by Zach Bigalke

Created on: October 14, 2007   Last Updated: August 07, 2008

On 22 September the UCI staged an Olympic preview cross-country mountain bike race in Beijing. The air hung hot and moist over the city as the riders took to the course. The reigning marathon world champion Christoph Sauser took the men's race, opening a two-plus minute gap on second-place finisher Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands. On the women's side of the field, local racer Ying Liu took advantage of insider knowledge to win by eighty-four seconds over German powerhouse Sabine Spitz.

But on the momentous day - which also saw the UCI part ways with Amaury Sport Organization, RCS and Unipublic and retool its fledgling ProTour concept; Oscar Pereiro officially named champion of the 2006 Tour de France after disgraced victor Floyd Landis lost his hearing with the United States Anti-Doping Agency; and suspended triple winner of the Vuelta a Espana, Roberto Heras, announced that he would reveal whether he would return to the sport at the end of the season - for cycling, the Olympic trial was a paper victory.

The general consensus among the riders was that the track was fast, not too technical but demanding endurance from the cyclists. The test was a success from the standpoint of the organizers, the International Olympic Committee and the UCI. The course, the logistics, and the security are all dialed in for a great race. But this test was not a great race...

Only eight men from a field of forty-six finished the full course. Even reigning world champion Julien Absalon failed to finish. On the women's race, a better ratio emerged: thirteen of twenty-three covered the entire terrain. If the course is not overly technical, the riders are all coming in with good fitness from a full season of racing, and every logistical detail was covered, why did so many riders fail to find the finish line?

Two words: air pollution. The thick, muggy air of Beijing took its toll on the finely-tuned athletes. American veteran and single-speed world champion Adam Craig was one of the riders who pulled out. Speaking with Sue George of cyclingnews.com in a written report after the race, Craig told of the polluted conditions.

"I don't drop out of races in my backyard, let alone ones I fly to the other side of the world for...but I did this one. I had no option. After two laps (about 25 minutes) of riding very comfortably with the lead group up and down the short, steep pitches of Lashan Mountain...and thinking I could probably attack whenever I wanted and win for a while, my lungs stopped

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