August 9, 2008 (Beijing, China) — For the men’s road race on Saturday morning the day began like all others with smog, sweltering heat and humidity that seems to never give up. This is Beijing, and this is the Olympics, and 143 of the best male cyclists in the world lined up at the Yongdingmen Gate near Tian’anmen Square to contest a 245.4km course.

Despite these tough conditions Canada’s Michael Barry, Ryder Hesjedal and Svein Tuft had a great race that ended at the Great Wall finish, always mixing it at the front of the field with the Spaniards, Italians, Russians and Australians who dominated the race, each with five riders. Barry especially had one of the strongest Olympic road finishes in the history of the Canadian men’s team, placing 9th, just 16 seconds behind Spain’s Samuel Sanchez, who out-sprinted Italy’s Davide Rebellin in second and Swiss rider, Fabian Cancellara in third. Cancellara surprised everyone, first because he was the lone Swiss rider in the peloton, and second because he made a heroic effort near the end of the race to bridge up to the five lead riders in the final km and still had something left for the sprint finish.

Hesjedal finished in 56th place 10 minutes and 37 seconds back, while Tuft took 59th, both placing well within the top half of the field. Ninety riders completed the race, while 53 succumbed to the unrelenting conditions.

“I was there right to the last climb,” said Barry, “and attacked at the bottom of the hill. I’m happy with the results. It’s hard to call it. The group that got away attacked, but I was with the race favorites, Bettini and Valverde. You roll the dice. It would have been nice if our group had caught the leaders.” Barry’s finish is especially notable considering Bettini placed 18th while Valverde took 13th.

But Barry wasn’t just pleased with a top-ten placing, he believed the combination of the riders on the Canadian team was the best representation Canada could send. “It’s really fortunate that we have Ryder and Svein here. We’ve spent three or four days together and bonded really well.”

Less than two years before the Games commenced, the UCI asked organizers to change the race venue from a downtown location to the rugged mountain passes where the breathtaking Great Wall winds through geology and time. The Great Wall itself so completely takes one’s breath away, it cannot be comprehended, even when standing on it. A bike race that include an 80km stretch before one even gets to the Great Wall’s 23.8km circuit, tucked in amongst the mountains, may be a great idea if it’s mid-October, but in mid-August it’s an extremely tough challenge. As U.S. rider David Zabriskie said, “It’s going to be a matter of survival with that distance and this heat. Just riding here in an hour you lose so much fluid. It’s attrition. It’s almost torturous.”

Top German riders Jens Voigt and Stefan Schumacher both criticized the decision of organizers to hold such a long race in such unhealthy conditions. Dutch rider Niki Terpstra pulled out after the first lap at the Great Wall saying, “It was my card to be in the first attacking group. Together with Stef (Clement), we managed that and it went well. Then I fell back and I tried to get back in the first group but I couldn’t make it. Then it’s so difficult, it’s super hard. It is like a sauna.”

Since 1896 when the first Olympic bike race took place, the start and finish have always been in the same place. This race, 112 years later, broke with tradition. The first 78km of the race took place on flat roads and was very slow, averaging 38.876 km per hour with the first kilometres raced at 24km per hour. This made for a lacklustre 2-3 hour beginning as racers knew the real race lay ahead leading some wondering the logic and sensibility of such a lengthy beginning considering the overall distance and the conditions.

Two riders Patricio Almonacid (Chile) and Horacio Gallardo (Bolivia) jumped ahead soon after the start and built a substantial lead of over 14 minutes until the peloton decided it was time for the race to begin near the 60km. After some intial attacks a group of about 25 riders broke away included Canada’s Hesjedal, but this break would not be the winning move. The break caught the two leaders at the 126.4 km mark, on the second lap of seven of the 23.8km Great Wall circuit, and had a 5 min. lead on the trailing peloton.

By lap three the peloton lead with defending Olympic champ Paolo Bettini (Italy) and other top riders such as Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spain), Alberto Contador Velasco (Spain) and Levi Leipheimer (USA), were closing the gap as there were no US or Italian riders in the break. Hesjedal was working hard in the break and looking strong as Barry and Tuft were ready to jump with any moves from the chasing peloton.

Then two riders in the break struck out on their own and by the 174.0 km mark Ruslan Podgornyy of the Ukraine and Aleksandr Kuschynski of Belarus had a lead of 1:40. But the lead break and the chase peloton were like a bungee cord, snapping back together with 60km to go, about 2.5 laps.

