Beijing: Road cyclists will be the first Olympic endurance athletes to test the impact of Beijing's notorious pollution, heat and humidity when the men take to their bicycles for a 245-km (152 mile) road race on Saturday.
Spain's Alejandro Valverde, defending Olympic champion Paolo Bettini and Germany's Stefan Schumacher are all favourites in the distance event that winds its way from the Forbidden City in ancient Beijing out to the Great Wall.
The men will ride a flat 80 km out of the city then will complete seven laps of a 24-km circuit between the Badaling and Juyongguan sections of the Great Wall. Tomorrow, the women follow the same route from Beijing but ride two laps of the circuit.
The heat and pollution plus long, hilly portions of the circuit are expected to narrow the field down to only a few dozen cyclists by the finish.
"This is the toughest course I have ever seen at a tournament event," said Egon Kessel, coach of the Netherlands team.
The route favours strong climbers and countries with larger teams who might be more capable of controlling the race.
"It'll be hard. It really twists a lot on the uphill," said American Levi Leipheimer. Luxembourg head coach Bernhard Baldinger, whose team includes Kim Kirchen and the Schleck brothers, said countries like his with less than five riders will suffer on the course.
Working together
In Beijing, Kirchen and Andy and Frank Schleck will have to work together to get to the podium, unlike on the Tour de France when their rivalry became evident when the brothers attacked and tried to drop yellow jersey wearer Kirchen.
On the women's side, Germany's Judith Arndt is one of the favourites in the road race as she tries to better her silver medal performance from Athens.
