
33	–	Rémi Pauriol	FRA	6-26:17	at 2:28
34	–	Tadej Valjavec	SLO	6-26:17	at 2:28
35	–	Yaroslav Popovych	UKR	6-26:17	at 2:28
36	–	Simon Gerrans	AUS	6-26:17	at 2:28
37	–	Thomas Löfkvist	SWE	6-26:25	at 2:36
38	–	Thomas Rohregger	AUT	6-26:25	at 2:36
39	–	George Hincapie	USA	6-26:25	at 2:36
40	–	José Rodolfo Serpa	COL	6-26:27	at 2:38
41	–	Johan Vansummeren	BEL	6-26:27	at 2:38
42	–	Fränk Schleck	LUX	6-26:27	at 2:38
43	–	Andrey Mizurov	KAZ	6-26:27	at 2:38
44	–	Roman Kreuziger	CZE	6-26:35	at 2:46
45	–	Kim Kirchen	LUX	6-26:40	at 2:51
46	–	Moisés Aldape	MEX	6-28:08	at 4:19
47	–	Rein Taaramäe	EST	6-30:49	at 7:00
48	–	Carlos Sastre	ESP	6-31:06	at 7:17
49	–	Franco Pellizotti	ITA	6-31:06	at 7:17
50	–	Sergey Lagutin	UZB	6-31:06	at 7:17
51	–	Hossein Askari	IRI	6-34:22	at 10:33
52	–	Ruslan Pidhornyi	UKR	6-34:22	at 10:33
53	–	Julian Dean	NZL	6-34:26	at 10:37
54	–	Jacek Morajko	POL	6-34:26	at 10:37
55	–	Ryder Hesjedal	CAN	6-34:26	at 10:37
56	–	Matija Kvasina	CRO	6-34:26	at 10:37
57	–	Marcus Ljungqvist	SWE	6-34:26	at 10:37
58	–	Svein Tuft	CAN	6-34:26	at 10:37
59	–	Denis Menshov	RUS	6-34:26	at 10:37
60	–	Jure Golčer	SLO	6-34:26	at 10:37
61	–	Ján Valach	SVK	6-34:26	at 10:37
62	–	Marzio Bruseghin	ITA	6-34:26	at 10:37
63	–	Nicolas Roche	IRL	6-34:26	at 10:37
64	–	Laurens ten Dam	NED	6-34:26	at 10:37
65	–	Péter Kusztor	HUN	6-35:44	at 11:55
66	–	Ivan Stević	SRB	6-35:44	at 11:55
67	–	Gatis Smukulis	LAT	6-36:48	at 12:59
68	–	Tanel Kangert	EST	6-36:48	at 12:59
69	–	Gonzalo Garrido	CHI	6-36:48	at 12:59
70	–	Edvald Boasson Hagen	NOR	6-36:48	at 12:59
71	–	André Cardoso	POR	6-39:42	at 15:53
72	–	Aliaksandr Kuchynski	BLR	6-39:42	at 15:53
73	–	Dainius Kairelis	LTU	6-39:42	at 15:53
74	–	Petr Benčik	CZE	6-39:42	at 15:53
75	–	Alexandr Pliuschin	MDA	6-39:42	at 15:53
76	–	Denys Kostiuk	UKR	6-39:42	at 15:53
77	–	Sergey Ivanov	RUS	6-39:42	at 15:53
78	–	Ghader Mizbani	IRI	6-39:42	at 15:53
79	–	David George	RSA	6-39:42	at 15:53
80	–	Philip Deignan	IRL	6-39:42	at 15:53
81	–	Glen Chadwick	NZL	6-39:42	at 15:53
82	–	Aliaksandr Usau	BLR	6-49:59	at 26:10
83	–	Tomasz Marczyński	POL	6-49:59	at 26:10
84	–	Nebojša Jovanović	SRB	6-49:59	at 26:10
85	–	Takashi Miyazawa	JPN	6-55:24	at 31:35
86	–	Rafaâ Chtioui	TUN	7-03:04	at 39:15
87	–	Park Seong-Baek	KOR	7-03:04	at 39:15
88	–	Wu Kin San	HKG	7-05:57	at 42:08
89	–	Luciano Pagliarini	BRA	7-08:27	at 44:38
DQ	–	Davide Rebellin	ITA	[6-23:49]	[same time]		1
DNF	–	Alberto Contador	ESP	–	–
DNF	–	Simon Špilak	SLO	–	–
DNF	–	Jens Voigt	GER	–	–
DNF	–	Pierrick Fédrigo	FRA	–	–
DNF	–	Cyril Dessel	FRA	–	–
DNF	–	Pierre Rolland	FRA	–	–
DNF	–	Rigoberto Urán	COL	–	–
DNF	–	Ben Swift	GBR	–	–
DNF	–	Stef Clement	NED	–	–
DNF	–	Bert Grabsch	GER	–	–
DNF	–	Vincenzo Nibali	ITA	–	–
DNF	–	Lars Petter Nordhaug	NOR	–	–
DNF	–	Vladimir Miholjević	CRO	–	–
DNF	–	Christophe Brandt	BEL	–	–
DNF	–	Stefan Schumacher	GER	–	–		2
DNF	–	Brian Vandborg	DEN	–	–
DNF	–	Jurgen Van Den Broeck	BEL	–	–
DNF	–	Tim Gudsell	NZL	–	–
DNF	–	Patricio Almonacid	CHI	–	–
DNF	–	Evgeni Gerganov	BUL	–	–
DNF	–	Borut Božič	SLO	–	–
DNF	–	Stuart O'Grady	AUS	–	–
DNF	–	Maksim Iglinsky	KAZ	–	–
DNF	–	Gabriel Rasch	NOR	–	–
DNF	–	Fumiyuki Beppu	JPN	–	–
DNF	–	Henry Raabe	CRC	–	–		3
DNF	–	Mehdi Sohrabi	IRI	–	–		4
DNF	–	Mario Contreras	ESA	–	–
DNF	–	Andriy Hryvko	UKR	–	–
DNF	–	Vladimir Yefimkin	RUS	–	–
DNF	–	Jason McCartney	USA	–	–
DNF	–	Roger Hammond	GBR	–	–
DNF	–	Karsten Kroon	NED	–	–
DNF	–	Óscar Freire	ESP	–	–
DNF	–	Steve Cummings	GBR	–	–
DNF	–	Maxime Monfort	BEL	–	–
DNF	–	Matej Jurčo	SVK	–	–
DNF	–	Roman Broniš	SVK	–	–
DNF	–	Hichem Chabane	ALG	–	–		5
DNF	–	Juan José Haedo	ARG	–	–
DNF	–	Zhang Liang	CHN	–	–		6
DNF	–	Ahmed Belgasem	LBA	–	–
DNF	–	Gerald Ciolek	GER	–	–
DNF	–	Raivis Belohvoščiks	LAT	–	–
DNF	–	Jonny Bellis	GBR	–	–
DNF	–	Horacio Gallardo	BOL	–	–
DNF	–	László Bodrogi	HUN	–	–
DNF	–	Daniel Petrov	BUL	–	–		7
DNF	–	Matías Médici	ARG	–	–
DNF	–	Niki Terpstra	NED	–	–
DNF	–	Alejandro Borrajo	ARG	–	–		8
DNF	–	Robert Hunter	RSA	–	–		9
DNF	–	David Zabriskie	USA	–	–