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Rio 2016 Olympic Road Race and Time Trial courses

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Re: Re:

yaco said:
dirkprovin said:
yaco said:
And Australia has replaced Gerrans with Simon Clarke. The 4th rider will come fron from Edmondson,Hepburn or Borbridge who are riding on the track. This is far from satisfactory as these three guy will be lucky to finish the race.

It's well known in Aussie circles that CA has little time for Porte which is shown in the selection of the squad. And why Porte can never ride fir OBE.

And is that all CA's fault ?? Richie is exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. He's not a medal chance in either event; lets be honest, the "Porte is an elite TTer" is one of the greatest snowjobs of all time. He's an above average GT TTer but nowhere near the quality of the elite TTers or even the best GC TTers.

In all honesty, it would seem that CA has decided to "triage" the men's road for Rio and quite understandably. The TT course is too tough for Dennis and Richie isn't good enough. Neither of them are realistic candidates in the RR and the course is too hard for the best AUS one-day men.

Personally I'd have liked to have seen Howson given the 4th berth as he is young, showing increasing capacity in the mountains as seen by his grunt work at both Vuelta & Giro; has a good engine & might sneak under most teams guard if he got in a break. Maybe he went very deep at Giro but I'd have strongly considered him.

Gerrans should never have been selected for the Olympics as he offers little to the team. I have no problem with Australia prioritising the TT as I would do the same.But at the same time you can't choose Gerrans as the third rider when one of the track riders will double up as the 4th rider for the RR. Nothing wrong with a Howson,McCarthy, Sunderland or McCarthy or similar to be riders 3 and 4.

To be honest CA has disrespected Australian pro cyclists in their initial selection of The Olympic RR squad.

My understanding is Ewan will be the protected rider for the World Championship RR. Still think the World's may be a chap shoot because of possible hot conditions.

Gerrans is the best opportunist of any of the Australians at this point, and has the best record in one dayers of any AUS so I can see at least some justification .... even if I may not necessarily agree with it.

Maybe they made enquiries to various possibilities who may've responded "no thanks" "I'll be too stuffed after the Tour" "my team doesn't want me to ride it" ? Neither of us KNOW what went on.

Personally I'd have liked to have seen the likes of McCarthy and/or Howson (but the latter was very spent post Giro) but by only qualifying 4 quotas instead of 5, it didn't make things easy to plan a proper assault.

Ewan .... OMG !! Now THAT is crazy !! Distance is enough of a question marks but guess who's "popped" the first time an echelon is formed ??
 
Re:

Brullnux said:
France should put Bardet and Vuillermoz in with attacks, especially Vuillermoz to begin with, then Bardet in the latter stages and Ala getting into any groups latter than 6 or 7 riders if he can. If a strong group of 10 get away I doubt they are coming back

I think Bardet should hang one rather than initiating the attack. he is their best bet.
Had Pinot lived up to expectations in 2015 TdF, he could had 5 riders. Gallopin should have been in the squad.
 
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TMP402 said:
Is there a profile of the TT?
They do the first circuit of today's road race twice.
olympic-games-itt-2016-1470305351.png
 
Re: Re:

Red Rick said:
DFA123 said:
Asero831 said:
last year GVA was leading the field to the top of Jaizkibel until that infamous motor incident
what is his chance in Rio given that San Sebastian is steeper than the Rio route?

I think he has an outside chance. The key for him and Belgium (Gilbert as well), perhaps counter-intuitively, will be to make the race really hard from the start. They need all those relatively small bumps in the first 170km to be ridden really hard, as tough anaerobic efforts. Anaerobic efforts like that will take way less out of the legs of someone like GVA or Gilbert than they will out of climbers who specialize in riding much more aerobically.

He's shown in San Sebastian and Strade Bianche that he climb well enough - he just needs to make sure that by the time the big climb comes, the pure climbers are already feeling the effects of a hard race. Otherwise they'll drop him like a stone. And the puncheur climbers, who will be able to handle hard anaerobic efforts, like Valverde and Martin aren't going to attack from the foot of the climb - they'll just look to gain a smallish gap near the top - a gap that a rider like GVA could close on the run into the line.
Recovering from an anaerobic effort happens aerobically. GvA isn't gonna be near the front on a climb which has 4km at over 8% if its ridden properly. And it will
Never underestimate a rider with a power profile as rounded as GVA. :)
 

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