Olympic Road Race (men’s) 2024 (August 3rd)

[Coffeeplanter]

I mean, preparing and peaking just for the Olympics was de facto a mistake, because this race is such a lottery that there is no preparing. You need a lot of luck to win, more so than in other races. For example, I don't think Mathieu can look back at this race and say that he made a mistake. He did exactly what he had to do: attack on Montmartre. Yet he never saw the front of the race.

There is so little control a rider is very limited in what it can do. The likely situation was always going to be that a group of semi-favorites (although I expected different names up front, tbh), were going to get a gap on the local circuit. If you are basically a one man team and can't outright drop everyone, you're pretty much doomed. The race is just one paradox. The route was probably the easiest we've ever had in the Olympics, which made it the hardest if you are the 5* favourite.

This is why I've been questioning the choice of Mathieu to go all in on this race for a while. It might hold not as much prestige, but gold was up for grabs in XCO. Trying to combine the two would have made a lot more sense, to me at least.

 

[tobydawq]

I'm late to the party. Brilliant race.
Remco's taken such a massive step forward this year. He had to be supremely confident after his TdF and the TT gold. He simply rode others off his wheel today. At this point, Pog and Remco are 1-2 as overall top racers in the pro peloton. WvA is 3rd, even though he's had a tough season since the crash. MvdP has been invisible since the spring classics.

Anyway, I like Tom Pidcock, but he's like Remco except with a bigger mouth and smaller legs.

It's as if people have completely forgotten about Wollongong and Liège '22 and '23.

The underestimation of Remco this year has been surreal.

 

[scribers]

MVP last august was much better than the one this august. '23 MVP would have won this race today

 

[Oldermanish]

Great points. Fortunately I watched a Belgian broadcast with zero commercials during the finale. Announcers did get a bit excited though . . . 😉

I hope the broadcasters got excited! I was yelling F......................CK! the entire time the commercials were playing. I wanted to hear the fans on that climb. Gotta be chilling for Remco to have that boost of positive energy!

 

[Leinster]

Or they could do away with the sprint stage on the Champs and have this instead.

I’ve often wondered what the Champs stage would look like if it was a bit more demanding (like the Monjuic stage in Catalonia). Now at least we know that Paris has the terrain to do it.

 

[Ripper]

Pidcocks post race comments are interesting said the mountain bike race took a lot out of him, understandably

But this feels like a dig at the BC & selection "we're all British and we all know each other, but we don't race on the road together and we had no radios. We only get one chance of this when you're in a road team - here you only get one shot at the Olympics. It's important to be able to work together as a team."

Then literally says the plan was just to go and have fun

13th. Tom Pidcock (6:21:24)
31st. Stevie Williams (6:23:16)
43rd. Fred Wright (6:26:57)
47th. Josh Tarling (6:26:57)

Well the hot take here is the reason the XCO took a lot out of Pidcock is because that is what he has been preparing for and focusing on ... I think he has said so himself. Considering he and Josh ride on the same team, and they had buckets of time to determine team tactics, I'd take his BC comments as classic BMW.

Pidcock is an absolute natural on the MTB - a beast and so technically smooth and adept ... so fun to watch on the XCO circuit. But he seems to regularly run his mouth in a jacka*sian way, and his legs often don't match his comments insofar as stage races. It has been beaten to death elsewhere, but they should really give up the ghost for GT leadership for him. Of course, that would likely mean a drop in salary (at least at Ineos), which I don't think Tommy could stomach.

 

[Ripper]

I hope the broadcasters got excited! I was yelling F......................CK! the entire time the commercials were playing. I wanted to hear the fans on that climb. Gotta be chilling for Remco to have that boost of positive energy!

Pretty amazing coverage. Fortunately the CBC did not cut to commercials too much in the finale (but there were some questionable cuts to scenery by the host feed). The commentary was terrible though. One fella a) confused Remco repeatedly with Wout (like WTF) and then at one point around mid race, in an effort to say something he said - "oh there's a race official, blowing his whistle" ... LMFAO

 

[Cookster15]

Legend, never in doubt. Congrats to Remco and Belgium. Love when a hyped up talent delivers. And boy has Remco delivered in the last few weeks!

Before the race we said the strength of Belgium, the reduced team sizes and the course looked perfect for a Remco solo attack and that is exactly what happened. Just too strong. I don't get the hate either. Maybe two years ago I questioned he was being hyped by some, but I just totally respect any rider who is strong enough to do what he does.

 

[red_flanders]

Hell of a courageous ride by Madouas to hang on for silver. He was DYING on the wheel for quite a while, and when he got dropped it looked ugly. But he rallied to hold off a group of major riders. Gutsy as heck to hang on like that.

Chapeau.

 

[Blanco]

I'm late to the party. Brilliant race.
Remco's taken such a massive step forward this year. He had to be supremely confident after his TdF and the TT gold. He simply rode others off his wheel today. At this point, Pog and Remco are 1-2 as overall top racers in the pro peloton. WvA is 3rd, even though he's had a tough season since the crash. MvdP has been invisible since the spring classics.

Anyway, I like Tom Pidcock, but he's like Remco except with a bigger mouth and smaller legs.

But he was pretty visible back then, and it was not too long ago...

 

[awavey]

Well the hot take here is the reason the XCO took a lot out of Pidcock is because that is what he has been preparing for and focusing on ... I think he has said so himself. Considering he and Josh ride on the same team, and they had buckets of time to determine team tactics, I'd take his BC comments as classic BMW.

