General News Thread

[Sciatic]

It's a lot worse this year than previously.

In Tokyo, the field was 130 riders, this time it's 90. And maximum team size has been reduced from 5 to 4.

It's hardly a bike race anymore.

I get irritated every time this comes up—for someone who for years used to really enjoy watching the Olympics it sucks that it has become classist ( and as we all know $-driven) and nationality-biased so that sports that they think are the big draw get so many more medals events and athletes participating.

 

[Tim Cahill]

Carapaz aside, as obviously he's a top-tier athlete and the circumstances are different, I was reading a bit before about how classism unfortunately begins at the highest echelons of the IOC, and has for a long time.

50 stunning Olympic moments No11: Eric Moussambani flails way to glory | Barry Glendenning

Barry Glendenning: The Equatorial Guinea swimmer had never dipped a toe in an Olympic pool but left a hero despite a hapless performance

www.theguardian.com

The International Olympic Committee’s president, Jacques Rogge, also disagreed with Thorpe’s assessment that heroism of the hapless was what the Games were all about, telling the Guardian about his plans to stop handing out wild cards to countries that would otherwise be unable to send competitors on the grounds that “we want to avoid what happened in the swimming in Sydney; the public loved it, but I did not like it.”

90 Riders on a 273km course is going to get out of hand fast, very few domestiques and a few strong guys could get away ridiculously early, do they have radios?

Hey look at that Uruguay got a spot, maybe Moreira will bring his Volta shape!!!

 

[Ricco']

Hey look at that Uruguay got a spot, maybe Moreira will bring his Volta shape!!!

Nope, Olympics RR overlaps with Volta a Portugal and will be held on the penultimate day of the portuguese race.

 

[Nick2413]

On the other hand, some chaotic racing might be a breath of fresh air. It would be cool to see some less predictable racing. The Olympics is already so different from regular cycling anyway.

 

[Eagle_Alps]

Or they just ride for their trade teams. The team with the most riders wins. UAE?

 

[RedheadDane]

90 Riders on a 273km course is going to get out of hand fast, very few domestiques and a few strong guys could get away ridiculously early, do they have radios?

No, that's partially how Kiesenhofer stayed away in Tokyo. The Dutch team not realising that there was another rider up the road.

 

[search]

I get irritated every time this comes up—for someone who for years used to really enjoy watching the Olympics it sucks that it has become classist ( and as we all know $-driven) and nationality-biased so that sports that they think are the big draw get so many more medals events and athletes participating.

It's part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 to reduce the number of people in general, because the Olympics have blown up to a size no one can manage or finance anymore. Of those ~1000 athletes less in Paris, cycling will contribute 14.

The main reason for the small field in the road race is that this comes together with the introduction of gender equality. The spots which used to be available for then men now went to the women

 

[tobydawq]

It's part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 to reduce the number of people in general, because the Olympics have blown up to a size no one can manage or finance anymore. Of those ~1000 athletes less in Paris, cycling will contribute 14.

The main reason for the small field in the road race is that this comes together with the introduction of gender equality. The spots which used to be available for then men now went to the women

I have an easy way for them to get 72 fewer people.

Scrap BMX.

 

[pastronef]

Sagan has not qualified for the Olympic XCO race

 

[Netserk]

Sagan has not qualified for the Olympic XCO race

He can not ride even if they give him the spot of the road race?

 

[pastronef]

He can not ride even if they give him the spot of the road race?

no idea

 

[Ricco']

He can not ride even if they give him the spot of the road race?

No.

And let's face it, only a very illusioned person would think it was possible for Slovakia to qualify. Their best best was to qualify through the places awarded to the best classified riders in last year's XCO World Championships. With his place in Glasgow, and with the way the rankings already were back then, it was a 99,99% chance of Slovakia not being qualified, even if he was in shape this year and did something good in the 3 XCO World Cups that counted for the qualification this season.

 

[search]

Sagan has not qualified for the Olympic XCO race

He can not ride even if they give him the spot of the road race?

only the Top 19 nations from yesterday's MTB rankings qualified for the Olympics. Slovakia is 36th, so they have no spot they could give him.

Mountain Bike

Mountain bike latest news, details, rankings, calendar, results

www.uci.org

 

[Netserk]

It'd be nice to then see him in the road race, it's not like Slovakia has any other half decent riders anymore.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Perhaps it's best if he is not there. Two recent heart operations and undoubted lack of fitness suggest hanging in the gruppetto, or retiring, in the road race, or being lapped in the cross country.

 

[Sciatic]

It's part of the Olympic Agenda 2020 to reduce the number of people in general, because the Olympics have blown up to a size no one can manage or finance anymore. Of those ~1000 athletes less in Paris, cycling will contribute 14.

