[1] The race was won by the Spanish rider Samuel Sánchez in 6 hours, 23 minutes, 49 seconds, after a six-man breakaway group contested a sprint finish.

Davide Rebellin of Italy and Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland, finishing second and third place with the same time as Sánchez, received silver and bronze medals respectively for the event.

The hot and humid conditions were in sharp contrast to the heavy rain weathered in the women's road race the following day.

[5] After his B-sample subsequently confirmed initial results, he returned his medal and repaid the prize money he had won from the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) while still maintaining his innocence.

After Russian Vladimir Gusev was fired by his professional team Astana for failing an internal doping check, he was replaced in this event by Denis Menchov, who later competed in the time trial.

While training earlier in the week before the race, Switzerland's Michael Albasini crashed and broke his collarbone; there was not sufficient time to find a replacement for him.

A higher level of pollution in the air could adversely affect performance, damage or irritate an athlete's lungs, or exacerbate respiratory conditions, such as asthma.

[15] Post-race, a number of riders highlighted the punishing conditions, in particular the heat (26 °C or 79 °F) and humidity (90%), which were much higher than in Europe, where the majority of UCI ProTour races are held.

They also had 2008 Tour de France points classification winner and three-time world champion Óscar Freire available to work on their behalf.

[20][21][22] Other medal hopefuls included the defending Olympic champion Paolo Bettini of Italy,[21][23] Germany's Stefan Schumacher,[24] and Australian Cadel Evans, twice a runner-up in the Tour de France (2007 and 2008).

[30] The men's race layout, which differed most significantly from the women's in that it was over double its length, saw the riders make seven loops back-and-forth between the Badaling and Juyong Passes.

This decision proved to be controversial: several prominent figures in cycling, including UCI president Pat McQuaid and riders Stuart O'Grady and Cadel Evans (both Australia), spoke out against it.

McQuaid and O'Grady both felt that the absence of people along the course deprived the race of the atmosphere present at other cycling events, and said that it failed to take supporters' wishes into consideration.

[34] The men's road race began at 11:00 local time (UTC+8) and within 3 km (1.9 mi) of the start, Horacio Gallardo (Bolivia) and Patricio Almonacid (Chile) formed a two-man breakaway.

With no single team willing to force the pace, a 26-man breakaway formed at the 60 km (37 mi) mark, including Carlos Sastre (Spain), Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg), Jens Voigt (Germany), Roman Kreuziger (Czech Republic) and Simon Gerrans (Australia).

The lone Chilean leader was then caught by the now 24-man chase group at the summit on the second loop, after riding solo ahead of the pack for over an hour and a half.

Not long after, shortly before the end of the fifth circuit, Marcus Ljungqvist (Sweden), Rigoberto Urán (Colombia) and Johan Van Summeren (Belgium) attacked from the peloton and reeled in Kuschynski and Pidgornyy.

Schumacher was already serving a ban after testing positive in the 2008 Tour de France, but faced further punishment, and Rebellin subsequently had his medal removed by the UCI and the IOC.

Most of them are not expected to finish one-day races, having worked in support for their teams (in this case, nations)[46] to place their riders with better climbing skills in good positions once the mountainous part of a course begins.