BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- As Chinese Olympic
cycling gold hopeful Guo Shuang only claimed a bronze on the track at Beijing
Games, Chinese mountain bikers took up the responsibility to make a cycling
golden breakthrough on home soil.
Two women bikers will take the mission with Ren Cheng
Yuan the favorite to make the podium as she won China's first ever World Cup
Series title in Switzerland last year and finished runner-up at the under-23
event of the world championships in England.
"Competing in the Olympics, my goal is very clear.
That is to win at least a medal for my country. Of course, I hope that will be a
golden one, " Ren told Xinhua last week.
She was joined by teammate Liu Ying, who pocketed
another World Cup title in Slovenia and won the "Good Luck Beijing"
international invitational competition on the Olympic track.
The Chinese girls will face ferocious challenge from
Russian veteran Irina Kalentieva, German Sabine Spitz and Canadian Marie- Helene
Premont on the Laoshan course.
For the men's edition, defending Olympic champion
Julien Absalon of France will be the favorite to claim the gold. A winner of
four consecutive world championships from 2004 to 2007 and with 13 career World
Cup titles, Absalon boasts excellent descending skills to supplement his big
motor ability to surmount climbs.
Veteran Roul Paulissen of Belarus, Athens silver
medalist Jose Antonio Hermida will pose some challenge to the French man, while
Atlanta gold medallist Bat Brentjens of the Netherland and the under-23 world
champion Yuriy Trofimov of Russia should not be overlooked.
Chinese mountain biker Ji Jianhua will make his
Olympic debut on home soil. However, Chinese men bikers still lagged far behind
their European counterparts, the Asian champion even did not finish last year's
"Good Luck Beijing" competition. For Ji, winning a medal or even entering into
the last eight will be a difficult task.
Thirty women and 50 men will race on Aug. 22 and 23
respectively, competing in a series of laps on a 4.5-kilometre loop.
