Olympic Road Race Men

[Escarabajo]

BBC News reort on race "instead Vinokourov,one of cyclings convicted drugs cheats...." weep

Because they wanted one of their clean riders to win. LOL.

Congratulations to Uran. We are half happy. We are happy because silver is a great thing for him and for Colombia. It is huge. But we are sad because I felt that Uran was the better of the two riders and Gold would have been one of the greatest things that would have happened to our country.

 

[Opalius]

as far as written stuff goes



http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18909585

mentions it there right at the bottom

And this is what they write about the winner: "Vinokourov, who served a two-year ban after testing positive for blood doping during the 2007 Tour de France, is quitting cycling after the Games."

And that is subsequently also what the average sports interested person will read. Not so great for the sport.

Great race though. Great move by Vino. Bad move or whatever from Uran.

 

[El Pistolero]

Will Vino still quit now? I hope he does, nothing good will come from him if he remains longer. It can only go downhill from here.

 

[Cimber]

I will go as far as saying Uran robbed the olympic gold from Kristoff. Having trouble finding words for how *** Uran rode the last 5k.

Most stupid comment of the day.

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Pity Cancellara crashed, the confusion after it was enough to let Vino slip away

You haven't watched the race, haven't you?
Vino was right there when Canc crashed. He had to stop to avoid crushing into him and stopped completely.

Then he returned into the head of the group and the rest is history now.

 

[maxmartin]

Cant imaginr the Beeb saying "David Millar (GB) convicted drug cheat and the winner nobody would have wanted".

Can't understand why GB didnt put Froome in the early break so they didnt have to chase? and then to expect help from the Germans just because they f**ked up as well, just shows that without race radios lots of good racing occurs..

Cav won't allow that happen

 

[la.margna]

Conclusion: Cycling without radios and smaller teams makes everything turning out much more adventurous, unpredictable and opens up potential for surprises. Was a great race. I felt like a rider without a radio too. Information on TV was not olympic level at all. No regular gaps, distances, km to go, profiles, graphs, etc. 1 out of 10? But at least the race was good except this one crash that still hurts me so much..

 

[Richeypen]

Can't understand why GB didnt put Froome in the early break so they didnt have to chase? and then to expect help from the Germans just because they f**ked up as well, just shows that without race radios lots of good racing occurs.

Because other teams wouldnt have let a break with a GB rider go. Its not as easy as 'putting a man in the break'

 

[Richeypen]

Conclusion: Cycling without radios and smaller teams makes everything turning out much more adventurous, unpredictable and opens up potential for surprises. Was a great race. I felt like a rider without a radio too. Information on TV was not olympic level at all. No regular gaps, distances, km to go, profiles, graphs, etc. 1 out of 10? But at least the race was good except this one crash that still hurts me so much..

TBH all it really did was confirm that one day races are generally more exciting than stages. Oh and once again it the riders who make the race, not the parcours

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Will Vino still quit now? I hope he does, nothing good will come from him if he remains longer. It can only go downhill from here.

I hope he baits the UCI by drawing up an Olympic champ jersey, a bit like this:

He can then ride out the season, getting fined in every race he enters for an inappropriate jersey, but just rubbing it in Pat McQuaid's face.

 

[hrotha]

Because other teams wouldnt have let a break with a GB rider go. Its not as easy as 'putting a man in the break'

So it would be other teams doing the work, not Britain on the front for 250 km.

They overestimated their own capabilities. Hubris. Ofermod.

 

[JibberJim]

TBH all it really did was confirm that one day races are generally more exciting than stages. Oh and once again it the riders who make the race, not the parcours

And that a race where winning is worth lots more in cash than any other monument also encourages aggressive racing. And having more teams involved... and...

 

[Angliru]

Uran sold the gold to Vino, it seems from watching some replay of a conversation between the 2.

Nevertheless, he still had to have the legs to put himself in the position to "allegedly" negotiate his way to an Olympic win. I'd prefer to enjoy this for now and let all the speculation and accusations of impropriety come later.

 

[thehog]

So it would be other teams doing the work, not Britain on the front for 250 km.

They overestimated their own capabilities. Hubris. Ofermod.

Agreed.

I kept thinking why are they chasing? They should have let the gap go out which would have forced other teams to work. They just kept chasing and chasing and I'm not sure why.

Wel done to Gilbert and Nibili for setting the trap for Sky to fall into.

 

[JibberJim]

So it would be other teams doing the work, not Britain on the front for 250 km.

They overestimated their own capabilities. Hubris. Ofermod.

