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. 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. 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. 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. The overall distance of the race was 35.60 km.
Schedule All times are China standard time (UTC+8) Date Time RoundSaturday, 23 August 2008 15:00 Final
Results Rank Rider Country Time Julien Absalon 1:55:59 Jean-Christophe Péraud 1:57:06 Nino Schurter 1:57:524 Christoph Sauser 1:57:545 Marco Aurelio Fontana 1:59:596 Christoph Soukup 2:00:117 Liam Killeen 2:00:148 Iñaki Lejarreta 2:00:219 Sven Nys 2:01:0010 José Antonio Hermida 2:01:0111 Manuel Fumic 2:01:1612 Oliver Beckingsale 2:01:2513 Marek Galiński 2:01:2914 Cédric Ravanel 2:01:3815 Burry Stander 2:01:5816 Moritz Milatz 2:02:5917 Fredrik Kessiakoff 2:03:0918 Jaroslav Kulhavý 2:03:2019 Roel Paulissen 2:03:3020 Geoff Kabush 2:03:5521 Rubens Donizete 2:05:1922 Ji Jianhua 2:05:2923 András Parti 2:06:0024 Kashi Leuchs 2:06:3025 Jakob Fuglsang 2:06:4126 Héctor Páez 2:06:4627 Dario Alejandro Gasco 2:07:0428 Carlos Coloma Nicolás 2:09:0529 Adam Craig (1 lap)30 Yader Zoli (1 lap)31 Klaus Nielsen (1 lap)32 Filip Meirhaeghe (2 laps)33 Wolfram Kurschat (2 laps)34 Rudi van Houts (2 laps)35 Bilal Akgül (2 laps)36 Cristóbal Silva (2 laps)37 Bart Brentjens (2 laps)38 Emil Lindgren (2 laps)39 Daniel McConnell (2 laps)40 Chan Chun Hing (2 laps)41 Yury Trofimov (2 laps)42 Sergiy Rysenko (3 laps)43 Todd Wells (3 laps)44 Seamus McGrath (3 laps)45 Mannie Heymans (3 laps)46 Kohei Yamamoto (3 laps)47 Federico Ramírez (5 laps)48 Antipass Kwari (6 laps) Florian Vogel Robin Seymour
References