“I was putting in an effort,” said Hesjedal, “contributing my best. I have no regrets for three Canucks. A couple of months ago when they announced the team, I thought, “˜this is the best we can have here.”

Tuft seconded this. “These are the guys you really want in the race. They did a great job. Michael was always there, always so positive, always so strong.”

Soon after the Ukrainian and Belarus break, another attack occurred as the powerful Italians and Spanish were unrelenting, looking like a two-country team time-trial. The two leaders were swallowed up as Spain’s Contador worked almost like a madman at the front of the field with 40km to go. At this point he pulled over allowing teammates Sanchez and Valverde to come into contention.

But it was a two-man break of Russian Alexander Kolobnev and Australian Michael Rogers who chased lone rider Christian Pfannberger (Austria) at the start of the final lap that would determine the final order of events. They caught and dropped Pfannberger, who ended up in 23rd place, while being chased down by Sanchez, Rebellin and Andy Schleck of Luxumberg with Canada’s Barry near the front in the chase group behind.

This group of five looked like they could be the winning move but suddenly Sanchez, Rebellin and Schleck jumped into the lead with Kolobnev and Rogers just behind. Then Swiss rider Fabian Cancellara made an incredible solo effort to bridge to the two chasers and the three riders caught the leaders making it a 6-rider group that would decide the winner.

It was such a tremendous effort by Cancellara, one wonders how he had anything left for the final sprint. In a photo finish that gave all six riders the same time of 6:23:49, the first Olympic medals in cycling were decided as Sanchez took the sprint win over Rebellin in second with Cancellara taking the bronze as Canada’s Barry came in just afterward in 9th.

“It’s like a dream,” said gold medalist Sanchez, “I still can’t believe I’ve just won the gold medal. It’s something that’s out of the world. The heat and humidity were extreme. There were only five of us on the team, we were all at the front working as a unit. I was saving my legs for the final lap. It’s like a victory for all of us.”

