Re: Re:
glassmoon said:
King Boonen said:
saganftw said:
King Boonen said:
SKSemtex said:
nothing against Kulhavy, he is great rider a fun to watch, but his popularity and his contribution to sale potential of bikes are way behind Sagan ones.
It looks like you and Kokoso were right regarding the Lami and Haring spot and he is probably pissed a lot then, unless he has got his compensation as well

.
Sorry but this is rubbish. It's mountain biking, not road biking. Likely result is Sagan finishes mid-pack and no-one gives what he's riding a second thought.
the real MTB pros who qualified for the spot have even less chance to score a result than sagan,so what exactly is the benefit of giving them a spot?
Proof? Based on results he was beated by a guy who hardly placed better than Lami in his last WC XCO race.
If it's about making a stir give the spot to John Voight. His granddad was a Slovakian. Pretty sure that'll get more press than Sagan...
he fought for the first place until the flat tire - still managed 4th place.
week earlier in Austria, he was in the front too but crashed. Lami/Haring would be outside top 10 in those races for sure.
Actually no, Lami would likely be within the top 10 and pushing towards top 5 based on his performances. But that doesn't change the fact that Sagan has finished one race where basically none of his competition for Olympic medals were riding and didn't win.
he was junior WCH and 4th @ U23 WCH when Lami was 40th in elite (2009).
He came 4th in a race 7 years ago... Woohoo! There is quite a big step up there you realise. Go look at how Jens Schuermans, Anton Cooper, Daniele Braidot etc. are doing in the pros. Even guys like Grant Ferguson and Ondrej Cink aren't challenging for regular podiums on the XCO world cup. In fact I'm struggling to think of an U23 WC podium place since 2009 who are a threat other than Mathias Flückiger and it was 2010 when he
won the U23s. You need to go back to the U23s of 2008, I'll let you look up who won that one.
Skarnitzl has also a lot more cca 20th places in W-Cup than Lami who is more or less around 40-50th.
both Lami and Haring were scheduled for XCO race where PS finished 4th (after puncture) but they switched it for the race in Slovenia few days before the race - got scarred?
Skarnitzl is a no hoper and he still beat Sagan. Jiri Novak beat him and he's consistently worse than Lami in the world rankings. Ruben Scheire beat him, and it's only this year (where athletes will be varying their training for an Olympics) that he's been ranked higher than Lami in the last three years (when he started racing seniors).
the Olympic qualification is taking place for 2 yrs and it's absolutely normal to send the currently the top rider rather than someone who gained the points. yes, there wasn't proper national qualification or direct comparison but there is actually no one who follows cycling thinking that he isn't better than Lami/Haring.
The current top rider is Lami, ranked 74. Sagan is ranked 122. Haring is ranked 120. Don't try and make this about merit, it clearly isn't as Sagan has in no way earned the spot. And the point isn't that he is better or worse than Lami or Haring (I think he'll probably do as well as Lami would), it's that he has been given the spot because of his name. Even Cavendish has bothered actually racing against his competition in his attempt to get back on the track, Sagan hasn't.
Skills regarding - it's pretty clear he got more than 1/2 xco world cup riders anyway. and the track in Rio isn't so technical as in the world cup and is a lot faster/smoother.
i think he for sure knows what he's doing.
Is it? I don't see any proof of that at all because he hasn't competed against them. This sounds like a typical "roadie" opinion of XC riding when actually the skill levels have changed massively.
Sagan has been picked because he is Sagan. That's fine, I pretty much agree with Netserk's post on that, they can pick who they want. But it's certainly fair if Lami feels annoyed and there is no way to justify it in a sporting sense, it's a PR gamble, pure and simple.