Olympic Games 2008 - Men's Road Race

Team GB - Schedule - BBCTV - Track Medals

The Olympic road race throws up an odd looking start list, containing riders and teams not normally seen at the highest level of the sport. Nonetheless the line up includes the most powerful cycling nations and with them some of the world's great riders.

John Bellis

Roger Hammond

Ben Swift

National teams were selected in May by the Olympic Games and allotted a set number of riders, Great Britain has four and Italy, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, USA etc, have five. Algeria has one.

The course
The men's road race starts at the North Square of Yongdingenmen in Beijing's Chongwen District and finishes at Juyong Pass in Changping District, and is held over 245km on August 9.

The Yongdingmen Gate near the Forbidden City is the starting point and the route then goes into Beijing centre before visiting the Great Wall of China. The first 80 kilometres are flat and features the Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square, Yonghegong Palace, and Temple of Earth Park.

Once past the 80k point the riders move onto a finishing circuit and the Great Wall heralds a change and a climb of 520 metres to be undertaken seven times, a prime spot for attacks and with the tough finish near the end of the descent, a good spot for a race winning move.

The Riders
Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre and Giro d'Italia Champion Alberto Contador lead a very, very strong Spanish squad, and it also includes double world champion Oscar Friere and top classic rider Alejandro Valverde.

2006 Olympic Champion Paulo Bettini will be backed up by some of the best domestics in the pro game. Cadel Evans races for Australia, and Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands all have medal hopes.

Fabian Cancellera has to ride it alone in the Swiss team after his team mate Michael Albasini broke his collarbone in training and Dennis Menchov has joined the Russian team after the exclusion of Vladimir Gusev. Levi Leipheimer has scratched from the USA squad with injury.

The Great Britain team of Jonathan Bellis, Steve Cummings, Roger Hammond and Ben Swift may not be many people's favourites, but Roger Hammond has the brains and Steve Cummings looks in good form after placing second on the recent Denmark Tour, to do well. They could surprise if the big teams rip each other to shreds, of course that follows suit for almost all the minnows. Though maybe not for Hichem Chabane of Alegria.

Riders
1 Paolo Bettini Italy
2 Marzio Bruseghin Italy
3 Vincenzo Nibali Italy
4 Franco Pellizotti Italy
5 Davide Rebellin Italy
6 Alberto Contador Spain
7 Oscar Freire Spain
8 Samuel Sanchez Spain
9 Carlos Sastre Spain
10 Alejandro Valverde Spain
11 Gerald Ciolek Germany
12 Bert Grabsch Germany
13 Stefan Schumacher Germany
14 Jens Voigt Germany
15 Fabian Wegmann Germany
16 Mario Aerts Belgium
17 Christophe Brandt Belgium
18 Maxime Monfort Belgium
19 Jurgen Van Den Broeck Belgium
20 Johan Vansummeren Belgium
21 Cyril Dessel France
22 Pierrick Fedrigo France
23 Remi Pauriol France
24 Jerome Pineau France
25 Pierre Rolland France
26 Cadel Evans Australia
27 Simon Gerrans Australia
28 Matthew Lloyd Australia
29 Stuart O'grady Australia
30 Michael Rogers Australia
31 Petr Bencik Czech Republic
32 Roman Kreuziger Czech Republic
33 Kim Kirchen Luxembourg
34 Andy Schleck Luxembourg
35 Frank Schleck Luxembourg
36 Stef Clement Netherlands
37 Robert Gesink Netherlands
38 Karsten Kroon Netherlands
39 Laurens Ten Dam Netherlands
40 Niki Terpstra Netherlands
41 Vladimir Efimkin Russia
42 Sergey Ivanov Russia
43 Vladimir Karpets Russia
44 Alexander Kolobnev Russia
45 Denis Menshov Russia
46 George Hincapie USA
47 Levi Leipheimer USA
48 Jason Mccartney USA
49 Christian Vandevelde USA
50 David Zabriskie USA
51 Fabian Cancellara Switzerland
52 Santiago Botero Columbia
53 Jose Serpa Columbia
54 Rigoberto Uran Columbia
55 Gustav Larsson Sweden
56 Marcus Ljungqvist Sweden
57 Thomas Lovkvist Sweden
58 Kurt Arvesen Norway
59 Edvald Hagen Norway
60 Lars Nordhaus Norway
61 Gabriel Rasch Norway
62 Borut Bozic Slovenia
63 Jure Golcer Slovenia
64 Simon Spilak Slovenia
65 Tadej Valjavec Slovenia
66 Tomasz Marczynski Poland
67 Jacek Morajko Poland
68 Przemyslaw Niemiec Poland
69 John Augustyn South Africa
70 David George South Africa
71 Robert Hunter South Africa
72 Hossein Askari Iran
73 Ghader Mizbani Iran
74 Mehdi Sohrabi Ireland
75 Andriy Grivko Ukraine
76 Denys Kostyuk Ukraine
77 Ruslan Pidgornyy Ukraine
78 Yaroslav Popovych Ukraine
79 Andre Cardoso Portugal
80 Nuno Ribeiro Portugal
81 Fumiyuki Beppu Japan
82 Takashi Miyazawa Japan
83 Jackson Rodriguez Venezuela
84 Alejandro Borrajo Argentina
85 Juan Haedo Argentina
86 Matias Medici Argentina
87 Jonathan Bellis Great Britain
88 Stephen Cummings Great Britain
89 Roger Hammond Great Britain
90 Ben Swift Great Britain
91 Glen Chadwick New Zealand
92 Julian Dean New Zealand
93 Timothy Gudsell New Zealand
94 Chris Soerensen Denmark
95 Nicki Soerensen Denmark
96 Brian Vandborg Denmark
97 Michael Barry Canada
98 Ryder Hesjedal Canada
99 Svein Tuft Canada
100 Christian Pfannberger Austria
101 Thomas Rohregger Austria
102 Matija Kvasina Croatia
103 Vladimir Miholjevic Croatia
104 Radoslav Rogina Croatia
105 Philip Deignan Ireland
106 Nicholas Roche Ireland
107 Moises Aldape Chavez Mexico
108 Rafaa Chtioui Tunizia
109 Sergey Lagutin Uzbekistan
110 Evgeniy Gerganov Bulgaria
111 Daniel Petrov Bulgaria
112 Tanel Kangert Estonia
113 Rein Taaramae Estonia
114 Roman Bronis Slovakia
115 Matej Jurco Slovakia
116 Jan Valach Slovakia
117 Raivis Belohvosciks Latvia
118 Gatis Smukulis Latvia
119 Nebojsa Jovanovic Serbia
120 Ivan Stevic Serbia
121 Hichem Chabane Algeria
122 Henry Raabe Costa Rica
123 Dainius Kairelis Lithuthania
124 Ignatas Konovalovas Lithuthania
125 Laszlo Bodrogi Hungary
126 Peter Kusztor Hungary
127 Murilo Fischer Brazil
128 Luciano Pagliarini Mendonca Brazil
129 Liang Zhang China
130 Maxim Iglinskiy Kazakstan
131 Andrey Mizurov Kazakstan
132 Alexandr Pliuschin Moldovia
133 Aliaksandr Kuchynski Beloruss
134 Kanstantsin Siutsou Beloruss
135 Aliaksandr Usau Belorus
136 Horacio Gallardo Bolivia
137 Ahmed Belgasem Libya
138 Kin San Wu Hing Kong
139 Sungbaek Park South Korea
140 Patricio Almonacid Chile
141 Gonzalo Garrido Chile
142 Erik Hoffmann Nambia
143 Mario Contreras El Salvador