The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 8) -- The Olympic cycling competition will get underway Saturday, August 9 with the first medal on offer for the Men's Road Race. The race will begin at 11:00 a.m. local time (UTC/GMT +8).
The Women's Road Race will be held Sunday, August 10 at 2:00 p.m.
A mountainous course beginning in Beijing and ending along the ramparts of the Great Wall should provide plenty of fireworks in the Men's and Women's Cycling Road Races as well as the Individual Time Trial Olympic cycling events that will be held on Wednesday, August 13.
The closing stages of the race feature ramps as steep as 10 percent gradient. The challenging ascent up the narrow Badaling Pass that trails the Great Wall is a distinctive feature of the race and should prove decisive in assigning the medals.
The ramparts of the Great Wall straddling the ridgelines above the Juyongguan Pass finish area serve up a spectacular natural setting for the Beijing Olympic cycling competition.
Overview of the Road Cycling Course
In a first in Olympic Games history, the Cycling Road Races will start and finish in different areas.
The Men's and Women's Cycling Road Races open with a mass start at the Yongdingmen Gate in Beijing.
The course will pass such landmarks as the Temple of Heaven, the Great Hall of the People, Tiananmen Square and National Stadium as the race route slices north across the heart of the Beijing metropolitan area.
After rolling over relatively flat terrain 78.8km north of the Beijing city center, the course enters a decisive series of loops on a 23.8km circuit up and down the Badaling Pass. Men will race seven loops, the women two.
The Badaling Pass gains 338.2m in elevation in 12.4km from the start of the circuit to the highest point.
A narrow, two-lane mountain road should trigger plenty of attacks from aggressive riders, and the steepest ramps feature in the middle section and in the final 1.5km of the climb.
After a false flat at the summit, the course drops down a wide-open highway section toward the Juyongguan Pass finish line where headwinds could be a factor.
After two sweeping right turns in the final kilometer, the final 350m is up a short but moderately steep climb that passes under the South Gate of the Great Wall, which was built in the 14th century, to assure an exciting finale.
The demanding Cycling Road courses will likely break apart the pack of riders and could deliver a small group or perhaps even a solo victor to the line.
In Cycling Road, competitors compete on national teams and race tactically as a unit, but times are taken individually. The medals are decided by the competitor's order across the line.
