Olympic TT Gold medal, almost 43 years old, give me a break...disgusting behavior..But how can these cheaters be court?
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Kristin Armstrong
- Thread starter bikinggirl
- Start date
In the after race interview she said she saw it was raining so decided to be brave and cycle fast. If only the other competitors had thought of that!
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Re:
At that age, it kind of is.
Honestly. I came here to laugh at grandpa Fabian winning at age whatever he is, but then I see a thread that the women's race was won by someone who basically belongs in a different generation to canc even.
To put things into perspective she's only 4 months younger than the woman who won the first ever Olympic tt 20 years ago
BigMac said:
At that age, it kind of is.
Honestly. I came here to laugh at grandpa Fabian winning at age whatever he is, but then I see a thread that the women's race was won by someone who basically belongs in a different generation to canc even.
To put things into perspective she's only 4 months younger than the woman who won the first ever Olympic tt 20 years ago
Chris Horner would be proud, another for the over 40's. I always knew that age brought class, its all the extra years of training you see, all the marginal gains built up over years.....travesty that it goes on and just makes a joke of the sport.bikinggirl said:
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Kristin Armstrong is and has always been an excellent time trialist. Her presence at the Games was already full of controversy; having retired twice and returned twice, the fact that she basically didn't contribute any points to the USA's allocation and has avoided racing outside of home races since returning has been another factor, and that her coach is one of the country's main selectors; while he maintains that he disavows himself of selection decisions involving Kristin, as is absolutely the fair and right thing to do, at the same time the other selectors do have to continue to work with him, which many have commented on. The same goes for the fact that a lot of her push for selection was seemingly needed to be justified for the TT, and she was beaten by a minute in the nationals by Carmen Small, who didn't get selected, a decision which caused some divisions among the fans. Personally I was ambivalent; I like riders who race all year round more, and I quite like Carmen and felt she got badly treated, but at the same time keeping the defending champion away from the Games would be a pretty bitter pill to swallow too.
I also have very mixed feelings about these part-timers and returnees racing for one day; I have said as much many times, and it's also something that I have had to wrestle with as well, because I was so delighted to see Emma Pooley back as well, who's one of my all time favourites as many of you will know. At least in 2011-12, Kristin made her comeback, told us it was all about the Olympics, then raced a fairly standard calendar with Exergy Twenty12; focusing mainly on US races, which is fair enough and as you would expect from a US-based team (as opposed to Mara Abbott who rides for a European team, but apart from the Giro and the Trofeo Binda spends most of her time riding in the US on guest deals), and in 2012 she also raced Binda, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (where she was 2nd) and Energiewacht. Since returning last year, however, she's done 2 race days outside of the United States - the Olympic Road Race and the Olympic Time Trial. She doesn't feel like a returning part of the pro péloton but an interloper; the US domestic scene is pretty strong, but with UHC and TIBCO regularly coming to Europe to race the biggest events, and with Cylance US-registered but very much a European-facing team, and with the biggest American riders in European squads, it's hard to feel like Kristin Armstrong is part of the current elite women's péloton.
In some ways, it might have been easier if Zabelinskaya had won. Olga Zabelinskaya is 35, has previous history, got cleared to race at the eleventh hour, and has been there or thereabouts in a few races this year but only 6th in her national TT, plus of course she's Russian. Although at the start of the season she rode as a guest after her apparent ban (details aren't always consistent about what happened to cause her disappearance after a strong 2014 season with RusVelo, we know there was a positive somewhere in there but what for and when is a bit shaky), I'm a bit surprised that she wouldn't be in the UCI's testing pool with BePink, they're a good team with name value riders and while she was a guest I'd expect she wasn't on the UCI list, I'd have thought she would be by now. I'm operating on the assumption - which I don't think is unreasonable - that the one rider referred to that is on the testing list is van der Breggen, who has been a pro at the top level on one of the top teams for each of the last five seasons. It would be much easier for Olga to win, as the world could cast a sneer in unison, and we'd move on. I just hope this doesn't go dragging on and on, partly because I'm fed up of the riders who make up the TTing elite all year round fighting for scraps at the biggest standalone TT events to riders we seldom see in the biggest races, and partly because I don't want to see another rider go the way of Longo, who just didn't know when to quit and eventually tripped the wire, or Luperini, whose lasting memory to me is no longer the great rider she was but the controversial bike DQ in 2013.
