Olympics! (spoilers)

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
Norman H
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by Norman H »

thirdcrank wrote: 8 Aug 2021, 6:46am Jason Kenny retains the bragging rights at their house.
A thoroughly deserved win. The Keirin never fails to entertain, I'm pleased I dragged myself out of bed early enough to see it. I haven't seen the semi final rides yet, I was surprised not to see Jack Carlin in the final.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Masterclass
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
thirdcrank
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by thirdcrank »

I think the biggest surprise was for Jason Kenny when he looked round as the Derny was pulling off and there was nobody in sight. (Or almost.) Once he'd done a double-take and hadn't fallen off with surprise he was gone. Not far from having the silver medallist celebrating a victory because they didn't know there was still a rider up the road.
Norman H
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by Norman H »

Yes, Glaetzer did Kenny a huge favour there but all credit to Kenny for grasping the opportunity. They were all were too busy looking at each other but nobody was looking at Kenny until it was too late. Glaetzer and Lavyreyson made the same mistake in an earlier round and found themselves in the repêchage.
thirdcrank
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by thirdcrank »

I intended no criticism of Jason Kenny who was presented with a ... er ... golden opportunity and took it with both hands, burying himself in the process (if that's not too many metaphors.) In the interview I heard, he was saying that he was expecting to be caught and passed towards the end. A brilliant ride.
mattheus
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by mattheus »

kylecycler wrote: 7 Aug 2021, 8:37pm
thirdcrank wrote: 7 Aug 2021, 8:28pm
.... thirdcrank then read the article (I hadn't even when I posted the above) and made the point (with his tongue in his cheek, I think) about the yellow hi-viz helmets, ...
You certainly got that bit right, although I had assumed it was obvious. Still, as I've posted before, it's not funny if it has to be explained, so, sorry for my part in this..

Fingers crossed for the rest of the Olympiad.
Not your fault at all, thirdcrank, nobody's fault, hopefully, just a misunderstanding.
I love you guys!
Just 3 more years and we can have a Parisian Réunion x
iandriver
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by iandriver »

I think Kenny made that look easier than it was. He saw a small gap, let the derney get further away elongating the potential gap then accelerated leaving the huge gap and the others standing. He then went higher up the track than the other riders and got a sling shot off the banking, which is where he looked to have taken almost half a lap.

Absolute master class.

Did they give the silver to fresh air?
Supporter of the A10 corridor cycling campaign serving Royston to Cambridge http://a10corridorcycle.com. Never knew gardening secateurs were an essential part of the on bike tool kit until I took up campaigning.....
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foxyrider
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by foxyrider »

You have to feel sorry for Kenny Junior, how is he ever going to live up to his parents achievements? :D

British Cycling has certainly lost its Cinderella tag as regards the Olympics, congratulations are due to all the GB riders taking part, especially the medallists in the less traditional disciplines. Expectations will be high in 3 years time (if the French let us in :) ), I keep waiting for the bubble to burst, the last 10 years have been amazing, each time you think it can't get any better - well it does :D

Oh and BC, stop wasting money on 'secret squirrel' bikes, they made no difference in the events we won! Put that money into real grassroots stuff - word is that the balance bike scratch race will feature in the 2028 Games :lol:
Convention? what's that then?
Airnimal Chameleon touring, Orbit Pro hack, Orbit Photon audax, Focus Mares AX tour, Peugeot Carbon sportive, Owen Blower vintage race - all running Tulio's finest!
ratherbeintobago
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by ratherbeintobago »

Supposedly the BC talent spotting programme starts at 5 so they’re not far off balance bikes.
Psamathe
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by Psamathe »

http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2021/08/09/gold-medal-winning-uk-athlete-forgets-to-cry-during-bbc-interview/ wrote:Gold medal-winning UK athlete forgets to cry during BBC interview
Gold medal-winning UK athlete, Gary Stephenson, has angered many TV spectators after forgetting to cry during his post-event interview.

Gary, 28, of Melton Mowbray, ranked world number one in the Omnomnomnom, broke the UK, Commonwealth, Olympic and World Records, scoring 38461.8 points from the judges and in the public telephone vote. He achieved this in only six hours and eight minutes without spilling any of it, beating his nearest rival by a full four furlongs.

