[4] Emma Johansson of Sweden and Tatiana Guderzo of Italy, finishing second and third place with the same time as Cooke, received silver and bronze medals respectively.

This left three open positions: two were allotted to South Africa and New Zealand, based on their World Tour rankings, and the third was given to Mauritius by direct invitation.

[10][11] Only 66 of the 67 entrants began the race, as María Isabel Moreno of Spain left the country days earlier after failing a drug test.

[12] Arndt had recently finished first at the 2008 Coupe du Monde Cycliste Féminine de Montréal, and her form in the months that preceded the race was excellent.

[13] Among other contenders were UCI Women's Road standings leader, Marianne Vos of the Netherlands;[12] Briton Nicole Cooke,[12] who said she had greater confidence in her team on this occasion than in 2004, when she finished fifth; and Noemi Cantele of Italy.

Because the final leg of the course involved steep ramps, riders considered to be climbing experts (including Cooke, Vos, and Susanne Ljungskog) were favoured.

[15] Cyclists had also anticipated a problem with high levels of pollution in Beijing, but these did not appear to affect the results of the men's road race.

Thunderstorms, bringing persistently heavy rain and strong winds,[18][19] resulted in actual race conditions far different from expected.

Several prominent figures in cycling protested against this decision, including UCI president Pat McQuaid and two Australian riders, Stuart O'Grady and Cadel Evans, who competed in the men's race.

McQuaid and O'Grady 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.

[24] Cycling Australia's reaction to the cyclists' complaints was to request that security restrictions be eased for the time trial to follow,[25][26] but this plea was ignored.

[19] Natalia Boyarskaya (Russia), who had built a lead of 59 seconds over the top of Badaling,[2] had to stop to see which way to choose at a poorly marked intersection.

[19][29] The chase for Boyarskaya was led by Christine Thorburn (United States), who brought the lead down to 34 seconds prior to the final loop of 23.8 km (14.8 mi).

Emma Pooley (Great Britain) and Tatiana Guderzo (Italy) rode away from the bunch on the climb and caught Boyarskaya with 22 km (14 mi) to go, forming a three rider breakaway.

She was soon joined by Christiane Soeder (Austria), Emma Johansson (Sweden), Nicole Cooke (Great Britain) and Linda Villumsen (Denmark).

[2] Cooke looked out of contention as the five came round the final bend, but she came around the other riders with 200 metres (660 ft) to go, claiming the gold medal with a clear margin.

Most of them are not expected to finish one-day races, having worked in support for their teams (in this case, nations)[33] to place riders with better climbing skills in good positions once the mountainous part of a course begins.