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The Official Olympic Thread

Richie said:
Even with better timing, they could never bring back the breakaway with just 4 riders. As I said, Greipel must be tinkled that Germany gave them no help, and what about Slovakians helping Sagan or Aussies helping Goss? I know the Aussies had O'Grady in the breakaway but did they think he could win a medal?
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Sagan was the only rider from Slovakia in the race
 
braineclipse said:
How do you know that they didn't get the information?

I could see quite a lot of motorcycles holding boards up with information, the teams had people holding boards up as well. Just because the information wasn't provided to the TV-audience doesn't mean it wasn't given to the teams and riders. The distance was the same for 15-20km towards the end, they just didn't have the strength to catch them when the Spanish and Swiss joined forces up front to keep up the speed.

Cav was the favourite, but I'm guessing the British media overrated by how much. Norwegian media had them as favourites, but had concerns about them during the race and were actually impressed by how long the racers that were almost just back from the tour managed to keep leading the field almost on their own. In the end they just ran out of steam.
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The moment when the first breakaway went away and it showed Nibali going all the way back to the Italian team car to see what was happening on the TV inside the car. It showed him literally sticking his head inside the window to view the TV. I've never seen anything like it in the last 20 years of watching cycling. In professional races you get a new time check every 30 second or so. Here there was one roughly every half an hour.

Anyway it was always gonna be a tough task to force the race into a bunch sprint with just 5 riders out of nearly 200. They did it last year in the World Championships with 9 men.

I wouldn't be surprised if Vino fails a non UCI test given his past.
 
Richie said:
Really? With such a strong rider I thought they might be able to find one or two compatriots to help him. I actually assumed every country would bring a team
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There's a qualifying criteria. Only 1 Slovak rider got UCI points this year so only 1 can compete.
 
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Heda SPURSCZ said:
How is it that Morocco had three riders. I don't remember any of them from some race (Tour, Giro, Paris-Roubaix, Flèche Wallonne etc.)
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UCI also put on African, American, Asian and European Torus in addition to the World Tour. Countries can get up to five riders through the World Tour or three riders from the others.
 
Modric THFC said:
Basically the organisers fudged them over. Everyone was guessing at timechecks. You can't control a race without knowing how far in front the break is and when to take them back.
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It was IOC regs. Nothing to do with the British. I like the old school rules. The guys that won took a chance. Fair plat to them.
 
Modric THFC said:
The moment when the first breakaway went away and it showed Nibali going all the way back to the Italian team car to see what was happening on the TV inside the car. It showed him literally sticking his head inside the window to view the TV. I've never seen anything like it in the last 20 years of watching cycling. In professional races you get a new time check every 30 second or so. Here there was one roughly every half an hour.

Anyway it was always gonna be a tough task to force the race into a bunch sprint with just 5 riders out of nearly 200. They did it last year in the World Championships with 9 men.

I wouldn't be surprised if Vino fails a non UCI test given his past.
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I'm just a casual viewer myself.

Yes, it was different from the normal races in the Tour etc. No radios, that was known. I don't see how that is an excuse for the British team. They just didn't have the energy in the end to do it all themselves.

If Cavendish could deal with the hills a bit better then they wouldn't have lost as much each round and people like Wiggins might not have been fudged at the end. If Wiggins hadn't focused on the Tour and instead focused on the Olympics he probably would have had more energy, maybe they would have made it.

Loads of factors at play here, blaming it on the organizers seems strange to me.
 
Leeds Spur said:
It was IOC regs. Nothing to do with the British. I like the old school rules. The guys that won took a chance. Fair plat to them.
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As a casual viewer I quite liked these rules as well, seems to favour making breaks a bit more and individuals have more of a chance against the teams. Made for an interesting and exciting race for me at least.
 
Leeds Spur said:
I would bet against that. Blake will win both races and there will be no records. Bolt isn't fit and hasn't shown top form for 3 years.
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I know Blake has beaten Bolt recently, but that wasn't the Olympics! Bolt knows his history and wants to be alongside Carl Lewis as the only 100m runner to win at back to back games.
 
braineclipse said:
I'm just a casual viewer myself.

Yes, it was different from the normal races in the Tour etc. No radios, that was known. I don't see how that is an excuse for the British team. They just didn't have the energy in the end to do it all themselves.

If Cavendish could deal with the hills a bit better then they wouldn't have lost as much each round and people like Wiggins might not have been fudged at the end. If Wiggins hadn't focused on the Tour and instead focused on the Olympics he probably would have had more energy, maybe they would have made it.

Loads of factors at play here, blaming it on the organizers seems strange to me.
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Of course the blame isn't entirely down to the organisers. It was always very unlikely it would come down to a bunch sprint. No Olympic Road Race ever has.
I'm not a fan of race radios personally. It lead to Wiggins not having to make a single decision of his own during the Tour de France.
But the time check thing was ridiculous.
Its like a Cricket Match or a Basketball game with no scoreboard and the players guessing how far they were behind.
 
It's a genuine race with 4 potential winners. Bolt probably is favourite but my money is on Blake. He's hungrier IMO
 
Modric THFC said:
Of course the blame isn't entirely down to the organisers. It was always very unlikely it would come down to a bunch sprint. No Olympic Road Race ever has.
I'm not a fan of race radios personally. It lead to Wiggins not having to make a single decision of his own during the Tour de France.
But the time check thing was ridiculous.
Its like a Cricket Match or a Basketball game with no scoreboard and the players guessing how far they were behind.
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Looking like the OBS ****ed up
 
Modric THFC said:
Of course the blame isn't entirely down to the organisers. It was always very unlikely it would come down to a bunch sprint. No Olympic Road Race ever has.
I'm not a fan of race radios personally. It lead to Wiggins not having to make a single decision of his own during the Tour de France.
But the time check thing was ridiculous.
Its like a Cricket Match or a Basketball game with no scoreboard and the players guessing how far they were behind.
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Very good analogy IMO. It's like knowing you are behind, but no idea what the score is so no idea how risky to play it.

Agree with pretty much your whole post, the lack of race radios makes it more interesting but the lack of time checks was just silly.

The reality is that even with time checks, Team GB couldn't have done it on their own. However, if the Germans had known how far behind the Peloton was then they would have shifted it up a gear and supported Team GB. In the end, they found out too late and it was game over.
 
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