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

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

Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Road cycling
Road race		men		women
Time trial		men		women
Track cycling
Individual pursuit		men		women
Team pursuit		men
Sprint		men		women
Team sprint		men
Points race		men		women
Keirin		men
Madison		men
Mountain biking
Cross-country		men		women
BMX
BMX		men		women

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

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 six laps, with 172 m of elevation change for each, around the 4.8 km course at Laoshan Mountain Bike Course.^[6]

Schedule

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

Results

Rank	Rider	Time
01 !	Julien Absalon (FRA)	1:55:59
02 !	Jean-Christophe Péraud (FRA)	1:57:06
03 !	Nino Schurter (SUI)	1:57:52
4	Christoph Sauser (SUI)	1:57:54
5	Marco Aurelio Fontana (ITA)	1:59:59
6	Christoph Soukup (AUT)	2:00:11
7	Liam Killeen (GBR)	2:00:14
8	Iñaki Lejarreta (ESP)	2:00:21
9	Sven Nys (BEL)	2:01:00
10	José Antonio Hermida (ESP)	2:01:01
11	Manuel Fumic (GER)	2:01:16
12	Oliver Beckingsale (GBR)	2:01:25
13	Marek Galiński (POL)	2:01:29
14	Cédric Ravanel (FRA)	2:01:38
15	Burry Stander (RSA)	2:01:58
16	Moritz Milatz (GER)	2:02:59
17	Fredrik Kessiakoff (SWE)	2:03:09
18	Jaroslav Kulhavý (CZE)	2:03:20
19	Roel Paulissen (BEL)	2:03:30
20	Geoff Kabush (CAN)	2:03:55
21	Rubens Donizete (BRA)	2:05:19
22	Ji Jianhua (CHN)	2:05:29
23	András Parti (HUN)	2:06:00
24	Kashi Leuchs (NZL)	2:06:30
25	Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)	2:06:41
26	Héctor Páez (COL)	2:06:46
27	Dario Alejandro Gasco (ARG)	2:07:04
28	Carlos Coloma Nicolás (ESP)	2:09:05
29	Adam Craig (USA)	LAP (1 lap)
30	Yader Zoli (ITA)	LAP (1 lap)
31	Klaus Nielsen (DEN)	LAP (1 lap)
32	Filip Meirhaeghe (BEL)	LAP (2 laps)
33	Wolfram Kurschat (GER)	LAP (2 laps)
34	Rudi van Houts (NED)	LAP (2 laps)
35	Bilal Akgül (TUR)	LAP (2 laps)
36	Cristóbal Silva (CHI)	LAP (2 laps)
37	Bart Brentjens (NED)	LAP (2 laps)
38	Emil Lindgren (SWE)	LAP (2 laps)
39	Daniel McConnell (AUS)	LAP (2 laps)
40	Chan Chun Hing (HKG)	LAP (2 laps)
41	Yury Trofimov (RUS)	LAP (2 laps)
42	Sergiy Rysenko (UKR)	LAP (3 laps)
43	Todd Wells (USA)	LAP (3 laps)
44	Seamus McGrath (CAN)	LAP (3 laps)
45	Mannie Heymans (NAM)	LAP (3 laps)
46	Kohei Yamamoto (JPN)	LAP (3 laps)
47	Federico Ramírez (CRC)	LAP (5 laps)
48	Antipass Kwari (ZIM)	LAP (6 laps)
049	Florian Vogel (SUI)	DNF
050	Robin Seymour (IRL)	DNF

References