Pidcock is an absolute natural on the MTB - a beast and so technically smooth and adept ... so fun to watch on the XCO circuit. But he seems to regularly run his mouth in a jacka*sian way, and his legs often don't match his comments insofar as stage races. It has been beaten to death elsewhere, but they should really give up the ghost for GT leadership for him. Of course, that would likely mean a drop in salary (at least at Ineos), which I don't think Tommy could stomach.

well I dont think Tom ever ran his mouth on this road race, the UK press might have talked up chances of a double medal but I dont recall him saying anything of the kind, and I think youve missed the point he made. none of the other favourites for this road race did the XCO, not even MVDP who youd have thought was guaranteed a medal. It was a daft selection choice to pick him for both XCO and road race, and BC didnt have to at all did they ?.

Pidcock was always going to defend his XCO title, so why did BC pick him for this race, they could have at least asked one of the Yates brothers, or G, maybe Oscar Onley and boost one of the other picks to team leader instead.

And this comes back to the point I made earlier about BC and its focus on road racing, in that basically they have none, and Pidcock makes the same point, they picked a bunch of Brits who ride on the road,who know each other as riders but actually never ride together (no BC training camp for them) and BC expect them in a race without radios to instinctively just know what each other is doing and react in the right way.

which is madness. you need to build a team and work together as a team to ensure you get the best results out of one off races like this, which is exactly what Belgium did

and yet we'll see an exact repeat of this lack of focus on the road race from BC in the womens race too.

at some point you cant blame the riders, you have to blame the system theyre working with

 

[red_flanders]

well I dont think Tom ever ran his mouth on this road race, the UK press might have talked up chances of a double medal but I dont recall him saying anything of the kind, and I think youve missed the point he made. none of the other favourites for this road race did the XCO, not even MVDP who youd have thought was guaranteed a medal. It was a daft selection choice to pick him for both XCO and road race, and BC didnt have to at all did they ?.

Pidcock was always going to defend his XCO title, so why did BC pick him for this race, they could have at least asked one of the Yates brothers, or G, maybe Oscar Onley and boost one of the other picks to team leader instead.

And this comes back to the point I made earlier about BC and its focus on road racing, in that basically they have none, and Pidcock makes the same point, they picked a bunch of Brits who ride on the road,who know each other as riders but actually never ride together (no BC training camp for them) and BC expect them in a race without radios to instinctively just know what each other is doing and react in the right way.

which is madness. you need to build a team and work together as a team to ensure you get the best results out of one off races like this, which is exactly what Belgium did

and yet we'll see an exact repeat of this lack of focus on the road race from BC in the womens race too.

at some point you cant blame the riders, you have to blame the system theyre working with

I think those are all valid points.

I also think they don't have a rider who could have won today, whatever the team makeup, allocations, or tactics.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Congratulations to Remco Evenepoel for becoming an Olympic road race gold medallist, Madouas silver and Laporte bronze.

 

[kingjr]

MVP last august was much better than the one this august. '23 MVP would have won this race today

I don't think so. Glasgow was tailor-made for him, much more so than today's course.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

Anyway, I like Tom Pidcock, but he's like Remco except with a bigger mouth and smaller legs.

Except Pidcock is a better road rider than Remco is a MTB rider.......

 

[Ilmaestro99]

For example, I don't think Mathieu can look back at this race and say that he made a mistake. He did exactly what he had to do: attack on Montmartre. Yet he never saw the front of the race.

MVDP is not a smart guy and I'm not so sure he is a good leader without race radio and sport directors

He lost control of the race and let big moves with riders from all major teams go up the road without him or his team being represented

Worked in Flanders in spring when he had 7 brilliant alpecin domestics and was racing against Garcia cortina and Dylen tuens

Won't work in a race like this against a rocket ship like remco and the belge pozzato marking you

Vdp races like a prime dutch pozzato today and although would have been difficult to win the race, he definitely made a mistake

Remco is a more intelligent rider in such a race, although the course was more on his favour today

 

[Leinster]

I think those are all valid points.

I also think they don't have a rider who could have won today, whatever the team makeup, allocations, or tactics.

If Pidcock had made every move Healy made today, at the same time Healy made them, then silver and bronze would have gone to someone other than who got them.

 

[Axel Hangleck]

This is why I've been questioning the choice of Mathieu to go all in on this race for a while. It might hold not as much prestige, but gold was up for grabs in XCO. Trying to combine the two would have made a lot more sense, to me at least.

He needs proper prep to succeed on the MTB; he's completed 3 XCO races since August 2019 when he was the best XCO racer that season. Since then, he's also crashed on the first lap of two major races.......unlike Pidcock, he can't just jump on the MTB and be competitive.
If he really wanted to target the XCO race, then he needed to set aside time for it; that wasn't possible, so going 'all in' on the road race was the correct decision.

 

[gregrowlerson]

I think the race has been way to easy for Evenepoel to win.

This aged about as well as Nairo Quintana.

 

[red_flanders]

If Pidcock had made every move Healy made today, at the same time Healy made them, then silver and bronze would have gone to someone other than who got them.

Seems possible. Same could be said of 20 other riders.

As for Pidcock and Silver or Bronze...

 

[Leinster]

Seems possible. Same could be said of 20 other riders.

As for Pidcock and Silver or Bronze...

Yeah, but he finished 13th. If he was trying to win today, it wasn’t evident.

 

[scribers]

I don’t think this race was a crapshoot at all. Remco wins it 7-8 times out of 10

 

[stekelegel]

Looks so simple for Remco, but it’s just an incredible age of cycling. Before you had great riders winning but they always needed a bit of luck…
Vanderpoel said he thought they got gotten away after his first attack. Maybe bad luck for them that Pedersen missed that break. Remco could have gotten stuck in the Bunch protecting WVA. And then said that when he saw Remco going, he knew the race was done.
Healy was real good today, I wonder if he would have just ridden in the second break and not done the solo if Remco could have dropped him that easy.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

It's great to see such a small nation as Belgium getting some gold medals

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Wow.

What. A. Race.