London Road Race 2012?

[Boeing]

Do we know of a tentative course? Options?

 

[Andy99]

http://road.cc/content/news/21050-london-2012-road-races-be-held-olympic-games-opening-weekend

http://insidethegames.biz/summer-ol...urse-will-showcase-london-and-maybe-cavendish


http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...e-2012-olympics-road-race-route-revealed.html


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ot...nce-to-win-Britains-first-medal-of-Games.html

 

[theswordsman]

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...e-2012-olympics-road-race-route-revealed.html

The Road Races (M&W) are on Saturday, July 28 & 29

 

[Kwibus]

I hope this route isn't too easy and won't turn into a bunchsprint. Nothing against the sprinters, but a Olympic stage should be damn hard.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Pretty much a sprinters course then? Especially with the finish.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I hope this route isn't too easy and won't turn into a bunchsprint. Nothing against the sprinters, but a Olympic stage should be damn hard.

The Beijing course was great but the organisers were just crap and didn't know how to run an olympic games. Shambolic!

 

[theswordsman]

You can see the map and more details about the route in the May 20 Cycling Weekly. Here's the Zinio link to read it online. If you need to zoom more than three (double) pages, clear your cookies and it will let you. Zinio has other cycling magazines too. The map is on page 8.

http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issue=416127325&o=int&prev=si

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

I hope this route isn't too easy and won't turn into a bunchsprint. Nothing against the sprinters, but a Olympic stage should be damn hard.

It's going to be a bit hard to make a difficult race in London given the local Geography. The Surrey hills can be short and sharp but there's very few hills in London which they have to head back to. London is similar to Paris to be honest, a couple of small hills throghout the city but generally flat.

I think the orginal route they proposed used some of the small hills in London (Swaines Lane on Highgate Hill) but the IOC asked them to change it to take in more of the tourist sites in London.

I predict a bunch sprint unless the riders do their best to make it interesting over the last few laps.

 

[Kwibus]

It's going to be a bit hard to make a difficult race in London given the local Geography. The Surrey hills can be short and sharp but there's very few hills in London which they have to head back to. London is similar to Paris to be honest, a couple of small hills throghout the city but generally flat.

I think the orginal route they proposed used some of the small hills in London (Swaines Lane on Highgate Hill) but the IOC asked them to change it to take in more of the tourist sites in London.

I predict a bunch sprint unless the riders do their best to make it interesting over the last few laps.

It will be such an anti-climax if that happens. If the stage is made such that an bunchsprint is almost impossible to avoid then they could as well ride the last 10km with the sprinters and their leadouts :/
Maybe i'm too pessimistic

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

It will be such an anti-climax if that happens. If the stage is made such that an bunchsprint is almost impossible to avoid then they could as well ride the last 10km with the sprinters and their leadouts :/
Maybe i'm too pessimistic

It depends entirely on who rides the road race. If Farrar, Cavendish and Greipel race then I'd imagine the GB, USA and German teams will think their best chance of winning will be a bunch sprint and let the fastest man win. Therefore, they'll probably try and keep the race together for a sprint at the end. If that happens then it'll be very hard for any breakaway to escape, especially with a finishing circuit proposed. If every other country lets GB do all the work for Cav then a break could manage to stay away.

 

[Winterfold]

The Surrey Hills are my main riding area. Combe Lane and Box Hill (ZigZag Lane) are not difficult enough to make a selection that will stay away to the finish, they are probably Cat 4, if that. I would expect Cav to average 25kmh+ up Box Hill if there is a sniff of gold medal at the end of it.

You could do a very difficult hilly classics style course though the Surrey Hills, but with the narrow roads and bad surfaces it would be very dangerous running a big peloton and support cars, camera bikes etc on it.

In it's current state the hairpin at the top of Combe Lane will be interesting, particularly if its wet.

I'm guessing there will be a fair bit of resurfacing going on between now and 2012...

As for the London bits, between various jobs I have commuted on a lot of that route, it is quite well chosen from Boris Johnson's point of view.

EDIT:
And if you were designing a course to provide a home advantage

 

[El Pistolero]

They're probably going to make a course so Cavendish can win.

It's a race I won't bother to watch.

Unless they surprise me with the course.

 

[joy118118]

The Beijing course was great but the organisers were just crap and didn't know how to run an olympic games. Shambolic!

Were you in Beijing at that time? They just didnt know how to run a cycling race.

 

[El Pistolero]

Were you in Beijing at that time? They just didnt know how to run a cycling race.

What was wrong with it? I know a lot of people dropped out during the race, but the more the better I say!

 

[karlboss]

Were you in Beijing at that time? They just didnt know how to run a cycling race.

+1...the ghost course

 

[Big GMaC]

What was wrong with it? I know a lot of people dropped out during the race, but the more the better I say!

