# Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's individual pursuit

The men's individual pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 16 at the Laoshan Velodrome. The pre-event favorite to win the gold medal was the defending Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain, who managed to retain the title, setting a new Olympic record in the preliminary round.

## Qualification

Eighteen cyclists qualified for this event. Bradley Wiggins (Great Britain), the defending Olympic champion, qualified for winning the individual pursuit at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. Volodymyr Dyudya (Ukraine) qualified at the late 2007 UCI World Cup event in Sydney, winning the individual pursuit there. The qualifier by way of the UCI B World Championship was Alexandr Pliuschin (Moldova). Jenning Huizenga (Netherlands), Taylor Phinney (United States), Phillip Thuaux (Australia), Sergi Escobar Roure (Spain), Alexander Serov (Russia), and David O'Loughlin (Ireland) qualified based on UCI rankings. The rest of the field was formed by berths given to the ten nations that qualified in the team pursuit. This resulted in Great Britain, Australia, Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, and Russia each having two competitors in this event.

## Competition format

The eighteen cyclists were matched into nine two-man heats. The riders start on opposite sides of the track from one another, held in place by a starting gate until the race begins. While the objective is ostensibly to catch the other rider on the track, victory is most commonly determined by the faster time to cover 4,000 meters. The winners of each individual heat did not matter in the preliminaries - it was instead the overall eight fastest times which would advance to the match round.
In the match round, the top eight riders from the preliminaries were matched together, 1 vs. 8, 2 vs. 7, 3 vs. 6, and 4 vs. 5, for the semifinals. In the semifinals, the winner of each match advanced to race for a medal; the two fastest raced for gold and silver, while the two slower winners faced each other for the bronze.

## Schedule

All times are China standard time (UTC+8)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Friday, 15 August 2008 | 16:55 | Qualification |
| Saturday, 16 August 2008 | 16:30 | Match round |
| Saturday, 16 August 2008 | 18:50 | Final |

## Results
### Qualification

| Rank | Heat | Cyclist | Nation | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 9 | Bradley Wiggins | Great Britain | 4:15.031 | Q, OR |
| 2 | 8 | Hayden Roulston | New Zealand | 4:18.990 | Q |
| 3 | 9 | Alexei Markov | Russia | 4:21.498 | Q |
| 4 | 6 | Volodymyr Dyudya | Ukraine | 4:21.530 | Q |
| 5 | 2 | Steven Burke | Great Britain | 4:22.260 | Q |
| 6 | 3 | Antonio Tauler | Spain | 4:22.462 | Q |
| 7 | 6 | Taylor Phinney | United States | 4:22.860 | Q |
| 8 | 5 | Alexander Serov | Russia | 4:23.732 | Q |
| 9 | 7 | Bradley McGee | Australia | 4:26.084 | |
| 10 | 5 | Sergi Escobar | Spain | 4:26.102 | |
| 11 | 7 | David O'Loughlin | Ireland | 4:26.102 | |
| 12 | 1 | Brett Lancaster | Australia | 4:26.139 | |
| 13 | 3 | Jens Mouris | Netherlands | 4:27.445 | |
| 14 | 4 | Vitaliy Popkov | Ukraine | 4:30.321 | |
| 15 | 1 | Fabien Sanchez | France | 4:33.100 | |
| 16 | 2 | Carlos Alzate | Colombia | 4:35.154 | |
| 17 | 4 | Alexandr Pliuschin | Moldova | 4:35.438 | |
| 18 | 8 | Jenning Huizenga | Netherlands | 4:37.097 | |

### Match round
#### Semifinals

Qualification rule: Two fastest cyclists advance to the gold medal match (Q), while the next two to the bronze medal match (q).
| Rank | Heat | Cyclist | Nation | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 4 | Bradley Wiggins | Great Britain | 4:16.571 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | Hayden Roulston | New Zealand | 4:19.232 | Q |
| 3 | 1 | Steven Burke | Great Britain | 4:21.558 | q |
| 4 | 2 | Alexei Markov | Russia | 4:22.308 | q |
| 5 | 1 | Volodymyr Dyudya | Ukraine | 4:22.471 | |
| 6 | 2 | Antonio Tauler | Spain | 4:24.974 | |
| 7 | 4 | Alexander Serov | Russia | 4:25.391 | |
| 8 | 3 | Taylor Phinney | United States | 4:26.644 | |

#### Medal round
##### Bronze medal match

| Rank | Cyclist | Nation | Result | Notes |
| | Steven Burke | Great Britain | 4:20.947 | |
| 4 | Alexei Markov | Russia | 4:24.149 | |

##### Gold medal match

| Rank | Cyclist | Nation | Result | Notes |
| | Bradley Wiggins | Great Britain | 4:16.977 | |
| | Hayden Roulston | New Zealand | 4:19.611 | |