Yeah but no-one in Britain's team would win from a break on that course... they'd just help the break to victory, they've all got worse sprints than Cancellara and the course does not suit any of them in the break either.

 

[Richeypen]

So it would be other teams doing the work, not Britain on the front for 250 km.

They overestimated their own capabilities. Hubris. Ofermod.

No. The other teams would raise the pace every time a British rider went away until the BOTD formed without a British rider. All it would have done was have an insanely fast first 20-30kms and knacker the GB riders out quicker.

 

[Franklin]

It's hindsight really. Most of us thought they could pull it of (I sure did). Only when Nibbles and Gilbert started to put down the hammer I started to realize I hadn't thought it through.

With hindsight they just should have done a big coup and gamble on Wiggo, Froome and Millar who had splendid form. It would have upset most tactical plans. And if Australia and Germany had picked up halfways you would still have Cav.

Working from 4 km out of the gate was insane.

No. The other teams would raise the pace every time a British rider went away until the BOTD formed without a British rider. All it would have done was have an insanely fast first 20-30kms and knacker the GB riders out quicker.

Nonsense. They didn't have to do anything the first 100km. By sitting up front from 4km they made sure everyone would ride against them.

 

[hrotha]

Agreed.

I kept thinking why are they chasing? They should have let the gap go out which would have forced other teams to work. They just kept chasing and chasing and I'm not sure why.

Because they couldn't allow such a big group to take too much time. But they couldn't sustain it in the long run. They should have either chased to catch the breakaway as soon as possible, hoping the next one was more manageable, or bluff so that Australia would help. Instead, they decided to tackle this like a Tour stage, but with half the personnel.

Yeah but no-one in Britain's team would win from a break on that course... they'd just help the break to victory, they've all got worse sprints than Cancellara and the course does not suit any of them in the break either.

In a 30-man breakaway, anything can happen. Vino won, he won in Paris once too. Urán is not exactly suited for this course either. Froome or Millar would have had their chances too.

 

[Angliru]

I think you are all being absurd thinking Uran sold the race. He has limited experience in a situation like that. He made a mistake against a vastly more experienced, much cleverer rider who also has a better jump.

I'm of the belief that Uran did all he could to keep their break alive on extremely tired legs. Prior to the final turn, he knew Vino was stronger and was at that point riding for 2nd, thus the inopportune turn to see who was there to threaten his silver medal.

@will10: I can't see how you can call Uran a coward or the Spaniards who just may not have had the legs left to do more than hang on to the group they were in especially Castroviejo who'd been in that break sharing the work load for nice portion of the race.

 

[hrotha]

No. The other teams would raise the pace every time a British rider went away until the BOTD formed without a British rider. All it would have done was have an insanely fast first 20-30kms and knacker the GB riders out quicker.

What other teams? Assuming only Australia and Germany didn't bother playing the breakaway card, it would have been them trying to control the big groups. We saw big breaks all day - that wouldn't have changed if the Brits had been involved in them.

 

[Franklin]

Because they couldn't allow such a big group to take too much time. But they couldn't sustain it in the long run. They should have either chased to catch the breakaway as soon as possible, hoping the next one was more manageable, or bluff so that Australia would help. Instead, they decided to tackle this like a Tour stage, but with half the personnel.

In a 30-man breakaway, anything can happen. Vino won, he won in Paris once too. Urán is not exactly suited for this course either. Froome or Millar would have had their chances too.

For that matter, Wiggins would have been a force to reckon with. Had he shadowed Canc he would have been in the break and definitely would have a good chance of riding away at the end.

The tactics seemed logical, but they a(and we) should have known cycling isn't THAT easy.

 

[Richeypen]

Nonsense. They didn't have to do anything the first 100km. By sitting up front from 4km they made sure everyone would ride against them.

And what does that have to do with my comment. Why quote me if you arnt going to write anything relevant?

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

They should have let the gap go out which would have forced other teams to work. They just kept chasing and chasing and I'm not sure why.

Wel done to Gilbert and Nibili for setting the trap for Sky to fall into.

Well, the gap did go out - to the point where it was never bridged - and no one really helped. So your argument makes no sense?

What did Gilbert and Nibali achieve for their countries?

 

[The Sheep]

Will Vino still quit now? I hope he does, nothing good will come from him if he remains longer. It can only go downhill from here.

'It's final. My career ends here. Wednesday's time trial is my ultimate race'

That's a quote from Vino

 

[Franklin]

A good example of good tactics with a comparable team:

Ulrich in 2000. He rode away with Klodi (and Vino), while at the back they had Erik in the wings.