Interviewed by chirpy cockney commentator Alec Welsh, he was goaded into talking about his hard life, the loss of his childhood budgie, his fungal nail infection, the perils of lockdown, his ginger hair, and how he funded his own trip to Tokyo by washing cars and acting as a hitman for a wealthy Russian oligarch in the King’s Road.
....
(attribution: dominic_mcg)
mattheus
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by mattheus »

Psamathe wrote: 9 Aug 2021, 11:55am
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2021/08/09/gold-medal-winning-uk-athlete-forgets-to-cry-during-bbc-interview/ wrote:Gold medal-winning UK athlete forgets to cry during BBC interview
Gold medal-winning UK athlete, Gary Stephenson, has angered many TV spectators after forgetting to cry during his post-event interview.

Gary, 28, of Melton Mowbray, ranked world number one in the Omnomnomnom, broke the UK, Commonwealth, Olympic and World Records, scoring 38461.8 points from the judges and in the public telephone vote. He achieved this in only six hours and eight minutes without spilling any of it, beating his nearest rival by a full four furlongs.

Interviewed by chirpy cockney commentator Alec Welsh, he was goaded into talking about his hard life, the loss of his childhood budgie, his fungal nail infection, the perils of lockdown, his ginger hair, and how he funded his own trip to Tokyo by washing cars and acting as a hitman for a wealthy Russian oligarch in the King’s Road.
....
(attribution: dominic_mcg)
Excellent! Especially the
Omnomnomnom
Tangled Metal
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by Tangled Metal »

ratherbeintobago wrote: 9 Aug 2021, 9:53am Supposedly the BC talent spotting programme starts at 5 so they’re not far off balance bikes.
Our local sports centre had a very bid kid's cycling club that's heavily involved in youth competition. We tried to get our son in there when he developed a string interest in cycling. The club couldn't take kids younger than 6 years old for insurance reasons I got told. BC would not cover the for younger than 6yo.

It was a shame because he was in reception at primary school and cos ride before they taught it in school. After a few lessons the kids who could ride well enough joined a fun race around the playing fields with the two older years. Our son was racing kids two years older and beating them. They did a sports aid charity race once where they got years reception, 1 and 2 to race in mixed teams in a kind of chaotic mass relay to get the most laps in a set time. Our son was year 1 and due the most laps by some margin. Well it was the year after he had been doing 40 miles day after day in a cycle touring holiday at 4.5yo.

By the time he reached 6yo the season after becoming 6 he had moved on to other activities and no longer interested in joining the cycle club. I still think it was a big mistake because our local football clubs took kids from 18 months!!!!! I know most kids can't ride until later but IMHO as soon as they can ride, cycling sports clubs should be trying to do something for them to get them when they're possibly the most interested in cycling.

He was a good runner too. One kids birthday party he practically ran non stop for 2 hours when he was 3yo. No other kid could keep up. Plus he used to play football with kids 2, 3 or even 4 years older at school breaks by invitation because he was good at it too. No idea where he got sporting prowess from though.

BTW getting into sport young is no guarantee that you'll keep it up long enough for got talent to get you into top flight sports. I knew a guy in the first year at university. He was pure talent in cricket, as an all-rounder. He had been scouted by 3 or 4 top level counties at 15yo. The night before his trial he went out to get drunk with his mates and slept through when his trial was supposed to be. When I knew him he was playing for the University team without doing any training at all because he was in a much higher league than he team mates and those he player against. He often turned up a little drunk too. A waste as his potential contemporaries would have been Trescothick, hicks, Giles, etc. If he'd followed his talent. Not saying get have matched them but he certainly was good enough for a professional, County career if not more apparently.
Psamathe
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by Psamathe »

A report today
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/10/handball-chiefs-urged-to-resign-bikini-bottoms-rule-ihf-ehf-sexism-norwegian-fined wrote:Handball chiefs urged to resign over bikini bottoms rule
...
According to the IHF rule, female players playing beach handball must wear “tops and bikini bottoms and eventual accessories”, while male players wear “tank tops and shorts and eventual accessories”.
...
(And took me a few moments to appreciate it was a serious report not a spoof. But it reminded me of (from Jan 2019)
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2019/01/17/saudi-women’s-beach-volleyball-team-set-to-ruin-it-for-everyone/ wrote:Saudi Women's Beach Volleyball Team Set To Ruin It For Everyone
The Saudi Arabia women’s beach volleyball team has upset enthusiasts of the sport by defying the International Olympic Committee and refusing to wear the official uniform of 12-inch heels, crotchless micro-thongs and nipple-baring bikini tops at the Olympics this summer. Instead they’ll be covered head-to-toe in baggy black burqas which outrageously show off absolutely no flesh at all.
...
An IOC spokesman said the beach volleyball uniform had been ‘specifically designed by a team of 65-year-old men to enable the athletes maximum flexibility and movement, with barely a thought to showing off their luscious, nubile, sexy, tanned, practically naked hot young bodies to all the middle-aged male spectators’.
...
(which apparently is a spoof)