Results

1. Samuel Sánchez (Spain) 6:23:49 (38.362 km/h)
2. Davide Rebellin (Italy)
3. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland)
4. Alexandr Kolobnev (Russian Federation)
5. Andy Schleck (Luxembourg)
6. Michael Rogers (Australia)
7. Santiago Botero (Colombia) 0:12
8. Mario Aerts (Belgium)
9. Michael Barry (Canada) 0:16
10. Robert Gesink (Netherlands) 0:18
11. Levi Leipheimer (United States Of America) 0:20
12. Chris Anker Sorensen (Denmark) 0:22
13. Alejandro Valverde (Spain)
14. Jérôme Pineau (France)
15. Cadel Evans (Australia)
16. Przemyslaw Niemec (Poland)
17. Christian Vande Velde (United States Of America) 0:30
18. Paolo Bettini (Italy) 0:35
19. Vladimir Karpets (Russian Federation) 1:10
20. Murilo Fischer (Brazil) 2:28
21. Fabian Wegmann (Germany)
22. Erik Hoffmann (Namibia)
23. Christian Pfannberger (Austria)
24. Gustav Erik Larsson (Sweden)
25. Nicki Sørensen (Denmark)
26. Radoslav Rogina (Croatia)
27. John-Lee Augustyn (South Africa)
28. Nuno Ribeiro (Portugal)
29. Ignas Konovalovas (Lithuania)
30. Jackson Jesus Rodriguez Ortiz (Venezuela)
31. Matthew Lloyd (Australia)
32. Kurt-Asle Arvesen (Norway)
33. Kanstantsin Siutsou (Belarus)
34. Rémi Pauriol (France)
35. Tadej Valjavec (Slovenia)
36. Yaroslav Popovych (Ukraine)
37. Simon Gerrans (Australia)
38. Thomas Lövkvist (Sweden) 2:36
39. Thomas Rohregger (Austria)
40. George Hincapie (United States Of America)
41. José Serpa (Colombia) 2:38
42. Johan Van Summeren (Belgium)
43. Fränk Schleck (Luxembourg)
44. Andrey Mizourov (Kazakhstan)
45. Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic) 2:46
46. Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg) 2:51
47. Moisés Aldape Chavez (Mexico) 4:19
48. Rein Taaramae (Estonia) 7:00
49. Carlos Sastre (Spain) 7:17
50. Franco Pellizotti (Italy)
51. Sergey Lagutin (Uzbekistan)
52. Hossein Askari (Iran) 10:33
53. Ruslan Pidgornyy (Ukraine)
54. Julian Dean (New Zealand) 10:37
55. Jacek Morajko (Poland)
56. Ryder Hesjedal (Canada)
57. Matija Kvasina (Croatia)
58. Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden)
59. Svein Tuft (Canada)
60. Denis Menchov (Russia)
61. Jure Golcer (Slovenia)
62. Jan Valach (Slovakia)
63. Marzio Bruseghin (Italy)
64. Nicolas Roche (Ireland)
65. Laurens Ten Dam (Netherlands)
66. Peter Kusztor (Hungary) 11:55
67. Ivan Stevic (Serbia)
68. Gatis Smukulis (Latvia) 12:59
69. Tanel Kangert (Estonia)
70. Gonzalo Garrido (Chile)
71. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway)
72. Andre Cardoso (Portugal) 15:53
73. Aleksandr Kuschynski (Belarus)
74. Dainius Kairelis (Lithuania)
75. Petr Bencik (Czech Republic)
76. Alexandr Pliuschin (Republic of Moldova)
77. Denys Kostyuk (Ukraine)
78. Serguei Ivanov (Russian Federation)
79. Ghader Mizbani Iranagh (Iran)
80. David George (South Africa)
81. Philip Deignan (Ireland)
82. Glen Chadwick (Australia)
83. Alexandre Usov (Belarus) 26:10
84. Tomasz Marczynski (Poland)
85. Nebojsa Jovanovic (Serbia)
86. Takashi Miyazawa (Japan) 31:35
87. Rafai Chtioui (Tunisia) 39:15
88. Sungbaek Park (Korea)
89. Kin San Wu (Hong Kong, China) 42:08
90. Luciano Pagliarini (Brazil) 44:38
DNF Alberto Contador (Spain)
DNF Simon Spilak (Slovenia)
DNF Jens Voigt (Germany)
DNF Pierrick Fédrigo (France)
DNF Cyril Dessel (France)
DNF Pierre Rolland (France)
DNF Rigoberto Uran (Colombia)
DNF Ben Swift (Great Britain)
DNF Stef Clement (Netherlands)
DNF Bert Grabsch (Germany)
DNF Vincenzo Nibali (Italy)
DNF Lars Petter Nordhaug (Norway)
DNF Vladimir Miholjevic (Croatia)
DNF Christophe Brandt (Belgium)
DNF Stefan Schumacher (Germany)
DNF Brian Vandborg (Denmark)
DNF Jurgen Van den Broeck (Belgium)
DNF Timothy Gudsell (New Zealand)
DNF Patricio Almonacid (Chile)
DNF Evgeni Gerganov (Bulgaria)
DNF Borut Bozic (Slovenia)
DNF Stuart O’Grady (Australia)
DNF Maxim Iglinsky (Kazakhstan)
DNF Gabriel Rasch (Norway)
DNF Fumiyuki Beppu (Japan)
DNF Henry Raabe (Costa Rica)
DNF Mehdi Sohrabi (Iran)
DNF Mario Contreras (El Salvador)
DNF Andriy Grivko (Ukraine)
DNF Vladimir Efimkin (Russian Federation)
DNF Jason McCartney (United States Of America)
DNF Roger Hammond (Great Britain)
DNF Karsten Kroon (Netherlands)
DNF Oscar Freire (Spain)
DNF Steve Cummings (Great Britain)
DNF Maxime Monfort (Belgium)
DNF Matej Jurco (Slovakia)
DNF Roman Bronis (Slovakia)
DNF Hichem Chabane (Algeria)
DNF Juan José Haedo (Argentina)
DNF Liang Zhang (China)
DNF Ahmed Belgasem (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya)
DNF Gerald Ciolek (Germany)
DNF Raivis Belohvosciks (Latvia)
DNF Jonathan Bellis (Great Britain)
DNF Horacio Gallardo (Bolivia)
DNF Laszlo Bodrogi (Hungary)
DNF Daniel Petrov (Bulgaria)
DNF Matias Medici (Argentina)
DNF Niki Terpstra (Netherlands)
DNF Alejandro Borrajo (Argentina)
DNF Robert Hunter (South Africa)
DNF David Zabriskie (United States Of America)