They didn't let people watch the bloody thing!

As far as London is concerned, there are no real hills to speak of in the centre where the scenic stuff is. Box Hill is an Ardennes Hill, short very steep, a couple of times over could tire some legs, but if they want the finish in the centre there will be 10s of ks after the last time over.

 

[Reverend_T_Preedy]

They're probably going to make a course so Cavendish can win.

That may be part of it but it there's very little you can do given the Geography of London.

 

[The Hitch]

Does the Olympic road race have to have laps??? Most world and Olympic road races do seem to be just laps of a circuit, but to me this seems to always defeat 2 major points of cycling:

1 getting across large distances on a bicycle – the whole idea of a bicycle is to do just that.
2 visiting as large an area as possible (obvious benefits for towns to get these big races and gets the fans from those areas out).

I am disappointed that this Olympic road race will be just laps of London rather than leave London do a loop of 200km and come back for the finish, or even start somewhere else and just finish in London. I say this despite the fact that laps of a ciurcuit would allow me to see the peloton fly by 10 times rather than once.

.......................................................

Also I would like to ask what the motivation is for riders to ride for a countryman in a road race. In pro tour races you are contracted to your team and are to do as they say. In the Olympics all the credit goes to the winner. The prize money, even if shared, isn’t as big as in other races. Why would someone like say , a mark renshaw care whether the title goes to a Australian a Italian or a Korean.

 

[Carlo Algatrensig]

Does the Olympic road race have to have laps??? Most world and Olympic road races do seem to be just laps of a circuit, but to me this seems to always defeat 2 major points of cycling:

1 getting across large distances on a bicycle – the whole idea of a bicycle is to do just that.
2 visiting as large an area as possible (obvious benefits for towns to get these big races and gets the fans from those areas out).

I am disappointed that this Olympic road race will be just laps of London rather than leave London do a loop of 200km and come back for the finish, or even start somewhere else and just finish in London. I say this despite the fact that laps of a ciurcuit would allow me to see the peloton fly by 10 times rather than once.

To sort of carry on from what you're saying does the Olympic road race have to take place in the host city? Some sports, in particular sailing often take place hundreds of miles from the host city if there isn't a suitable location nearby so perhaps the same could be done with the road race. There are plenty of places in the UK that could provide much better one day racing and have the sort of "spring classic climbs" that could provide a real test for the cyclists and probably be much more enjoyable for people to watch than 120 blokes riding in a circle for 6 hours and then finishing in a huge sprint.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Or you could start it in East Anglia or Kent somewhere and run down the coast into London, allowing maximum opportunity to let the wind batter the cyclists and create a selection that way.

 

[Winterfold]

Big GMAC - Box Hill is indeed steep but on the side they are going DOWN. They are going UP Zigzag lane, which is beautiful and scenic, but even my tired old legs can still do 18-20kph up there. Its 4-5% average over a couple of km.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Were you in Beijing at that time? They just didnt know how to run a cycling race.

The games in general were. I wasn't there but just speaking to people who went there, they really didn't like it. Even Cuddles said the games were a complete sham.

If it's around 230 - 250km, they could have multiple course road race with say go from a to b, do a course around the area of b a few times, then b to c and do a few courses around area c, etc.

 

[Mambo95]

The games in general were. I wasn't there but just speaking to people who went there, they really didn't like it. Even Cuddles said the games were a complete sham.

For the first couple of days, the games were pretty poor and not at all welcoming to visitors, the cycling road race being the absolute nadir, but then everything improved considerably, particularly with regard to tickets, and it was really good. However, away from the actual venues and TV, you wouldn't have know the Olympics were going on. And it wasn't all that great for the locals who wanted tickets (my cousin was treated like a god when he gave away my spare weightlifting tickets to some of his Chinese colleagues at work).

As to the Olympics course, the IOC like to have a course which shows off the sights of the city, which is why they rejected the original, harder course. And if you want the sights of London, it's going to be pancake flat.

 

[Mambo95]

The games in general were. I wasn't there but just speaking to people who went there, they really didn't like it. Even Cuddles said the games were a complete sham.

For the first couple of days, the games were pretty poor and not at all welcoming to visitors, the cycling road race being the absolute nadir, but then everything improved considerably, particularly with regard to tickets, and it was really good. However, away from the actual venues and TV, you wouldn't have know the Olympics were going on.

As to the Olympics course, the IOC like to have a course which shows off the sights of the city, which is why they rejected the original, harder course. And if you want the sights of London, it's going to be pancake flat. (Cavendish v Renshaw for the gold? That would be good)

 

[Big GMaC]

If you want the sights of London, it's going to be pancake flat.

Well, you may get some speedbumps!

Oh thanks Winterfold, I didn't know which way they are going