Venue Laoshan Velodrome Competitors 23 from 23 nations | Dates August 16 | |
The men's points race at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 16 at the Laoshan Velodrome.
This track cycling event consisted of a single race in which the cyclist with the most points at the end of the race won. This race was a 40 kilometre, 160 lap race. During the race, cyclists could score points in two ways; The first way to score points is to lap the group. Each time a cyclist gained a full lap on the peloton, he scored 20 points. If a cyclist lost a full lap to the peloton, however, he lost 20 points. The other method of scoring points was to place in the intermediate sprints occurring every 10 laps. The first four cyclists in each of the sprints scored points with the first finisher receiving 5 points, the second 3, the third 2, and the fourth 1 point.
Among the medal favorites were Joan Llaneras (Spain), Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus), and the defending Olympic champion Mikhail Ignatiev (Russia).