The men's individual road race at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, was held on September 27, 1988. There were 136 participants from 54 nations in the race over 196.80 km, with 27 cyclists who did not finish. The maximum number of cyclists per nation was three, down from four in previous editions of the event. The event was won by Olaf Ludwig of East Germany, the first medal for the nation in the men's individual road race (and first victory for any German cyclist). West Germany also earned its first medals in the event, with Bernd Gröne's silver and Christian Henn's bronze.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the event, previously held in 1896 and then at every Summer Olympics since 1936. It replaced the individual time trial event that had been held from 1912 to 1932 (and which would be reintroduced alongside the road race in 1996).

Algeria, Andorra, the People's Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, the Republic of the Congo, Monaco, Sierra Leone, Suriname, and the United Arab Emirates each made their debut in the men's individual road race. Great Britain made its 13th appearance in the event, the only nation to have competed in each appearance to date.

Competition format and course

The mass-start race was on a 196.8 kilometre course over the Tongil-ro Circuit in Paju. The course was "very flat and easy."Official Report, vol. 2, p. 358.

Schedule

All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date Time Round Tuesday, 27 September 1988 9:00 Final

Results

The easy course kept the cyclists together and limited non-finishers; nearly 100 cyclists moved in a large pack through most of the race. Ludwig made two break attempts late, being caught by renowned sprinter Abdoujaparov and aborting the charge the first time. For the second breakaway, he was joined by Gröne; this time, Ludwig continued his attack and outsprinted Gröne at the end to win.

Rank Cyclist Nation Time Olaf Ludwig 4:32:22 Bernd Gröne 4:32:25 Christian Henn 4:32:464 Bob Mionske 5 Djamolidine Abdoujaparov 6 Edward Salas 7 Roberto Pelliconi 8 Graeme Miller 9 Emili Pérez 10 Jozef Regec 11 Jan Mattheus 12 Hung Chung Yam 13 Atle Pedersen 14 Remig Stumpf 4:32:5615 Michel Zanoli 16 Fabrizio Bontempi 17 Zdzisław Wrona 18 Neil Hoban 19 Johnny Dauwe 20 Cássio Freitas 21 Park Hyeon-gon 22 Mario Traxl 23 Uwe Raab 24 Jean-François Laffillé 25 Mitsuhiro Suzuki 26 Marcel Stäuble 27 Erik Johan Sæbø 28 Jacek Bodyk 29 Yvan Waddell 30 Rajko Čubrić 31 Juan Arias 32 Mićo Brković 33 Brian Walton 34 Johann Lienhart 35 Daniel Steiger 36 Paul Curran 37 Jari Lähde 38 Rob Harmeling 39 Mohamed Mir 40 Gianluca Bortolami 41 Dietmar Hauer 42 Tom Cordes 43 Michel Lafis 44 Tang Xuezhong 45 Cormac McCann 46 José Asconeguy 47 Luděk Štyks 48 Nelson Rodríguez Serna 49 John McQuaid 50 Leung Hung Tak 51 Asiat Saitov 52 Eduardo Manrique 53 Liu Hong 54 Peter Hermann 55 Chow Tai Ming 56 Iraj Amir-Akhori 57 Anders Jarl 58 Perry Merren 59 Xavier Pérez 60 Riho Suun 61 Luboš Lom 62 Mark Gornall 63 Wanderley Magalhães Azevedo 64 Realdo Jessurun 65 Scott McKinley 66 Marcos Mazzaron 67 Dubán Ramírez 68 Geir Dahlen 69 Craig Schommer 70 Claude Carlin 71 Tommy Nielsen 72 Kyoshi Miura 73 Gervais Rioux 74 Peter Meinert Nielsen 75 Brian Fowler 76 Alcides Etcheverry 77 Luis Rosendo Ramos 78 Valter Bonča 79 Felice Puttini 80 Gonzalo Aguiar 81 Paul McCormack 82 Uwe Ampler 83 Leonardo Sierra 84 Andrés Torres 85 Lee Jin-ok 86 Óscar Aquino 87 Raoul Fahlin 88 Frank Francken 89 Iván Alemany 90 Sin Dae-cheol 4:34:1391 Laurent Bezault 4:35:1991 Murugayan Kumaresan 4:35:4592 Syamak Zafarzadeh 4:42:4793 Héctor Pérez 94 Yoshihiro Tsumuraya 95 Sebti Benzine 4:43:1596 Raymond Thomas 97 Mobange Amisi 98 Pierre Gouws 4:43:28100 Víctor Lechuga 4:44:37101 Sultan Khalifa 102 Richard Pascal 4:44:56103 Domingo Villanueva 4:45:20104 Kimpale Mosengo 105 Gary Mandy 4:45:50106 Stéphane Operto 4:46:42107 Arthur Tenn 4:48:06108 Andrzej Mierzejewski 109 Dyton Chimwaza 4:52:43 — Scott Steward Stephen Fairless Michael Lewis Earl Theus Fitzgerald Joseph Michele Smith Cai Yingquan Hsu Jui-te Ndjibu N'Golomingi Byron James Mohammad Reza Bajool Georges Honein Hratch Zadourian Abdel Hamed El-Hadi Abdullah Badri Patrick Matt Amadu Yusufu George Nayeja Gabriel Cano Wayne Morgan Norberto Oconer Frank Williams Khalifa Bin Omair Issa Mohamed Enrique Campos Ali Parra Huỳnh Châu

See also Women's Individual Road Race

References

Official Report