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Zakharin is desperate to ride the Olympics as reported by CN - For riders it's an important race - To dispute this is silly.
Exactly and most likely compounded by the fact pros couldn't race it until 1996 even though it has been part of the event since 1896. You don't need it on your resume to make or break your career but it adds a lot with it on there. It's not like bad riders have won it: Pascal Richard, Jan Ullrich, Paolo Bettini, Samuel Sanchez, Alexander Vinokourov, Greg Van Avermaet in the road and Miguel Indurain, Viatcheslav Ekimov, Tyler Hamilton/Viatcheslav Ekimov, Faboan Cancellara, Bradley Wiggins, and Fabian Cancellara in the time trial.
Just getting Bronze or Silver is a big deal. Even riders who are just there can see benefits from just being selected to race by being the best of their country. That isn't even counting the whole atmosphere of being at the games as an athlete.
I think there is only one objective way to figure out.
We must check Uran and Kolobnevs bank records
Yet another reason why this bloated showcase for a thousand trivial sports nobody cares about is alien to the tradition of road cycling. This is not a sport that places huge value on being first or second loser.
The sponsors and teams seem to place value on them excluding stages and some semi classics. At least more value than you are giving them.
Sure, particularly with the ever greater growth of the TdeF, placings at least in that race have become more valuable. Which is unreservedly a bad thing, encouraging negative racing, and should be treated with hostility by anyone who cares about the sport.
I agree, the riders that are actually able to win for the most part are fine with their placement (whether that is from their own, team's, and/or sponsor's choosing) and ride to preserve that instead of win deserves criticism. Especially since you never know what could happen. Than sometimes that placement is all they're able to achieve with their ability and you can't fault them with that.
You realize that the rider who's thread this is would disagree with you about that. The interview that he just gave that is posted here he was specifically asked about this. Here is the question and answer in Spanish:
¿Lleva la cuenta de los segundos puestos que ha hecho en 2019?
Sí, sobre catorce o quince. Eso quiere decir que no he conseguido tantas victorias como el año anterior, pero hacer un segundo puesto significa que estás cerca y estás bien de forma. No han sido tantas victorias como en 2018, pero he acabado con cinco o seis y catorce o quince segundos puestos. Quiere decir que no ha sido un año con tantos éxitos de victorias, pero igualmente bueno.
With Google translates help the question and answer in English:
Do you keep track of the second positions you have done in 2019?
Yes, about fourteen or fifteen. That means that I have not achieved as many victories as the previous year, but making a second place means that you are close and well fit. There have not been as many victories as in 2018, but I have finished with five or six and fourteen or fifteen second places. It means that it has not been a year with so many successes of victories, but equally good.
You also realize that he said after la Vuelta when he was able to be on the final podium in the rainbow jersey that he desperately wanted that, but said he dared not dream of a overall podium in the rainbow jersey. Before he won the Worlds he was asked if he would give up his record 6 Worlds podiums for one rainbow jersey and he said no. That the Worlds podium record meant too much to him because it showed his consistency over his career and he was extremely proud of that record. He also very proud of his Vuelta podium record.
On the contrary, I see growth of the other two Grand Tours in the recent decade, which is a really good thing for cycling.
And about placings, of course they matter, and they always did. Bigger the race, more important the placings are. Another matter is that us fans doesn't always like that, we of course like do or die attitude, but the truth are riders needs to make a living, teams and sponsors value placings, and that's about it, like it or not.
Maybe that way they don't get any tv time so don't have to display the jerseys.
Oh, I dunno. They're an improvement from the tactic from the last few years of just slapping a teeny tiny little flag marker onto an otherwise normal Movistar jersey.
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To find the answer we could ask GVA whether he would swap his gold for a RVV win.
Recalling this year's GTs I can only conclude that Movistar tactics are like Schrödinger's cat.
Except Movi would have 3 cats in the box and spend the whole time not being able to decide which cat is the best one to use for the experiment
And then some of them left for different teams, so that's (two of) the cat(s) out of the box.
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