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Olympic MTB Race

Page 3 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Re:

Brullnux said:
Sagan gaining places but losing time, indicating that he could've had a top 10-15 but no chance of winning or podium. Kulhavy vs Schurter will be great.

Well, normally it is harder to ride far behind where you have to overtake several riders and sometimes 'wait' for slower riders in front of you than to ride in front where you can set your own pace, no?.

Not saying he could have won or podiumed or anything but its hard to say how far up he could have placed.
 
Congrats Nino! He has won every major dirt XC title now. I wish PS wouldn't have flatted because a lot of people are already saying how he had a shot (based on his fast start), but the flat sank him. IMO, that fast start would have sank him. We'll never know...
 
Re:

meat puppet said:
Dunno how much the flat, riding on it for five-ish minutes plus the mechanic changing the wheel cost, exactly. But I think three min initially. No idea how the gap has developed since.
I think that's the key thing. Riding with a flat for several minutes will have taken a hell of a lot out of him. Sagan was looking great until his first puncture. Some people were saying before the race he wouldn't even be able to move up from last through the field to get anyway near challenging the leaders. He managed to do it in the space of a few corners! No question for me he would have medalled.

They really need to look at how they address punctures/mechanical etc. Having just one zone on the lap where a wheel can be replaced just isn't good enough. I'm sure for a lot of people Sagan's puncture ruined the race as a spectacle.
 
Just caught up with the replay. Annoying how the coverage missed key moments like Schuster pulling away from Kulhavy and Coloma from Marotte. Also disappointed that Sagan was torpedoed by the flat. Wanted to see if he could be competitive. Shame they don't have technical support elsewhere on the course. The Israeli guy was another badly affected.
 
Re: Re:

mr61% said:
meat puppet said:
Dunno how much the flat, riding on it for five-ish minutes plus the mechanic changing the wheel cost, exactly. But I think three min initially. No idea how the gap has developed since.
I think that's the key thing. Riding with a flat for several minutes will have taken a hell of a lot out of him. Sagan was looking great until his first puncture. Some people were saying before the race he wouldn't even be able to move up from last through the field to get anyway near challenging the leaders. He managed to do it in the space of a few corners! No question for me he would have medalled.

They really need to look at how they address punctures/mechanical etc. Having just one zone on the lap where a wheel can be replaced just isn't good enough. I'm sure for a lot of people Sagan's puncture ruined the race as a spectacle.
Couldn't Sagan have just carried or walked the bike to the "mechanic's zone", or whatever you fine MTBers call it? (I have to agree that riding on a flat will do absolute hell to a rim no matter the type of bike you ride.)

Didn't ruin the rest of the race for me either way, and at any rate.
 
Re: Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
Couldn't Sagan have just carried or walked the bike to the "mechanic's zone", or whatever you fine MTBers call it? (I have to agree that riding on a flat will do absolute hell to a rim no matter the type of bike you ride.)

Didn't ruin the rest of the race for me either way, and at any rate.

He was kilometers away from the zone (I think they call it the "tech zone"?) when he flatted. He did what he could. They swapped out his front wheel when he got there, but was minuted down at that point.

He started in last place, and was in the front three by the first climb. Real shame, I wanted to see him rock it. He didn't quash any questions about the overall talent pool of the XC MTB field vs the roadies with that start, that's for sure. The questions will remain.

Good race though, that's a great point. I am glad to see the Izu course for 2020 looks a bit more scenic than the burned-out, shantytown hillside we saw this week.

http://www.city.izu.shizuoka.jp.e.jj.hp.transer.com/form1.php?pid=6109
 
Great race, despite producer missing a couple of key moments (especially the moment Coloma made his decisive move).

Now I know what to do with some logs and rocks I gathered for years in my backyard.

Great performances from Coloma + Villegas (Colombians everywhere :D ).
 
Well that course was absolute garbage. Not as bad as London but still.

Shame about Sagan, the flat may have been his fault as he was obviously lacking technical skills but flats are part of racing MTB. I'm unsurprised about the start, he's obviously very strong and would have planned to follow a wheel of one of the top guys as it's much easier to follow through features than it is to pick your own line. He was struggling with the technical aspects whenever he was slightly down on Fontana and Schurter and he seemed to have the most problems in corners leading to either sharp climbs or technical downs, he couldn't maintain the rhythm. Very hard to say what he would have done but I think top 5 was a possibility, especially on that course.


The best thing to come out of the racing was Nino getting the gold, massively deserved and I'm very glad he did it.
 
Re:

jmdirt said:
Two flats usually means poor tire choice, poor skills, or both.

As to having more pits, don't get me started...
Wouldn't that just defeat the whole purpose of MTBing? I mean... never mind.

I'll defer to you guys' opinion, seeing as I know absolutely squat about MTBing.

EDIT: by "pits" you mean pit stops, like in car racing? (Sorry, I just don't know your language. :( )
 
Yeah pits are like pit stops.

I don't think it would really, say over a 6.5km.circuit having two pits, one at the start/finish straight and one in the middle would help the riders considerably. If you get a flat at the start of the circuit then you have to race 6km at 20 an hour which ends up taking like 20 minutes, and with a flat that really takes it out of you. On the technical sections it just becomes almost impossible. Then sometimes you run with the bike, which also makes it harder... Imagine running with a 10kg bike for 10 minutes over rocks :D becomes pretty tiring. I imagine the riders would be pretty up for it, and as a fan I see no reason why not - you'd still lose time with a flat so maybe bad technique is still punished but not by so much your race is over

To your last bit: Mtb guys and gals are among the most laidback and chill people I know, and are usually really friendly. As long as you're willing to rip it up down on the rocks and through the dirt then they let you be part of the crew ;) even if you're bad (like me quite often) then they're still nice to you and let you ride with them, and wait at the bottom a minute or two. Roadies can be slightly more uptight imo. Mtbers are like snowboarders. :D
 
Re:

Brullnux said:
Yeah pits are like pit stops.

I don't think it would really, say over a 6.5km.circuit having two pits, one at the start/finish straight and one in the middle would help the riders considerably. If you get a flat at the start of the circuit then you have to race 6km at 20 an hour which ends up taking like 20 minutes, and with a flat that really takes it out of you. On the technical sections it just becomes almost impossible. Then sometimes you run with the bike, which also makes it harder... Imagine running with a 10kg bike for 10 minutes over rocks :D becomes pretty tiring. I imagine the riders would be pretty up for it, and as a fan I see no reason why not - you'd still lose time with a flat so maybe bad technique is still punished but not by so much your race is over

To your last bit: Mtb guys and gals are among the most laidback and chill people I know, and are usually really friendly. As long as you're willing to rip it up down on the rocks and through the dirt then they let you be part of the crew ;) even if you're bad (like me quite often) then they're still nice to you and let you ride with them, and wait at the bottom a minute or two. Roadies can be slightly more uptight imo. Mtbers are like snowboarders. :D
Thank you for answering my questions, that was very cool of you. :cool:

If you ever have any kind of a mechanical along the road/mountain in my area I'll be sure to help you out as much as I can!
 
Re: Re:

Tricycle Rider said:
jmdirt said:
Two flats usually means poor tire choice, poor skills, or both.

As to having more pits, don't get me started...
Wouldn't that just defeat the whole purpose of MTBing? I mean... never mind.

I'll defer to you guys' opinion, seeing as I know absolutely squat about MTBing.

EDIT: by "pits" you mean pit stops, like in car racing? (Sorry, I just don't know your language. :( )
I am opposed to pits. I think that it was a bad decision by the UCI to add them a few years back.
 

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