Olympic Road Race Men

[Opalius]

Van Garderen the real hero.

I can think of a number of riders who animated this race about ten times more.

Great fourth place to him anyways, but the real hero of this race? Nah...

 

[Kwibus]

Jill Douglas interview with Vino disgraceful.

Please tell us more?

 

[auscyclefan94]

Where were the Aussie and German teams???? You had two of the best sprinters in the race and (Martin apart and a little bit too late by the Germans) did nothing for them.

Did the Aussie's really not chase for Goss because they thought O'Grady was going to win the sprint?

Really feel for Cancellara (and the Swiss team who were playing a blinder for him) - he must have been a strong favourite to take Gold from that group and he must be in doubt for the Time Trial now.

O'Grady was and still can be a very good sprinter. Team GB and Germany still had riders left and their sprinters who are faster than Goss were still remaining so chasing would have been very stupid for Australia.

 

[Bala Verde]

True enough. What were Sanchez and Valverde waiting for 30 riders back then?

I don't know, but LLS should have been with Vino and Uran. He is that type of rider; sly and knows when to put in the effort to seal the deal.

Valverde probably had to wait for another team to bridge the gap and then sprint. He couldn't risk killing himself. He could rely on his sprint.

Boom, I had expected a little more of him. He was right there in the final. He should have been with the final break as well.

Gilbert had already done a ton of work.

The Italians were quite absent at the finish. Nibali made the race hard, but then there was no one.

 

[elapid]

For real?!

O'Grady is a dinosaur and wasn't going to challenge for anything. Australia did nothing today, nothing! And with guys like Gerrans, Goss and Evans, that's a huge fail!

Were you watching the same race as everyone else? O'Grady was in the sprint for third and ended up fifth. That's not even a fail let alone a huge fail.

Where were the other cycling powerhouses? No Italy, no Spain, no Belgium. Then no GB and no Germany. In that company of failures, Australia was nowhere near a fail.

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Complete crap. Uran made one mistake and Vino pounced. It's a shame people have to **** all over someone's victory. Well done Vino.

Hypocrisy and outright racism are still abound.

 

[UlleGigo]

Fantastic tactics by Australia. Hope that Great Britain will tow them to the break so their best chance to win (Goss), can sprint it out. Then come to the front with 10 kms to go when the race is already over. O'Grady was never going to win after being in the break all day. Pathetic tactics but O'Grady gave it his best.

Whinge whinge whinge. He finished third in his group. Goss was a chance to finish 3rd in a sprint. So how is that pathetic?

Typical reaction though I must say.

 

[thehog]

Disagree. This is probably Vino's swansong. And a finish like this will be remembered much more fondly and reflect much better on the sport as a spectacle than a tightly controlled lovefest ending in a sprint.

Remember how dope or no dope, every year when we get to the end of the Tour people discuss the chances of somebody 'doing a Vino'? We don't get that about any of the sprints.

We needed Sky(GB) to TTT for 250km. That would be a victory for "humane" cycling.

I love Vino winning! McQuaid might try and DQ the first 34 place getters to give Cav the win.

I'm looking forward to Wiggins making dubious comments about Vino.

 

[will10]

GB were dead with 25km to go. O'Grady was sitting on covering the moves. That was the time for Australia to ride.

 

[webbie146]

Very cool that Vino won!

Very sad though to see Canc crossing the finish line and crying

 

[Richeypen]

Disagree. This is probably Vino's swansong. And a finish like this will be remembered much more fondly and reflect much better on the sport as a spectacle than a tightly controlled lovefest ending in a sprint.

Remember how dope or no dope, every year when we get to the end of the Tour people discuss the chances of somebody 'doing a Vino'? We don't get that about any of the sprints.

That is within the cycling community though. For the good of the perception of cycling it would have been preferable that a young exciting untarnished rider won(Sagan, EBH etc). You can almost guarenty that every paper article written about today will contain info about his past and that is not for the benefit of the sport.

Like I said in my first post though, in terms of spectacle and style, the finish was great.

 

[Bavarianrider]

No radios, small team= real racing!

 

[Walkman]

A dinosaur won today. Both 38 y/o.

