2008 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race

The Men's Individual Road Race of the 2008 UCI Road World Championships cycling event took place on September 28 in Varese, Italy. The course comprised 15 laps around 17.35-kilometre route, making a total distance of 260.25 km. Each lap featured two ascents: the first at Via Montello (6.5% gradient for 1.15 kilometres); and the second at Ronchi (4.5% for 3.13 kilometres).^[1] The highest elevation measured 480 metres (1,570 ft) at Via Montello.

Men's Individual Road Race

2008 UCI Road World Championships
The peloton during the race
Race details
Dates	September 28, 2008
Stages	1
Distance	260.25 km (161.7 mi)
Winning time	6h 37' 30"
Medalists
Gold  Alessandro Ballan (ITA) (Italy)    Silver  Damiano Cunego (ITA) (Italy)    Bronze  Matti Breschel (DEN) (Denmark)
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Pre-race favourites included Paolo Bettini, who was trying for an unprecedented third consecutive title, and the 1999, 2001 and 2004 champion Óscar Freire.^[2]

The race was won by Alessandro Ballan, with his fellow Italian Damiano Cunego in second and Matti Breschel of Denmark taking the bronze medal.^[3]

Final classification

Rank Rider Country Time Alessandro Ballan  Italy 6h 37'30" Damiano Cunego  Italy at 3" Matti Breschel  Denmark s.t. 4 Davide Rebellin  Italy s.t. 5 Andriy Hrivko  Ukraine s.t. 6 Joaquim Rodríguez  Spain s.t. 7 Fabian Wegmann  Germany s.t. 8 Christian Pfannberger  Austria s.t. 9 Nick Nuyens  Belgium s.t. 10 Robert Gesink  Netherlands s.t. 11 Jurgen Van Goolen  Belgium s.t. 12 Thomas Löfkvist  Sweden s.t. 13 Chris Sørensen  Denmark at 6" 14 Assan Bazayev  Kazakhstan at 58" 15 Philippe Gilbert  Belgium s.t. 16 Kristjan Fajt  Slovenia at 1'01" 17 Greg Van Avermaet  Belgium s.t. 18 Gorazd Štangelj  Slovenia s.t. 19 Jérôme Pineau  France at 1'13" 20 Vladimir Karpets  Russia s.t. 21 Sérgio Paulinho  Portugal s.t. 22 Samuel Sánchez  Spain at 1'22" 23 Steven Cozza  United States at 1'40" 24 Hrvoje Miholjević  Croatia s.t. 25 Rubens Bertogliati   Switzerland at 2'14" 26 Amaël Moinard  France s.t. 27 Alexandre Bazhenov  Russia at 3'24" 28 Paolo Bettini  Italy at 4'53" 29 Erik Zabel  Germany s.t. 30 Dimitry Muravyev  Kazakhstan s.t. 31 Matteo Tosatto  Italy s.t. 32 Alexander Efimkin  Russia s.t. 33 Michael Barry  Canada s.t. 34 Thomas Rohregger  Austria s.t. 35 Julian Dean  New Zealand s.t. 36 Janek Tombak  Estonia s.t. 37 Alejandro Valverde  Spain s.t. 38 Tom Boonen  Belgium s.t. 39 Óscar Freire  Spain s.t.

Rank Rider Country Time 40 Gustav Larsson  Sweden s.t. 41 Fränk Schleck  Luxembourg s.t. 41 Sergey Lagutin  Uzbekistan s.t. 43 Karsten Kroon  Netherlands s.t. 44 Alexandr Kolobnev  Russia s.t. 45 Nuno Ribeiro  Portugal s.t. 46 John Gadret  France s.t. 47 Stefan Schumacher  Germany s.t. 48 Janez Brajkovič  Slovenia s.t. 49 Russell Downing  Great Britain s.t. 50 Oliver Zaugg   Switzerland s.t. 51 Roman Kreuziger  Czech Republic s.t. 52 Nicolas Vogondy  France s.t. 53 Sylvain Chavanel  France s.t. 54 Mikhaylo Khalilov  Ukraine s.t. 55 Matthew Lloyd  Australia s.t. 56 Vladimir Gusev  Russia s.t. 57 Lars Petter Nordhaug  Norway at 5'20" 58 José Mendes  Portugal at 8'15" 59 Aleksejs Saramotins  Latvia at 10'33" 60 Félix Cárdenas  Colombia s.t. 61 Kjell Carlström  Finland s.t. 62 Marcus Ljungqvist  Sweden s.t. 63 Tyler Farrar  United States s.t. 64 Borut Božič  Slovenia s.t. 65 Frank Høj  Denmark s.t. 66 Maarten Tjallingii  Netherlands s.t. 67 Roman Klimov  Russia at 10'54" 68 Hubert Krys  Poland s.t. 69 Péter Kusztor  Hungary s.t. 70 Carlos José Ochoa  Venezuela s.t. 71 Geoffroy Lequatre  France s.t. 72 Leonardo Duque  Colombia s.t. 73 José Rujano  Venezuela s.t. 74 Oleg Chuzhda  Ukraine s.t. 75 Oļegs Meļehs  Latvia at 11'01" 76 Lucas Euser  United States at 22'49" 77 Yukiya Arashiro  Japan at 22'50"

Did not finish

128 riders failed to finish the race. Levi Leipheimer of the United States did not start the race.

