A new, efficient synthesis of racemic cyclopent-3-en-1-yl nucleoside analogues has been developed starting from cyclopentadiene. The key step is the regioselective hydroboration of an intermediately formed mixture of two alkylated cyclopentadienes to give one cyclopentenol. The remaining double bond was further functionalized by hydroboration, epoxidation, cis-hydroxylation and cyclopropanation.Nucleoside analogues have attracted considerable interest due to their important biological activity 1 . Various structural modifications were introduced in both the heterocyclic base and the sugar moiety 2 . In carbocyclic nucleosides the furanose oxygen is replaced by a methylene unit. Such compounds are stable to hydrolysis by phosphorylases that cleave the glycosidic bond in conventional nucleosides. Consequently, carbocyclic nucleosides display enhanced biostability 3 . The removal of the ring oxygen eliminates the anomeric and gauche effects, responsible for forcing the furan system into two distinct conformations 4 . Since the conformation of the five-membered ring is believed to play a critical role in modulating biological activity, the behaviour of nucleosides with a cyclopentane moiety sometimes differs significantly from that of their natural counterparts 5 . Recently, carbocyclic purine analogues such as carbovir 1 6 and the structurally related abacavir 2 7 (Ziagen) were found to be potent inhibitors of HIV reverse