I do think it makes entertaining racing though.mattsccm wrote: ↑25 Jul 2021, 2:35pm 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
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.
The race cannot be controlled by a large team so there is much more unpredictably.
Radios would make it more predictable which would be a shame.
The fact that an amateur won today is they much in the Olympic tradition.
Cheers James