Olympics! (spoilers)

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
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Postboxer
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Olympics! (spoilers)

Post by Postboxer »

Men's road race in the early hours of 24th, 3am til 9.30am ish.
Maillot Rouge
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Re: Olympics!

Post by Maillot Rouge »

Thomas crashes out…..again!
Well deserved Gold for Carapaz!
6hrs in 33degree heat is no mean feat!
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: Olympics!

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
And Pog With the bronze, Wout In second.
GT is jinxed for sure.
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.
simonhill
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Re: Olympics!

Post by simonhill »

Nice route. I cycled some of it the last time I toured there in 2019.
Norman H
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Re: Olympics!

Post by Norman H »

A surprise and thoroughly deserved result in the women's road race, congratulations to Anna Kiesenhofer and her two breakaway companions. The lack of race radios certainly makes for more exiting racing but the absence of any information via the blackboards was poor organisation. Not withstanding that the Dutch tactics were hard to understand, especially once the peloton had caught van Vleuten.
thirdcrank
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Re: Olympics!

Post by thirdcrank »

Presumably, the otherwise almost universal use of riders' radios at the élite level diminishes the basic skills like noting how many went in a breakaway and how many have not been caught. The Netherlands team was quite well-represented in the shrinking bunch so either none kept count or they didn't share the the info with the rest of their team.
Postboxer
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Re: Olympics!

Post by Postboxer »

Infuriating! At the point I started watching, Lizzie Deignan was trying to get the peloton to chase and no-one was interested. I don't understand why they go to the Olympics then don't try to win. The Dutch tactics would have worked if either the sole rider caught the breakaway or the peloton got a move on. Were they really not getting any information at all, if not why not, and were the men getting information yesterday?
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mjr
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Re: Olympics!

Post by mjr »

Norman H wrote: 25 Jul 2021, 9:22amThe lack of race radios certainly makes for more exiting racing but the absence of any information via the blackboards was poor organisation.
I wonder if that's sour grapes from some teams. The chalkboard motorcycle was clearly visible a few times during the race, but it's true I never saw what was on it.

I think the Netherlands fluffed their tactics and others made the mistake of planning to follow NL and had no plan B when NL fluffed it, except maybe USA who started chasing but needed support to bring back such a big gap.

Great win by Kiesenhofer who did the hard work training for the heat after winning her national selection race. She had a plan as a solo competitor and executed it to gold effect. A worthy winner.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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thirdcrank
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Re: Olympics!

Post by thirdcrank »

... Lizzie Deignan was trying to get the peloton to chase and no-one was interested ...
I don't think that's anything to do with radios but the simple point that making an effort to chase is often the best way to lose a bike race ie the choice is seen as being between working hard and losing and taking it steady and losing. The gamble breakaways are often taking is that the potentially stronger group won't get organised and chase them down.
NickJP
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Re: Olympics!

Post by NickJP »

From what I read and saw from the coverage of the womens race, most (all?) the riders in the bunch didn't realise that there was still a rider up the road after they caught the Polish and Israeli riders from the break with a few kilometres to go. When Van Vleuten crossed the line, she thought she'd won the race.

The same thing happened at the 1992 Olympics - Jeannie Longo thought she'd won the race, not realising that Kathy Watt was away up the road and had already crossed the finish line.
Pendodave
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Re: Olympics!

Post by Pendodave »

If only our forum had a dutch correspondent who could tell us what the locals are thinking right now...
Pendodave
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Re: Olympics!

Post by Pendodave »

As a newish follower of cycle racing, I find the olympics format quite hard to get my head around.

It seems to be designed to make sure that the most highly rated riders can't win - without teams, no-one is prepared to put in any effort to catch a breakaway, bacause they know that they'll be toast at the end... but if the strongest rider gets in a break, everyone will immediately stop it forming.

Maybe award medals to all members of the winning country to encourage teamwork?
Or failing that, country selectors chose 3 domestiques and a leader?

Not sure really. Just seems fundamentally unsatisfactory.
mattsccm
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Re: Olympics!

Post by mattsccm »

To my mind the Olympic format just doesn't match modern road racing. Teams have different number which is blatantly unfair because of a qualification system that creates this.
I feel that all teams should be able to field a certain number of riders. No qualification needed. Problems of course include :
Of course some countries either wouldn't be able to find enough riders. Unfortunate but life is tough. Some teams may have enough riders but they won't be up to international race levels. Hmm. Todays race might well have seen some riders a couple of hours behind the bunch in this case. A night mare I guess for the organisers.
Another issue would be huge numbers. To make the Olympics open to all every country should be allowed to send the same amount of athletes. Qualification prior to the event excludes many from the event.
206 nations competing! Imagine 4 riders per team :shock:
Basically there isn't a satisfactory way is there?
Of course my "fair" ways mean that as expected the best riders in the world won't get there as there are fewer spaces than elite riders for some countries and the nature of that years course would exclude certain riders anyway. That this years TdF winner was a contender was not exactly common.
DaveReading
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Re: Olympics!

Post by DaveReading »

thirdcrank wrote: 25 Jul 2021, 10:56amPresumably, the otherwise almost universal use of riders' radios at the élite level diminishes the basic skills like noting how many went in a breakaway and how many have not been caught.
I wouldn't call knowing how fast you were (or weren't) catching up with a breakaway a "basic skill".
Jamesh
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Re: Olympics!

Post by Jamesh »

Not for Kiesenhofer. Virtually unheard of before the race, the 30 year-old whose PhD thesis was on “Noncommunicative integrable systems on b-symplectic manifolds”, is now part of Olympic history. 

Not sure what that's about but I think it means how to put one over on the Dutch superteam!

Cheers James
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