2020...2021 Olympic Women's Road Race, Tokyo, 137 KM

[Andy262]

Have to say, out of the last 4 Olympics, I've enjoyed the women's race more than the men's three times. Just Rio the exception.

Nicole Cooke's in Beijing.
Vos in London
Kiesenhofer in this.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

It's pretty bad and embarrassing for the Dutch if they didn't know there was a rider ahead and then when they found out still didn't congratulate, but it's just as bad if not worse that ELB and Kopecky knew and still didn't congratulate Kiesenhofer.

Oof yes, that's true, good point.

To be fair to the media, I complained that nobody thought to get Anna K's thoughts on the race, but in reality most of them were probably frantically googling her achievements to be able to have something to ask her, and to give them some copy, because they probably hadn't prepared anything for this eventuality!!!

The shot of her prone on the asphalt, eyes closed and arms over her head in disbelief, is the shot of the games so far.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

ELB is one of the most attacking riders in the pro peloton and in most cases she gets nothing in return for those attacks. Sometimes it makes sense to just sit on wheels, especially on a route which is terrible for you and your teammates.

I'm not saying she isn't normally an exciting rider, but I just thought the Italian tactis were wrong today, cause they definitely never rode for the gold, and they were lucky to even get a medal out of it, despite the fact that they were one of the only teams to have more than one rider contesting the final.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

The Barnes sisters were no brainers while Banks is still recovering from concussion - The English selectors chose Shackley for development reasons which is what Australia did with Gigante who has been injured since Fleche Wallone - You can choose cyclists for development reasons at the World's which have bigger teams - Anyway there will be equal numbers of men and women at the next Olympics.

Hannah Barnes has been struggling with an injury as well, which was why she was ruled out by the selectors.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I just want someone to put it up to the Dutch and stop the contest ending with 35 km to go

You got 50% of what you wanted

 

[Volderke]

I can’t get over this farce.
Anna van der Breggen, who will become a coach(!) said some things that are only worthy of massive facepalms:

1. There were some riders on the road. Without the ears, it means maybe we should count them…(facepalm)
2. We didn’t know Kiesenhofer. So how can we do something wrong if we don’t know her? (facepalm)

one advice before you even think of becoming a coach: Sun Tzu - the art of war (know your enemy)

 

[Samu Cuenca]

After her surprisingly good performance today, will it actually be possible for Zabalinskaya to challenge for a third Olympic medal on Wednesday?

 

[BlueRoads]

I can’t get over this farce.
Anna van der Breggen, who will become a coach(!) said some things that are only worthy of massive facepalms:

1. There were some riders on the road. Without the ears, it means maybe we should count them…(facepalm)
2. We didn’t know Kiesenhofer. So how can we do something wrong if we don’t know her? (facepalm)

one advice before you even think of becoming a coach: Sun Tzu - the art of war (know your enemy)

Good thing she learns that now before she actually works as a DS.

Well, but the guys in the car had time to inform themselves of the riders ahead, didn't they? I mean, it wasn't just 5 minutes that Kiesenhofer was ahead.

 

[Faserr]

 

[Izzyeviel]

Surely the race organisers and teams should be informing the peloton of the time gaps to the front of the race?

 

[l.Harm]

So the organizational side was bad, but if you have three riders in front from the beginning you should be able to realize you only passed two of them. That's a number even I would be able to manage. It's not like... oh, ***, there were 13 out front and we only caught 12...
And when van Vleuten celebrated like that in the end it just comes down to that, they didn't realize there was another one left, no matter the time gaps.
My, yes, you have to keep track of these things when you are without radios...

The not counting or miscounting was a mistake. But probably even if they had counted they wouldn't have caught her since they would only be aware of the wrong time gap after they caught the two chasers.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The not counting or miscounting was a mistake. But probably even if they had counted they wouldn't have caught her since they would only be aware of the wrong time gap after they caught the two chasers.

Imagine that happening, they get the time gap, they pull back the chasers, go "right, that's two... there's one more that must be a little way up the road" "the new time gap is two minutes and fifty-three seconds"

 

[Armchair cyclist]

So essentially a Maths PhD won because no-one else can count to three.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

The not counting or miscounting was a mistake. But probably even if they had counted they wouldn't have caught her since they would only be aware of the wrong time gap after they caught the two chasers.

When a time gap is given, it is presumably given to the race lead, not to the next group.

Unless the guys on motorbikes were also unaware of Kiesenhofer.

 

[BlueRoads]

The not counting or miscounting was a mistake. But probably even if they had counted they wouldn't have caught her since they would only be aware of the wrong time gap after they caught the two chasers.

