Olympics! (spoilers)

[rjb]

On now. Looks like Tom is bringing home the gold.

[rjb]

He's just done it. Gold.
I'm predicting sales of mountain bikes will go through the roof. Time to dust off your old steed and offer it up for sale.

[Ontherivet77]

I don't understand why if Vos knew there was someone up the road that she didn't bother to tell Van Vleuten and save her the embarrassment at the end. TBH I thought she was celebrating silver at first it's only when I saw her face a couple of minutes later I realised she hadn't known.
It seems common in recent races that riders don't seem willing to help each other to pull back lone escapees. I think if Deignan was unhappy she should have shot off up the road instead of complaining that no one was willing to tow her to the line for the sprint.

[TrevA]

If Deignan had attacked, the Dutch would have just sat on her.

[thirdcrank]

if Vos knew

I missed that bit but perhaps she presumed the others knew as well ie misunderstanding/ poor communication. Re LD, I'm not going back to look but in a post-race interview she made the point that as a strong rider she was marked ie any attack from her would have led to others straight on her wheel. (As TrevA has pointed out while I was typing.)

[TrevA]

On an altogether more positive note, what a ride from Tom Pidcock to win the MTB gold medal. Started at the back of the grid, up to the lead group straight away, then applied the pressure as his rivals fell away one by one, to win by 30 seconds. I was just praying he wouldn’t puncture or fall off, but he rode a controlled race once he got the winning gap.

Yorkshire Power!

[Postboxer]

He nearly made it look easy. Ineos have a good chance in all the events their riders are in, 2 from 2 so far and lots of talent going in the TT, Ganna vs Hayter in the team pursuit and just Hayter in the madison.

Surely in the women's race there was a point on the race track where the leader could be seen way ahead on another part of the track, it looked like it anyway, the camera panned across from the leader to the peloton, they would have to be aware of the layout of the track though.

People saying the lack of radios and information led to an interesting race but surely it would have been more interesting if the leader was actually being chased? If things like this happened a lot, all that would happen is no breakaway would ever be allowed to go out of sight. Don't know why it was so hard to count how many had gone and been caught though.

[Hellhound]

Tom P. is going to be the next superstar of British cycling.Dave B and Ineos see this.It will be a name we hear a lot in the next 10 years

[mjr]

Dutch Team Fails to Count to Five: Mathematician Wins

[thirdcrank]

They seem to have fallen victim to their own domination of the sport.

[Ontherivet77]

If Deignan had attacked, the Dutch would have just sat on her.

Most likely, but what did she achieve by doing nothing?

[mjr]

If Deignan had attacked, the Dutch would have just sat on her.

Most likely, but what did she achieve by doing nothing?

A better chance of a medal, even though it still came to nothing. She would not have caught a prepared time trialist alone.

[Tangled Metal]

Olympics in countries without a history of cycle racing? Eh?

OK, what am I missing? Japan has a history, kierin and AIUI points racing is popular. Kierin is a major thing with a lot of betting on. Kind of like dog racing or horse racing in the UK I think. I just admit to not knowing about Brazilian cyclists, there was a relatively known one called Fischer in the past IIRC. London 2012 UK does have a cycle racing history.

Other countries hosting summer Olympics include USA, Australia, China, Greece, Spain, South Korea, Russia, etc. The first two have a strong cycling history and record. Greece had had his cyclists but not big. Current top Greek rider is nearly 400 ranked. China always competes even if they're not big in pro/Western racing. Spanish riders are always competitive in pro cycling. South Korea I think have a few Olympic cyclists but not sure how they compare. Their Olympics probably sparked a lot of cycling I am reckon. Russia and old Soviet nations are competitive selectively.

By my reckoning most of the host countries in summer Olympics have had cycling pedigree over the years. There's also the fact that here in Western Europe we do not get to hear about cycling in non European and a few other countries.

Out of Africa came Froome. Out of Colombia came many great climbers. There's talent around the world it's just Western pro racing seems to fail in recruiting outside of the usual countries.

[djnotts]

Tom P seems a likely major star. XC gold 2 mths after bad road crash, under-23 champ in 3 disciplines. I hope Ineos didn't get him too cheap.
Stunning win!

[foxyrider]

Maybe Tom would've been a better pick than his Ineos team mates for the road race!

Great performance and a very convincing result