It's been a few days since Spain's Samuel Sanchez won the men's road race over silver medalist, Italy's Davide Rebellin and Bronze medalist, the surprising climber, Fabian Cancellara. Much of the same field will now contest the time trial on Wednesday over the same hilly circuit course that caused trouble for many riders. The men will tackle the circuit twice for a total of 47km.

Many of the contenders for the time trial will be the same as the road race. But as we saw there, the race will probably be a bit more unpredictable than we'd like. The two most obvious gold medal favorites are German Stefan Schumacher and the big Swiss, Fabian Cancellara. Typically, I wouldn't put Cancellara as one of the favorites because this course is much too hilly but he showed great form during the road race and beat many of the other climbers to take 3rd place. For Schumacher, he must show that he can be successful in the smog of Beijing. If the road race was any indication, he may not perform up to par.

Follow up:

The next tier of contenders include the 2008 Giro d'Italia winner, Alberto Contador of Spain. He showed during the Giro's first time trial that he can excel on tough, hilly courses. His Astana teammate, American Levi Leipheimer was in the thick of things during the road race and could definitely run away with at least a medal, if not gold. Remember, Tyler Hamilton won gold in Athens but has since controversially fallen from grace so a gold by Leipheimer would help heal those wounds.

Another rider that has proven he can time trial and has beaten Cancellara at the Tour is Luxembourger Kim Kirchen. He came out of the Tour in top form and road a so-so road race but look for him to perform well on Wednesday. The final two contenders are from Australia and are indeed wild cards. Michael Rogers was a last minute replacement when Cadel Evans was initially withdrawn from the time trial but rode a superb road race coming in 6th. Any three-time world time trial champion will not let a good opportunity go by without leaving it all out on the tarmac. For Cadel Evans, this event was a last minute decision based on his performance in the road race on Saturday. If anything, Evans needs to prove to the world that he can time trial much better than what he showed during the last time trial at the Tour.

Here are my predictions:

1. Kim Kirchen (Luxembourg)
2. Levi Leipheimer (United States of America)
3. Cadel Evans (Australia)

Don't forget to try and catch some of the action (if you're in the right time zone) on www.nbcolympics.com or check out cyclingfans for other possible online webcasts.