Yeah... one has to wonder what would have changed... but if you get confusing time gaps maybe you shouldn't trust them... and sent someone back to the team car... also I think there was still not a coordinated chase and in the end Kiesenhofer had 1.15...

Well, it sure was the result of many factors coming together. But for me one of the main mistake was that the Dutch didn't really take the race into their hands. If you have four! of the biggest favourites and no other team comes remotely close, you should take that responsibility, keep the break in check, get rid of most of your competitors, and not look and wait and act a bit and then not anymore...
In the end, since only van Vleuten was really there in the end, maybe the legs of the Dutch weren't really there and they felt worse than they had thought themselves and that made them quite passive.

 

[l.Harm]

When a time gap is given, it is presumably given to the race lead, not to the next group.

Unless the guys on motorbikes were also unaware of Kiesenhofer.

That's what happened according to Van der Breggen. But it was also quite chaotic so it's also a possibility they misunderstood.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

The Dutch rode pretty much as their team selection dictated. They had the option to pick arguably the four best riders in the peloton so they did just that. Having done so, it was likely they would not control the race (since nobody to do that job) and hence there is the possibility of this result. Another (probably better) option was to pick an obvious domestique (Pieters / Van Dijk / Blaak etc). Difficult decision to decide which of the big four to leave out of course. They would still have got away with it if just one of superstars was on a superstar day or if the winner hadn't been a lot better than anyone could really have predicted

 

[gregrowlerson]

Deignan apparently said she did everything she could tactically, and thinks she played it perfectly tactically (of course, everything she chose to do was the right decision, it was others that made things go wrong for her), but unfortunately she was just a marked woman.

Tactically, she was perfect.

 

[l.Harm]

Yeah... one has to wonder what would have changed... but if you get confusing time gaps maybe you shouldn't trust them... and sent someone back to the team car... also I think there was still not a coordinated chase and in the end Kiesenhofer had 1.15...

Well, it sure was the result of many factors coming together. But for me one of the main mistake was that the Dutch didn't really take the race into their hands. If you have four! of the biggest favourites and no other team comes remotely close, you should take that responsibility, keep the break in check, get rid of most of your competitors, and not look and wait and act a bit and then not anymore...
In the end, since only van Vleuten was really there in the end, maybe the legs of the Dutch weren't really there and they felt worse than they had thought themselves and that made them quite passive.

I don't think so. Van der Breggen said they had energy left and could have done more..

Anyway, of course a lot of mistakes even if the organisation messed up. Dutch DS saying they shouldn't have let the gap become that big but the riders weren't aware, can't imagine they had zero communication for all that time when the peloton was doing nothing. And then VDB saying after the race she knew about the 10 minutes gap to the lead which is contradicting.

It looks like
1 they didn't have a plan for a very predictable scenario (similar to Belgium yesterday but then with multiple favourites) - what to do when nobody's chasing and we are only 4.
2 they were not prepared for a no comms race (and this is the only race in the year without communication, also not with your regular team)
3 didn't count how many leaders they caught

and then the organisational mess did the rest.

 

[Tinnekeisabella]

It's pretty bad and embarrassing for the Dutch if they didn't know there was a rider ahead and then when they found out still didn't congratulate, but it's just as bad if not worse that ELB and Kopecky knew and still didn't congratulate Kiesenhofer.

Exactly, made me feel sad. I love women’s cycling but I loved how the men were all so happy for eachother yesterday…

 

[gregrowlerson]

So essentially a Maths PhD won because no-one else can count to three.

It's the Radiohead 2 + 2 = 5 generation.

 

[Tinnekeisabella]

Exactly, made me feel sad. I love women’s cycling but I loved how the men were all so happy for eachother yesterday…

The dutch dont even seem to be able to admit they made tactical errors and just congratulate Anna. No, it is all excuses how they did not know and that they could not underestimate Anna because she is baiscally a nobody, which she is not for sure entirely.

 

[TourOfSardinia]

Alternative hypothesis
they just didn't have the legs.

 

[Andy262]

Kiesenhofer attacked the break a long long way out. I can't believe that none of the Dutchies went back to the team car at any point in the last 40km for bottles and gels and wasn't told that the break had split.

 

[gregrowlerson]

Kiesenhofer attacked the break a long long way out. I can't believe that none of the Dutchies went back to the team car at any point in the last 40km for bottles and gels and wasn't told that the break had split.

Maybe Vos went back for bottles, but forgot to pass on the message!