Olympic Road Race Men

[gingerwallaceafro]

They were a little unlucky but they would have needed a lot of luck for this strategy to have worked

As others have said ...

Option 1 Put someone in the break.

Option 2 Stop riding at the front ... Force someone else to take up the pace. It was obvious that they were going to ride on the front all day.

I struggle to understand what Germany had as a plan? AND I'm the end both Spain and Italy seemed very short on ideas.

T

Exactly, send someone up the road early doors, good housekeeping.

 

[Franklin]

AND I'm the end both Spain and Italy seemed very short on ideas.

T

Spain certainly did have a plan and it really worked. I'd go as far as to say they were as instrumental in the coup as was Swiss. Spain got three riders including Sanchez and Valverde in the break. That's a good base for any plan. But in the end the legs need to do it.

And well, Nibbles really put down the hammer, some would say he had a score to settle.

 

[thehog]

Who would've taken up the chase?

Germany for one. A smaller nation. Something eventually gets organized. Even if it doesn't just ride a slower tempo and let the break grow.

Killing your 4 man lead out train from kilometer 4 wasn't going to win them the race.

They should have waited. GB played their hand from the start and once everyone saw it they just followed until they blew.

The real race was with 20km. If Sky were rested the final breakaway never would have got away.

Explain to me how Cancellera is allowed to ride into a breakaway group with 22km to go!!! Crazy.

GB lost the race with stupidity and over confidence.

 

[gingerwallaceafro]

Germany for one. A smaller nation. Something eventually gets organized. Even if it doesn't just ride a slower tempo and let the break grow.

Killing your 4 man lead out train from kilometer 4 wasn't going to win them the race.

They should have waited. GB played their hand from the start and once everyone saw it they just followed until they blew.

The real race was with 20km. If Sky were rested the final breakaway never would have got away.

Explain to me how Cancellera is allowed to ride into a breakaway group with 22km to go!!! Crazy.


GB lost the race with stupidity and over confidence.

I agree with all you say other than the first point.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Talking of swallowing pride..

Yeah I said a guy who won the TDF was going to do well, and that a guy who had won three GT's and two TDF podiums was a better GT rider than a guy who up till that point had only a Vuelta podium. I don't regret saying that at all.

After all the Sky fanboyism past few weeks and the incredibly arrogant style of riding of Britain today, I feel a moderate fail by Britain is a bit refreshing. That's all.

Sheesh.

 

[thehog]

I agree with all you say other than the first point.

Doesn't matter. They had the fastest sprinter in the race. Everyone else had to make the race for it not to turn into a bunch sprint. So what did Sky do? Rode for 5 hours straight, tire themselves out and with 20km to go they couldn't follow attacks. Which is what every other team wanted.

What did HTC do to win Cav 25 stages? Wait till 40km to go, form a chase, catch the breakaway and win the stage.

 

[Silhouette]

For all the talk about a team event with an individual medallist, the three medallists seem to have had success without any appreciable team support. Kristoff didn't see another Norwegian jersey all day, and Vino saw little of Bazayev for most of the race: Henao was in the break with Urán, but little evidence of active team tactics.

Kristoff certainly had some help from Nordhaug.

I think GB could have pulled off their crazy strategy with one more man on their team, somebody like EBH who could have spared Wiggins some of the early work.

 

[Caruut]

Hey all,

Just got back from the road race, have had an incredible day. Didn't end up tweeting after my phone buried itself trying to find signal. I was stationed about halfway up a small climb just after Box Hill, coming straight after a descent.

With 2 hours to go, we arrived on the roadside. With hedges either side and just a small bit of space, we were only one person deep. I was there with 5 others from my family - my dad, brother and 3 cousins. Even though the race wasn't scheduled to come through for 2 hours, over-zealous stewards insisted on us remaining inside a 20cm zone at the side of the road for the 2 hours until the race actually arrived.

Needless to say, when a steward came along, we would all press up against the hedge for about 5 seconds and then return to our original positions. By the time any actual racing came along, the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. There were huge cheers for everyone, especially the British team on the front, but throughout the entire peloton and for the stragglers too - impressive from such an openly partisan crowd.

As much as I am a fan of him, I was sort of adopting "anyone-but-Cav" policy. To see him wearing the gold helmet for the next 4 years wouldn't quite seem right, though of course if it ended as a sprint I would want him to take it. Great Britain rode what seemed to me to be a very tactically naive race. They laid their cards out very obviously very early, and never even seemed to be trying to bluff other teams into working. They seemed to think, like much of the British public, that this was a Grand Tour flat stage.

