Re: Re:
SKSemtex said:
King Boonen said:
So Sagan decides he wants to ride the dirt and Lami and Haring are basically told to stick it? Pretty unfair if you ask me.
Haring owns the spot and he has got his compensation. Paid vacation in olympic willage as our rider for road race. Probably he is glad that he does not have to participate and finish one round behind. Who knows? It is Peter who risks a lot. Besides the broken collar bones he is risking the shame oh his life. He will be under microscope watch and he cannot afford not to finish in top ten. When I heard it first time I was pretty pissed he is nor riding the RR but now I am fascinated with his balls.
Why is the sport Haring's, Lami is the national champion isn't he? I thought that would automatically qualify him for the sport.
Saying an athlete would be glad not to participate at the Olympics in the sport they have dedicated their lives to is ridiculous I'm afraid. They travel all over the world to get lapped in the XCO World Cup so I'm very sure they would want to go to the Olympics.
Valv.Piti said:
Sagan obviously has way more star potential than any other and the coverage would be through the roof. It would be fascinating to see one of us telling Sagan that he can't go in the shoes of the Slovakian jury or whoever decides these things
Honestly I think it'll hardly even give a percent bump to ratings. Sagan is famous among cycling fans only, he doesn't transcend the sport and he isn't going to attract many more viewers to the mountain biking than would probably already be watching. In mountain biking Schurter, Albason, Kulhavy etc. are big enough names. Unless he comes in and medals, which seems highly unlikely, just look how well Van Der Poel has done, I doubt they'll even be an article on it outside of the cycling press.
Netserk said:
Boohoo, this is sport not socialism. If the team thinks it can get a better result with Sagan, then that's that. It's not a right to go to the OG, so if he wasn't good enough to secure himself that he got the spot, no biggie.
Don't get me wrong, I don't care much and I have no idea how the Slovakian federation chooses its athletes, it just seems silly. Mathieu Van Der Poel, the guy who was meant to go into XC and tear the competition apart has been rubbish and I would expect his training and abilities are much more suited to XC than Sagans are at the moment.
SKSemtex said:
It could easily be decision beyond Sagan control. Probably people from Specialized with very precise excel table of road bicycle sales of last last 12 months think that with podium or even top 10 on Olympic XCO race they can boost they sale of mountain bikes considerably. Even for them is very rare opportunity. Who knows. Who cars.
I just wonder why UCI did not want to give the wild card to him. Who could race both and they could profit from it as well.
Boost Specialized MTB bike sales? Specialized have Jaroslav Kulhavy, current Olympic champion on their bikes. I don't think Sagan riding them would have much of an effect if any at all.
As for podium or even top 10? Look how well Van Der Poel has done.