Kristin isn't the first to have this kind of late-career flourish or to go back on retirement plans more than Ole Einar Bjørndalen, mind. Or to pull out this kind of performance. She's been targeting this particular day for two years. The Olympics always create these otherwise rather anomalous results; as BigMac says, Kristin riding like this isn't actually much of a shock, and I've got to be honest, though I did downplay her chances in the run-up to the event especially after that disappointing national championships performance, when I saw the timing sheets and she was going fastest at the intermediates, I wasn't shocked, only disappointed. She wouldn't have made the comeback if she didn't think she could win (sorry, Emma) and given the amount of fuss her selection caused, she had something to prove as well. The other problem is what it says for women's cycling to somebody who doesn't follow it, to see a near 43-year-old part timer come in off of retirement twice and win Olympic gold both times ahead of the women who you see in the top 5-10 of every major race all year, which as somebody who follows the sport closely and champions many of the participants, pains me in some ways. From these Olympics, I will remember the women's Road Race - at least now we know van Vleuten isn't badly hurt - very fondly for years to come, and will gladly talk people through it, how each move tactically developed and led the race to its conclusion, and - again, because Annemiek is going to be ok, as I don't want to put it forward for ghoulish, macabre curiosity value - look to show it to people as an example of just how exciting and dramatic women's cycling can be. By contrast, I'd quite like to forget this TT ever happened and not have to talk of it again.
I also have very mixed feelings about these part-timers and returnees racing for one day; I have said as much many times, and it's also something that I have had to wrestle with as well, because I was so delighted to see Emma Pooley back as well, who's one of my all time favourites as many of you will know. At least in 2011-12, Kristin made her comeback, told us it was all about the Olympics, then raced a fairly standard calendar with Exergy Twenty12; focusing mainly on US races, which is fair enough and as you would expect from a US-based team (as opposed to Mara Abbott who rides for a European team, but apart from the Giro and the Trofeo Binda spends most of her time riding in the US on guest deals), and in 2012 she also raced Binda, the Ronde van Vlaanderen (where she was 2nd) and Energiewacht. Since returning last year, however, she's done 2 race days outside of the United States - the Olympic Road Race and the Olympic Time Trial. She doesn't feel like a returning part of the pro péloton but an interloper; the US domestic scene is pretty strong, but with UHC and TIBCO regularly coming to Europe to race the biggest events, and with Cylance US-registered but very much a European-facing team, and with the biggest American riders in European squads, it's hard to feel like Kristin Armstrong is part of the current elite women's péloton.
In some ways, it might have been easier if Zabelinskaya had won. Olga Zabelinskaya is 35, has previous history, got cleared to race at the eleventh hour, and has been there or thereabouts in a few races this year but only 6th in her national TT, plus of course she's Russian. Although at the start of the season she rode as a guest after her apparent ban (details aren't always consistent about what happened to cause her disappearance after a strong 2014 season with RusVelo, we know there was a positive somewhere in there but what for and when is a bit shaky), I'm a bit surprised that she wouldn't be in the UCI's testing pool with BePink, they're a good team with name value riders and while she was a guest I'd expect she wasn't on the UCI list, I'd have thought she would be by now. I'm operating on the assumption - which I don't think is unreasonable - that the one rider referred to that is on the testing list is van der Breggen, who has been a pro at the top level on one of the top teams for each of the last five seasons. It would be much easier for Olga to win, as the world could cast a sneer in unison, and we'd move on. I just hope this doesn't go dragging on and on, partly because I'm fed up of the riders who make up the TTing elite all year round fighting for scraps at the biggest standalone TT events to riders we seldom see in the biggest races, and partly because I don't want to see another rider go the way of Longo, who just didn't know when to quit and eventually tripped the wire, or Luperini, whose lasting memory to me is no longer the great rider she was but the controversial bike DQ in 2013.
Kristin isn't the first to have this kind of late-career flourish or to go back on retirement plans more than Ole Einar Bjørndalen, mind. Or to pull out this kind of performance. She's been targeting this particular day for two years. The Olympics always create these otherwise rather anomalous results; as BigMac says, Kristin riding like this isn't actually much of a shock, and I've got to be honest, though I did downplay her chances in the run-up to the event especially after that disappointing national championships performance, when I saw the timing sheets and she was going fastest at the intermediates, I wasn't shocked, only disappointed. She wouldn't have made the comeback if she didn't think she could win (sorry, Emma) and given the amount of fuss her selection caused, she had something to prove as well. The other problem is what it says for women's cycling to somebody who doesn't follow it, to see a near 43-year-old part timer come in off of retirement twice and win Olympic gold both times ahead of the women who you see in the top 5-10 of every major race all year, which as somebody who follows the sport closely and champions many of the participants, pains me in some ways. From these Olympics, I will remember the women's Road Race - at least now we know van Vleuten isn't badly hurt - very fondly for years to come, and will gladly talk people through it, how each move tactically developed and led the race to its conclusion, and - again, because Annemiek is going to be ok, as I don't want to put it forward for ghoulish, macabre curiosity value - look to show it to people as an example of just how exciting and dramatic women's cycling can be. By contrast, I'd quite like to forget this TT ever happened and not have to talk of it again.
- Jun 22, 2010
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hfer07 said:There is only one phrase to summarize KA's gold medal:
Blame it on cupping!!
"A' cups for sure.
- Dec 7, 2010
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Dammm that old Merikan! Done gone and totally ruined the Olympics again with their dirty doping.bikinggirl said:
- Dec 7, 2010
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Seriously though - this pretty much makes a joke on cycling and the Olympics.
Believe in nothing you see - has never been more appropriate.
Believe in nothing you see - has never been more appropriate.
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