Despite the best efforts of the stewards, I think everyone on our little hill had an absolutely fantastic time. My family just managed to get to a pub in time to see the attack from Uran and counter from Vino. Despite Cav being obviously out of it, an entire pub-full of people who clearly weren't bg racing fans were absolutely enthralled by the finale.

As Vinokourov crossed the line, there applause from many in the pub. A nice gesture from a crowd that had been there to see the home favourite take the gold.

As for myself, I was supporting Fabian - gutted to see what happened to him, really made me quite sad. Glad to see a fantastic, attacking rider take one of the biggest results of his life in the twilight of his career. The race ended up far better than it looked like it might be, and GB learned that there is more to bike racing than wattage.

All in all, a great day of cycling, and a great day for British cycling.

Caruut.

 

[Kwibus]

Couldn't agree more (obviously as Swiss). And this makes me incredibly sad. Such an opportunity will not come again. Such a strong Swiss team with a Fabs in top form again. And again he crashes. And even worse, seems to be injured seriously again. Cycling can be cruel sometimes. But a fascinating and great sport.

I must say it was sad to see Cancellara crash and to see him ride after that.
He was a big favourite for the win if he didn't crash. A BIG favourite.
Such a shame as these races could improve his legend, but he bad luck seems to be on his side this year.

 

[gingerwallaceafro]

Doesn't matter. They had the fastest sprinter in the race. Everyone else had to make the race for it not to turn into a bunch sprint. So what did Sky do? Rode for 5 hours straight, tire themselves out and with 20km to go they couldn't follow attacks. Which is what every other team wanted.

What did HTC do to win Cav 25 stages? Wait till 40km to go, form a chase, catch the breakaway and win the stage.

Course it matters. From your scenario, they're relying on everyone else to do the work until the end. Everyone else has a guy in the break up the road, everyone's waiting on GB, no one's going to do any work after the World's and getting a kicking in the Tour.

 

[Alpechraxler]

Swiss had 3 in the break and came out with nothing. Unlucky? For sure. But you cannot always control everything.

you're wrong there were 4 ! Schär, Rast and Albasini and Cancellara. at least the 3 first mentioned had imho a huge impact on the race and the brake not getting caught.

 

[Machu Picchu]

Naff race with a good finish, didn't mind which of the two won the gold, either would have been fine be me

Team GSkyB have no-one to blame but themselves, they seemed to believe all that 'Dream Team' nonsense and thought that they could do it by themselves.

Funny:
"We were always working at Mark's pace, so we couldn't react to those things" David Millar (re: breakaways).

 

[Franklin]

Course it matters. From your scenario, they're relying on everyone else to do the work until the end. Everyone else has a guy in the break up the road, everyone's waiting on GB, no one's going to do any work after the World's and getting a kicking in the Tour.

Germany in 2000 didn't have a problem with tactics with a comparable team.

Just saying

 

[Kwibus]

Hey all,

Just got back from the road race, have had an incredible day. Didn't end up tweeting after my phone buried itself trying to find signal. I was stationed about halfway up a small climb just after Box Hill, coming straight after a descent.

With 2 hours to go, we arrived on the roadside. With hedges either side and just a small bit of space, we were only one person deep. I was there with 5 others from my family - my dad, brother and 3 cousins. Even though the race wasn't scheduled to come through for 2 hours, over-zealous stewards insisted on us remaining inside a 20cm zone at the side of the road for the 2 hours until the race actually arrived.

Needless to say, when a steward came along, we would all press up against the hedge for about 5 seconds and then return to our original positions. By the time any actual racing came along, the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. There were huge cheers for everyone, especially the British team on the front, but throughout the entire peloton and for the stragglers too - impressive from such an openly partisan crowd.

As much as I am a fan of him, I was sort of adopting "anyone-but-Cav" policy. To see him wearing the gold helmet for the next 4 years wouldn't quite seem right, though of course if it ended as a sprint I would want him to take it. Great Britain rode what seemed to me to be a very tactically naive race. They laid their cards out very obviously very early, and never even seemed to be trying to bluff other teams into working. They seemed to think, like much of the British public, that this was a Grand Tour flat stage.