I know, but for whatever reason, I'd say ther is a certain difference between Vino and O'Grady.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

Better to have O'Grady in the break (who was 5th and sprinting for bronze BTW, not so bad) than drag Cavendish to the line in the unlikely chance that Goss would beat him. IMO, O'Grady had just as good a chance as anyone else in that break and a better chance than Goss against Cavendish. Maybe Goss for a minor medal. It was up to GB and Germany to drag the peloton back IMO and they failed. Because this was on home soil for GB and they way they had been talking prior to the race, this result was an even bigger fail and they only have themselves to blame.

But Cancellara is probably out, so they have a good chance to redeem themselves in the TT.

O'Grady had been in that break since the start. He did not get a medal. I would argue that Goss would have got a medal given a sprint finish. Australia come out with nothing. Cav had been saying if it came to a finish he would bring it home. He was fully aware the people would not give it to him on a plate.

We are going to have to agree to disagree on that one.

 

[El Pistolero]

Strong sprint by Boonen and Greipel by the way. Cav was also sprinting but came up short.

 

[CobbleStoner]

Uran - coward, rode for silver as soon as they had a gap
Spain - cowards, three guys in the break and they all sit on

how many olympic silver medals have you won? Uran did exactly what he needed to do, if he just stayed in that group he would have finished 29th, when he attacked he wanted 1 or 2 guys to go with him and when he saw it was Vino, perfect, he killed himself working together to get the gap, knowing Vino will easily beat him in any sprint. if he attacked Vino, he never would have stayed away, great ride by Uran. perfect execution of a best possible plan for his abilities, and lucky for Vino he's a strong rider that knew his place along with him, no deal needed, they both knew the outcome when they saw their gap growing, I would do the same, silver at the olympics is pretty sweet.

 

[Konfronto]

True champion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vino!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now everything will be great for me also!!!!!!!!!!! I was with you all these years!!!!!!!!! Wins, failures, again wins!!!!!! Fate was not an easy thing to you! But it is all behind!!!!!!!11you proved to be a man of heart, dignity, enormous strength!!!! Both mental and physical! I have no words to express my fellings! Kazakhstan is with you! Oh, vino! You give me strength to go forward, make myself better! Super vino, grande vino! True champion and hero of kazakhstan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Christian]

Great to see "small" cycling nations stick it to the English! Vino is not my favourite rider but still big respect for this win!

 

[Parrot23]

Great race, great crowds, but fishy ending, it really seems, unless Uran is plain dumb.

 

[The Hitch]

But you get your nose up about Sky and Lance. Don't you think that is hypocritical?

While I agree that hog is a hypocrite i suppose the point is that, with lance anyway he is still treated as a great, greatest ever and most people ignore anything else.

Vino meanwhile did the same thing but is treated aas evil for it
he is the scapegoat so chats why one might be far more sympathetic to vino who has ptaken a big punishment, and lance who has so far gone free.

 

[Kwibus]

why did anybody think Uran would beat Vino in a sprint? KA Arvesen from sky comented in the last 5k that Uran probably had no chance.

Uran actually has a pretty good sprint.

 

[Fourier]

We needed Sky(GB) to TTT for 250km. That would be a victory for "humane" cycling.

I love Vino winning! McQuaid might try and DQ the first 34 place getters to give Cav the win.

I'm looking forward to Wiggins making dubious comments about Vino.

Sky should take the high road and keep their mouths shut. They did not lose to Vino, they lost to quite a large group. No excuses.

 

[Don't be late Pedro]

We needed Sky(GB) to TTT for 250km. That would be a victory for "humane" cycling.

I love Vino winning! McQuaid might try and DQ the first 34 place getters to give Cav the win.

I'm looking forward to Wiggins making dubious comments about Vino.

Wow, you are such a hypocrite it is almost amusing.

 

[Bala Verde]

Complete crap. Uran made one mistake and Vino pounced. It's a shame people have to **** all over someone's victory. Well done Vino.

That's what I thought too. Then they showed a replay of a moment at 1-2Km before the line where they were talking.

It really looks like they made a deal. Has nothing to do with 'crapping over a rider' because he was still there 2 men in front; he was there when it mattered, so he did great; he could have won on his own; perhaps, if he negotiated, he just added a little security. And selling a race like that just happens in cycling, so don't say it's totally impossible.

The 'boneheaded' move from Uran was so stupid, I just can't believe he made such a bad mistake.

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

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.