Is Smog the Real Competitor in Olympic Road Cycling?

Posted April 4, 2008 at 03:00 PM by Scott L. Place

Section: Beijing 2008, Beijing News, Culture/History, Socio-Political, Events, Cycling/BMX, Featured Writers, Scott L. Place

Road cycling is a sport, like many, where the weather or outdoor conditions can dramatically change the competitive landscape. Rain, wind, humidity, snow and blazing heat are all weather events cycling fans have seen play out while watching races. Beijing may actually present a new external factor that could delay or alter some of the road cycling events: smog. Last week’s news intensely focused on the unrest in Tibet as a threat to disrupt the competition, while the smog issue did not seem to get as much attention. This is a real concern that cannot be set behind a barricade or shoved aside with batons.

Cycling and its elite athletes finely tune their bodies to efficiently process oxygen, so the smog concern is real and some view as career threatening. There was discussion in the press last week that the plan was to delay holding events that require more than an hour to complete on days where the smog conditions were determined to be too severe. That would seem to include all of the road events. The Chinese built the Laoshan venues in Shijingshan District of Beijing to hold the BMX and mountain bike events, which is lucky for the athletes in those disciplines. The road fans have to wonder if their favorite ahtletes will simply pass on the competition entirely. Several marathoners have already made that decision.  China has promised a $17 billion clean-up in time for the Olympics that seems quite odd and has not convinced all athletes.  The current record holder Haile Gebrselassie last week pulled out of the marathon because of health fears. ``It’s suicide,’’ Gebrselassie, an asthmatic, said in an interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais. It begs the question, just what would $17 billion on smog clean up entail?

No cyclists with the profile of Gebrselassie have taken a pass on the Olympics at this point, but they could come. The primary conflict was assumed to be whether or not the top road cyclists would compete with the Tour de France and Spain’s Vuelta looming in the background. I’m not sure how the Chinese intend to spend $17 billion dollars to clean up smog, but I sincerely hope they are successful because I hope to have exciting races to cover, but I suspect none of our sport’s top athletes will compete and suffer permanent damage to their health.