Ian
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kylecycler
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by kylecycler »

I know the story of the Olympic Women's Road Race was done to death, on here and elsewhere, but it was an epic story, and the YouTube Olympic Channel just released this video:



Maybe it's just me but I'd defy anyone to watch it without getting goosebumps. It's very cleverly edited: At 16 seconds, the first time you see Anna looking over her shoulder, you can see the white suspension bridge behind her where the Commissaire's car accelerated and released the peloton after the rollout, so she's just taken off at the start of the race and she's checking to make sure she's clear. Then it cuts to her looking over her shoulder again, and this time she's just entered the finishing straight at the Fuji Speedway and there's still no-one behind - she's made it!

The Scots writer Richard Moore interviewed Anna Kiesenhofer for the Cycling Podcast Feminin a week or so after the race - he'd to wait his turn!

https://embeds.audioboom.com/publishing ... iesenhofer

She explains in the interview that not only were the chasers not getting time gaps to the breakaway, she wasn't getting time gaps to them either, so she didn't know how far she was ahead; she said people must have thought she was a bit daft, the way she kept looking at the camera motorcycle as it drew alongside, but it was because she was hoping it was the motorcycle with the white board showing the time gaps! She also dismissed those who criticised Annemiek van Vleuten for being 'unsporting' after the race as 'trolls' - she said she couldn't have been nicer.

Anyway, she goes again today in the European Championships Individual Time Trial, her first event since the Olympics. She'll be up against time triallists such as the Netherlands' Ellen van Dijk and Switzerland's Marlen Reusser. It was initially thought that she might also be doing the Road Race on Saturday, but evidently not. Van Vleuten will defend her jersey in that (she's never done the European ITT) - last year's edition was an eventful, exciting race.

Unfortunately, GB hasn't sent a team to the European Championships, male or female, so we'll not be represented. Don't know why.

Edited to add: she finished 7th today in the ITT, 2 minutes down. Marlen Reusser won gold, Ellen van Dijk silver, Germany's Lisa Brennauer bronze.
mattheus
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Re: Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by mattheus »

kylecycler wrote: 9 Sep 2021, 11:11am I know the story of the Olympic Women's Road Race was done to death, on here and elsewhere, but it was an epic story, and the YouTube Olympic Channel just released this video:



Maybe it's just me but I'd defy anyone to watch it without getting goosebumps. It's very cleverly edited: At 16 seconds, the first time you see Anna looking over her shoulder, you can see the white suspension bridge behind her where the Commissaire's car accelerated and released the peloton after the rollout, so she's just taken off at the start of the race and she's checking to make sure she's clear. Then it cuts to her looking over her shoulder again, and this time she's just entered the finishing straight at the Fuji Speedway and there's still no-one behind - she's made it!

The Scots writer Richard Moore interviewed Anna Kiesenhofer for the Cycling Podcast Feminin a week or so after the race - he'd to wait his turn!

https://embeds.audioboom.com/publishing ... iesenhofer

She explains in the interview that not only were the chasers not getting time gaps to the breakaway, she wasn't getting time gaps to them either, so she didn't know how far she was ahead; she said people must have thought she was a bit daft, the way she kept looking at the camera motorcycle as it drew alongside, but it was because she was hoping it was the motorcycle with the white board showing the time gaps! She also dismissed those who criticised Annemiek van Vleuten for being 'unsporting' after the race as 'trolls' - she said she couldn't have been nicer.

Anyway, she goes again today in the European Championships Individual Time Trial, her first event since the Olympics. She'll be up against time triallists such as the Netherlands' Ellen van Dijk and Switzerland's Marlen Reusser. It was initially thought that she might also be doing the Road Race on Saturday, but evidently not. Van Vleuten will defend her jersey in that (she's never done the European ITT) - last year's edition was an eventful, exciting race.

Unfortunately, GB hasn't sent a team to the European Championships, male or female, so we'll not be represented. Don't know why.
Euros ... interesting topic. I was thinking last night during the T-of-B coverage that the Euros get very little coverage, and Brits don't seem too interested. (maybe cos they clash with Vuelta and TofB et al? Dunno ... )

Anyway, that Richard Moore interview was ace; he did a great job, and I would say very diplomatically. (You're rubbish in a bunch, they all knew you were a no-hoper ... but actually well done, what a great win! Is what he avoided saying ...) She seemed very aware of her own limitiations, and had a lot of interesting things to say.
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