Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's cross-country

The men's cross-country mountain biking at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place at the Laoshan Mountain Bike Course on August 23, 2008.

Men's cross-country at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Venue	Laoshan Mountain Bike Course
Dates	August 23, 2008
Competitors	50 from 33 nations
Winning time	1:55:59
Medalists
Julien Absalon  France Jean-Christophe Péraud  France Nino Schurter  Switzerland
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France's Julien Absalon pulled away from a pack of mountain bikers at the start to defend his Olympic title in the event with a gold-medal time in 1:55:59.^[1][2] Absalon also enjoyed his teammate Jean-Christophe Péraud taking home the silver in 1:57:06, as the Frenchmen climbed on top of the podium with a spectacular 1–2 finish.^[3] Meanwhile, Switzerland's Nino Schurter delivered an exciting sprint challenge for the bronze in 1:57:52, edging out his teammate, three-time Olympian and reigning world champion Christoph Sauser by two seconds.^[4][5] Among the 50 mountain bikers who competed in the cross-country race, only twenty-eight of them managed to complete the full distance.

Competition format

The competition began at 15:00 with a mass-start in which riders are positioned according to their current world ranking so that the higher-ranked riders are near the front. The cross-country race also involved eight laps, with 172 m of elevation change for each, around the 4.45 km course at Laoshan Mountain Bike Course.^[6] The overall distance of the race was 35.60 km.

Schedule

All times are China standard time (UTC+8)^[7]

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 23 August 2008	15:00	Final

Results

Rank	Rider	Country	Time
	Julien Absalon	France	1:55:59
	Jean-Christophe Péraud	France	1:57:06
	Nino Schurter	Switzerland	1:57:52
4	Christoph Sauser	Switzerland	1:57:54
5	Marco Aurelio Fontana	Italy	1:59:59
6	Christoph Soukup	Austria	2:00:11
7	Liam Killeen	Great Britain	2:00:14
8	Iñaki Lejarreta	Spain	2:00:21
9	Sven Nys	Belgium	2:01:00
10	José Antonio Hermida	Spain	2:01:01
11	Manuel Fumic	Germany	2:01:16
12	Oliver Beckingsale	Great Britain	2:01:25
13	Marek Galiński	Poland	2:01:29
14	Cédric Ravanel	France	2:01:38
15	Burry Stander	South Africa	2:01:58
16	Moritz Milatz	Germany	2:02:59
17	Fredrik Kessiakoff	Sweden	2:03:09
18	Jaroslav Kulhavý	Czech Republic	2:03:20
19	Roel Paulissen	Belgium	2:03:30
20	Geoff Kabush	Canada	2:03:55
21	Rubens Donizete	Brazil	2:05:19
22	Ji Jianhua	China	2:05:29
23	András Parti	Hungary	2:06:00
24	Kashi Leuchs	New Zealand	2:06:30
25	Jakob Fuglsang	Denmark	2:06:41
26	Héctor Páez	Colombia	2:06:46
27	Dario Alejandro Gasco	Argentina	2:07:04
28	Carlos Coloma Nicolás	Spain	2:09:05
29	Adam Craig	United States	LAP (1 lap)
30	Yader Zoli	Italy	LAP (1 lap)
31	Klaus Nielsen	Denmark	LAP (1 lap)
32	Filip Meirhaeghe	Belgium	LAP (2 laps)
33	Wolfram Kurschat	Germany	LAP (2 laps)
34	Rudi van Houts	Netherlands	LAP (2 laps)
35	Bilal Akgül	Turkey	LAP (2 laps)
36	Cristóbal Silva	Chile	LAP (2 laps)
37	Bart Brentjens	Netherlands	LAP (2 laps)
38	Emil Lindgren	Sweden	LAP (2 laps)
39	Daniel McConnell	Australia	LAP (2 laps)
40	Chan Chun Hing	Hong Kong	LAP (2 laps)
41	Yury Trofimov	Russia	LAP (2 laps)
42	Sergiy Rysenko	Ukraine	LAP (3 laps)
43	Todd Wells	United States	LAP (3 laps)
44	Seamus McGrath	Canada	LAP (3 laps)
45	Mannie Heymans	Namibia	LAP (3 laps)
46	Kohei Yamamoto	Japan	LAP (3 laps)
47	Federico Ramírez	Costa Rica	LAP (5 laps)
48	Antipass Kwari	Zimbabwe	LAP (6 laps)
	Florian Vogel	Switzerland	DNF
	Robin Seymour	Ireland	DNF

References

1. "Absalon secures men's mountain bike gold". ABC News Australia. 23 August 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
2. "Americans lapped as France's Absalon defends gold". USA Today. 1 September 2008. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
3. "French cyclists on top of the mountain". France 24. 24 August 2008. Archived from the original on 28 October 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
4. "Fourth Olympic bronze for Switzerland". Swissinfo. 23 August 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
5. Jones, Rob (23 August 2008). . Cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2013.
6. . Beijing 2008. NBC Olympics. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.
7. . Beijing 2008. NBC Olympics. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 20 October 2013.