Cycling at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games:

The women’s road race was held over 126.4 km. and was the first women’s cycling event of the Beijing Olympics. Although many riders had trained for hot, humid conditions, the race was held in terrible weather, as rain began to fall shortly after the start, and much of the race was held in a downpour with strong winds. Several crashes occurred on the slick course, and several of these were blamed on poor marking of the course which confused the riders. On the final lap, a five-rider break went off the front, led by Italy’s Tatiana Guderzo, with only one favorite in the group – Nicole Cooke of Great Britain. Guderzo had placed second at the 2004 World Championships road race, but Cooke was considered much stronger, having been on the podium at the Worlds in both 2005 and 2006. Coming to the finish up the Badaling section of the Great Wall climb, Cooke and Guderzo were joined by Sweden’s Emma Johansson, as they dropped Christiane Soeder (AUT) and Linda Serup (DEN). Over the top of the climb, Cooke took the lead and held on to win by a bike length. One rider who was not present was Italy's Maria Bastianelli, the 2007 World Champion, who had tested positive for flenfluramine in July and was not eligible.