Rider Country Juan Manuel Gárate Cepa  Spain Kevin De Weert  Belgium Chris Froome  Great Britain Gerald Ciolek  Germany Kazuo Inoue  Japan Stefan Hristov  Bulgaria Juan Pablo Dotti  Argentina Nebojša Jovanović  Serbia Alexsandr Dyachenko  Kazakhstan Stefan Rucker  Austria Vladimir Zagorodniy  Ukraine Grégory Rast   Switzerland Stijn Devolder  Belgium Bram Tankink  Netherlands Mario Aerts  Belgium Yaroslav Popovych  Ukraine Benjamín Noval  Spain Marzio Bruseghin  Italy Andrea Tonti  Italy Andy Schleck  Luxembourg Alberto Contador  Spain Christophe Le Mével  France Ezequiel Mosquera  Spain Danilo Wyss   Switzerland Andreas Dietziker   Switzerland Christian Knees  Germany Michael Rogers  Australia Martin Velits  Slovakia Luca Paolini  Italy André Greipel  Germany Robbie McEwen  Australia Nikita Eskov  Russia David Loosli   Switzerland Rein Taaramäe  Estonia Jackson Rodríguez  Venezuela Philip Deignan  Ireland Daryl Impey  South Africa Nelson Victorino  Portugal Przemysław Niemiec  Poland Christian Meier  Canada Steven de Jongh  Netherlands Marc de Maar  Netherlands Koos Moerenhout  Netherlands William Walker  Australia Žolt Dér  Serbia Sebastian Lang  Germany Tom Stamsnijder  Netherlands Marcus Burghardt  Germany Vladimir Miholjević  Croatia Edvald Boasson Hagen  Norway Anders Lund  Denmark Trent Lowe  Australia Martin Mareš  Czech Republic Sandy Casar  France Maxime Monfort  Belgium Steve Fogen  Luxembourg Mauricio Soler  Colombia Simon Gerrans  Australia Allan Davis  Australia Christian Poos  Luxembourg Richard Ochoa  Venezuela Peter Velits  Slovakia Thomas Frei   Switzerland Matej Stare  Slovenia

Rider Country Matija Kvasina  Croatia Gabriele Bosisio  Italy Evgeny Petrov  Russia Dominique Rollin  Canada Hidenori Nodera  Japan Adam Hansen  Australia František Raboň  Czech Republic Christoff Van Heerden  South Africa Jempy Drucker  Luxembourg Jakob Fuglsang  Denmark Maciej Bodnar  Poland Richard Mascarañas  Uruguay Vincenzo Centrone  Luxembourg Muradjan Khalmuratov  Uzbekistan Matthew Goss  Australia Lars Ytting Bak  Denmark David Millar  Great Britain Benoît Joachim  Luxembourg Manuel Medina  Venezuela Sebastian Langeveld  Netherlands Luis León Sánchez  Spain Ignatas Konovalovas  Lithuania Kevin Evans  South Africa Geraint Thomas  Great Britain Stephen Cummings  Great Britain Martin Elmiger   Switzerland Rodger Aiken  Ireland David Zabriskie  United States Stéphane Augé  France Franklin Chacón  Venezuela Markus Zberg   Switzerland Dariusz Baranowski  Poland Grega Bole  Slovenia Rida Cador  Hungary Gergely Ivanics  Hungary Laurent Didier  Luxembourg Darren Lill  South Africa Brent Bookwalter  United States Gerardo Fernández  Argentina Yauheni Hutarovich  Belarus Ruslan Podgornyy  Ukraine Maroš Kováč  Slovakia Erki Pütsep  Estonia Kurt Asle Arvesen  Norway Glen Chadwick  New Zealand Ricardo Mestre  Portugal Henry Raabe  Costa Rica Luis Fernando Macías  Mexico Normunds Lasis  Latvia Robert Hunter  South Africa Matti Helminen  Finland Boris Shpilevsky  Russia Krasimir Vasilev  Bulgaria Dragan Spasic  Serbia Ian Stannard  Great Britain Claude Wolter  Luxembourg David George  South Africa Markus Fothen  Germany Tiago Machado  Portugal Nicolas Roche  Ireland Vladimir Tuychiev  Uzbekistan Łukasz Bodnar  Poland Marek Rutkiewicz  Poland Adil Jelloul  Morocco

Nation qualification

See also: 2008 UCI Road World Championships – Qualification

14 to be enrolled, 9 to start

Spain

Italy

Belgium

Germany

Luxembourg

Australia

France

Switzerland

Russia

Netherlands

9 to be enrolled, 6 to start

South Africa

United States

Venezuela

Iran

Slovenia

Poland

Ukraine

Great Britain

Portugal

Denmark

5 to be enrolled, 3 to start

Tunisia

Argentina

Colombia

Canada

Japan

Uzbekistan

Austria

Sweden

Croatia

Ireland

Hungary

Bulgaria

Slovakia

Latvia

Serbia

Estonia

New Zealand

Czech Republic

Finland

Norway

Kazakhstan

2 to be enrolled, 1 to start

Morocco

Cuba

Costa Rica

Ecuador

Mexico

Uruguay

Belarus

Sri Lanka

Lithuania