Despite the best efforts of the stewards, I think everyone on our little hill had an absolutely fantastic time. My family just managed to get to a pub in time to see the attack from Uran and counter from Vino. Despite Cav being obviously out of it, an entire pub-full of people who clearly weren't bg racing fans were absolutely enthralled by the finale.

As Vinokourov crossed the line, there applause from many in the pub. A nice gesture from a crowd that had been there to see the home favourite take the gold.

As for myself, I was supporting Fabian - gutted to see what happened to him, really made me quite sad. Glad to see a fantastic, attacking rider take one of the biggest results of his life in the twilight of his career. The race ended up far better than it looked like it might be, and GB learned that there is more to bike racing than wattage.

All in all, a great day of cycling, and a great day for British cycling.

Caruut.

Well written!

Good you had a great time out there. The crowds were massive during the entire race which was impressive!
Gesink and Boom mentioned the crowd as well. They had never seen such a huge crowd before. Boom said his ears were still hurting from all the cheering.

 

[Andy99]

Great day, even though I'm not personally thrilled with the winner.

Many predicted a boring race - it was far from it.

Only let down for me was the TV coverage and lack of timings. TV coverage was by NOS. I thought they would have done a better job?

 

[thehog]

Course it matters. From your scenario, they're relying on everyone else to do the work until the end. Everyone else has a guy in the break up the road, everyone's waiting on GB, no one's going to do any work after the World's and getting a kicking in the Tour.

That's fine. Just because no other team will work then why work yourself? What are you losing out on? The break still has to ride. By riding at the front and keeping the break at 3-2 minutes all day meant NO other team was going to go to the front. With gaps like that why would you? Now if it was 15 minutes then maybe a few teams other teams had to do something about it.

 

[Arnout]

Great day, even though I'm not personally thrilled with the winner.

Many predicted a boring race - it was far from it.

Only let down for me was the TV coverage and lack of timings. TV coverage was by NOS. I thought they would have done a better job?

No, NOS is bad. Their commentators are worse than Paul and Phil and their production is even worse. Ever saw Amstel Gold Race? Worst produced race on the calender. No idea why Olympic team chose them.

 

[Caruut]

They rode as if Brailsford had told them that there were 4 more members of the team at the back of the peloton, just ready to drill it for the last 20km. Then it gets to 20km and they were surprised that it was just the 5 of them.

 

[will10]

you're wrong there were 4 ! Schär, Rast and Albasini and Cancellara. at least the 3 first mentioned had imho a huge impact on the race and the brake not getting caught.

Absolutely spot on. Yeah, they've come away with nothing after Fabian's crash but GB were drilling it after the last climb and got no closer to the break, mainly due to the Swiss contribution to the break.

 

[will10]

They rode as if Brailsford had told them that there were 4 more members of the team at the back of the peloton, just ready to drill it for the last 20km. Then it gets to 20km and they were surprised that it was just the 5 of them.

IMO they gambled on getting some more help in the final 30km if they'd got the break within touching distance.

 

[doperhopper]

wow uran and vino must have made the negotiations while riding away from a charging peloton and chase group

takes two seconds:

Vino: 100 000
Uran: OK

(Kolobnev approves)

 

[Andy99]

No, NOS is bad. Their commentators are worse than Paul and Phil and their production is even worse. Ever saw Amstel Gold Race? Worst produced race on the calender. No idea why Olympic team chose them.

Yeah, its a strange set-up overall.

Olympic Broadcast Services is a IOC owned Spanish monopoly which sub contracts each event to so called expert broadcasters!

 

[thehog]

They rode as if Brailsford had told them that there were 4 more members of the team at the back of the peloton, just ready to drill it for the last 20km. Then it gets to 20km and they were surprised that it was just the 5 of them.

Every race in the history of the sport has an early break that gets 15 minutes up the road.

For some reason Sky thought they needed to keep it in check the entire race and leave it at 4 minutes. If I was any other team I wouldn't help with a nice gap like that ready to attack with 20km to go!

 

[Caruut]

IMO they gambled on getting some more help in the final 30km if they'd got the break within touching distance.

They had a group of like 20 up the road. Only the Germans (who were lacking their big powerhouse Martin - he dropped out on about lap 6) had a top-level sprinter and no-one in the break. They should have tried to force the others to work a bit at least.

 

[The Sheep]

BBC aren't happy with the broadcast either

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/bbc-olympic-broadcasting-services-cycling?newsfeed=true