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]

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 23 August 2008	15:00	Final

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