Top sprinters like Australia's Robbie McEwen and Belgian Tom Boonen can forget about going for gold in the Olympics' road race in Beijing in two years time, according to one top official.

The Beijing course was given its first public airing last week, and top International Cycling Union (UCI) delegate Charly Mottet has called it a "true course for climbers".

If that's the case it may better suit an Australian rider like Cadel Evans, who performs strongly in the Tour de France's mountain stages.

"It's similar to a climbing stage on the Tour de France," said Mottet, a former champion cyclist who is now a consultant for planning stages on major races.

"What is being proposed, but hasn't been approved yet, is a start near the Forbidden City, going past Tiananmen Square and then leaving Beijing towards the Great Wall of China.

"That part is 80 km, and all of it is flat. But then, when they reach the Wall the riders will have to negotiate a circuit of 24 km to be covered six or seven times."

The reigning Olympic champion is Italy's Paolo Bettini, who added another laurel to his impressive collection in September when he won the world title in Salzburg, Austria.

Given his climbing skills in Europe's tough one-day classics, Bettini could be motivated to defend his crown in less than two years' time.

However, Mottet said McEwen's sprint rival Tom Boonen, Bettini's teammate at the Quick Step team who excels on flatter courses, can forget it.

"Tom Boonen may as well stay home, but so can plenty of others because this is a true course for climbers," Mottet added in the interview with Belgian newspaper La Derniere Heure.

During each lap the proposed course would climb from 80 to 600 metres above sea level over about 11 kilometres.

The 2008 Olympic Road Race is scheduled for August, 9 - a day after the opening of the Beijing Games.

AFP