The main reason for the small field in the road race is that this comes together with the introduction of gender equality. The spots which used to be available for then men now went to the women

Thanks, that’s helpful to know, and I’m glad to see the equity. Still that 514 athletes on the bike, compared to almost 1200 in the pool (swimming, diving, synchronized—didn’t count water polo).

 

[Netserk]

Yeah, the limited number of spots is a good argument for total equality: everyone competing in one uni-sex category.

 

[Slavique Nuke]

It'd be nice to then see him in the road race, it's not like Slovakia has any other half decent riders anymore.

I'm sure Svrcek will be in the Slovak Olympic team, not Sagan.

 

[KZD]

Men's Dutch team for the Olympics will be composed of Van der Poel, Van Baarle and Daan Hoole.

Women's team will be Vollering, Van Dijk, Vos and Wiebes

Mathieu van der Poel will be joined by Daan Hoole, Dylan Van Baarle in Paris Olympic team, Dutch federation announces

Vollering, Wiebes joined by Vos, Van Dijk for road events

www.cyclingnews.com

 

[Slavique Nuke]

Men's Dutch team for the Olympics will be composed of Van der Poel, Van Baarle and Daan Hoole.

Women's team will be Vollering, Van Dijk, Vos and Wiebes

Mathieu van der Poel will be joined by Daan Hoole, Dylan Van Baarle in Paris Olympic team, Dutch federation announces

Vollering, Wiebes joined by Vos, Van Dijk for road events

www.cyclingnews.com

Decent team for MvdP with the addition of Philipsen

 

[Unchained]

So for lesser countries racing against world tour pros the 90 field limit is an absolute disaster and won't require much of strong countries to cause a permanent separation. Nobody is from Iran or Ghana is going to look over and say " hey let's work together to bridge across to Van der Poel" . And from personal experience anything below @200 is fine. In Gran Fondo, gravel, MTB,ect..the group thins out always within 5-10k at a brutal race speed, some rider from Costa Rica or Yemen is not keeping a pro wheel no matter how hard they trained. In most races officials have a bunch of subjective criteria to determine that you are " out of contention " ..so @15-20 minutes back at 75-100k..someone pulls up, tells you to retire, pull your number, both, get into a car or van or tells you road is open to traffic, where to go for pastry or beer. No reason to limit the field to 90!!
Most selection stuff, cyclocross as an example, the people who are going to win drop everyone else like a dirty diaper in the first 20 minutes.. Doesn't mean you should not line up and race.!!
Do the Olympic goons think there is going to be a surprise winner?

 

[Unchained]

Carapaz should get a golf style invitation, previous champion gets automatic invite to defend title

 

[Berniece]

Men's Dutch team for the Olympics will be composed of Van der Poel, Van Baarle and Daan Hoole.

Women's team will be Vollering, Van Dijk, Vos and Wiebes

Mathieu van der Poel will be joined by Daan Hoole, Dylan Van Baarle in Paris Olympic team, Dutch federation announces

Vollering, Wiebes joined by Vos, Van Dijk for road events

www.cyclingnews.com

Must be a bit disappointing for Kooij, but it makes sense. Like Belgium hopefully not taking Philipsen and De Lie

 

[Unchained]

Watched a short video or 3 about some of the Unbound favs. A S.African rider Beers, has been hanging with Swenson in Tucson, training together and says volume is at 35 hours!!and says that after 2 " hard days " they back out of it and take it easier on 3rd day before killing themselves again. He said training rides are typically finished with a 3-5 minute 1000% interval to see what kind of muscle function you get on lactic acid!!
CN and other sites have quality European talent racing, but have not seen an teams sending someone currently flying, until I see MvdP it's a sideshow!!
Niki Terpstra, good racer but come on..

 

[Tim Cahill]

Roger Hammond has joined the team of Sports Directors at BORA – hansgrohe. For the past two seasons, the 50-year-old Briton has been working for Ineos Grenadiers. He will take up his new position in the German UCI WorldTeam on June 1st and will join the team for the first time at the Tour de Suisse.



Rolf Aldag, Head of Sports BORA – hansgrohe

"Roger and I have known each other for many years. We used to race against each other on the bike. After that, we worked together in very different constellations and for many seasons. It's great that our paths have now crossed again. I appreciate Roger's very professional race preparation and his strong race analyses. I am delighted that he is strengthening our team of Sports Directors."

Roger Hammond

"I'm very excited to be joining BORA – hansgrohe. I have enjoyed following their progression from a small continental team through to a leading team in the WorldTour. The ambition that Ralph and his team has for the future sounds equally inspiring, I look forward to being part of the journey."

Sports Directors BORA – hansgrohe:

Rolf Aldag (Head of Sports), Shane Archbold, Bernhard Eisel, Enrico Gasparotto, Roger Hammond, Heinrich Haussler, Christian Pömer, Patxi Vila

Why does Bora's entire DS team feel like it has an outside chance in a mid to late 2000s semi-classic?