The Olympic Road Race 2016. Rio de Janeiro. 253km

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

Froome sprinting was totally unnecessary, so moronic

Why? Martin was the one who started the sprinting in that group.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

I got to say I had it up to my ears with Froome today

For one thing Elingworth and himself making him leader when race wasmore suited to Thomas ( who had to bring Froome back from peeing) Cummings (who has to ride on the front)and even Yates ( who had to go back to car for bottles)

Does he not beleive in sharign the glory and giving something back

Why was he attacking with Allphillipe on his wheel with Thomas up the road...seen that before
Stop hogging the limelight ...even sprinting at the end....give others a chance Froome
Thomas rides his ar** off for you ...let him take some glory and be leader FFS

Froome just doesn't know how to race without his radio. I think he has some mild form of autism or something.

I think so as well (no offense intended, just sincere here). Ofcourse that's not a problem, but he can be a bit áwkward at times. That's for sure.

Well, autism diagnoses are handed out like ritalin these days

Well, I think atleast 10-20% of the population has mild forms of autism. Socially awkward people most likely have a form of autism. That's no biggie. Ofcourse the load of thenword autism is big, because you think of some socially incapable heavy asperger type, but luckily only a few people have that.

Ok, this is offtopic.

Yaaaaaay Greg! Awwwww Nibali ((

 

[Tonton]

Thrilling second part, big win for GVA. Big. A lot to say about smaller teams, I agree: Froome without Sky looked very vulnerable. Surprise: Vincenzaut Pinalot is falling in descents these days. Not a surprise: bad luck for Porte. Not a surprise: Alaphilippe is a wolverine on a bike. Hats of to him and also to Purito. Majka winning would have left a '88 RRWC Frondriest taste in my mouth. Very entertaining race, and a great, deserving winner. I think that GVA's detractors were silenced today...at least for a while . No one can take it away. Congrats Greg!

 

[Ikbengodniet]

Re: Re:

I got to say I had it up to my ears with Froome today

For one thing Elingworth and himself making him leader when race wasmore suited to Thomas ( who had to bring Froome back from peeing) Cummings (who has to ride on the front)and even Yates ( who had to go back to car for bottles)

Does he not beleive in sharign the glory and giving something back

Why was he attacking with Allphillipe on his wheel with Thomas up the road...seen that before
Stop hogging the limelight ...even sprinting at the end....give others a chance Froome
Thomas rides his ar** off for you ...let him take some glory and be leader FFS

Froome just doesn't know how to race without his radio. I think he has some mild form of autism or something.

Classy

Froome lost it when Nibali attacked on the descent. Worth risking a pretty much guaranteed medal on Wednesday for a shot at a medal today instead with the possibility of ending up like Porte/Nibali/Henao/Thomas?

It's totally no offence against Froome because I think he is a great cyclist, he just has some odd behaviour once in a while, both in racing and communicating to the press for example. Really weird tactics today.

Yeah sure he must risk everything today. He was the team leader wasn't he? So why wouldn't he go all out? Next wednesday he could also crash or something, nothing is guaranteed.

 

[May0maniac]

On another note, what was wrong with Valverde. The big pre race favorite not even close to get a medal?

Maybe he ust had a bad day, but he really worked for Purito, that was a great gesture.
Gutted for Nibali and Henao (my dad was swearing like a construction worker when he realized that they crashed).
Froome fail, but the UK actually did pretty well and had Adam and Thomas in the winning move.
Mollema hhad a bit of bad luck and Aru turned himself inside out, great performance for him.
Astana really owned the race.
Greg deserves the win, fo someone like im to hand on on that final circuit and to win after a counterattack, that's just badass.

 

[Jagartrott]

From The Guardian:
Dan Martin described the race as quite the ordeal. “It was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life on a bike,” he said. “It was a brutal, brutal, strange old race.”

A race for the really tough guys with excellent racing instincts.
(and some luck)

 

[toolittle]

Re: Re:

Last year Olympic test ride has told us that climb is a factor of this race. But cobbled, coast and downhill are factors to consider also.

GVA had too many bad luck. He hadn't won any biggest race before. A biggest of the biggests win is a fair compensation for all the bad lucks.

So funny, GVA lose so many races by so many bad lucks. But his win in Tirreno–Adriatico and Olympic are in another extreme.

It is a perfect story to tell us... If you has talent, never give up and work hard to keep great forms, a big success is in front of you.
Same story happened to another BMC rider, Cadel Evans.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

I'm speechless, me and my friends freaked out when he crossed it!

 

[DenisMenchov]

I'm speechless, so gutted for Nibs, then I thought that at least Majka would take it, but.... Congrats to GVA, Jakob and Rafal!

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Fantastic victory for Van Avermaet. He's been so close so many times, but now he just won the biggest one day race there is. Congratulations!

 

[SKSemtex]

Is somebody still after this race persuaded that WC RR is much bigger than OGRR? Especially one in Doha

 

[rick james]

Re: Re:

I got to say I had it up to my ears with Froome today

For one thing Elingworth and himself making him leader when race wasmore suited to Thomas ( who had to bring Froome back from peeing) Cummings (who has to ride on the front)and even Yates ( who had to go back to car for bottles)

Does he not beleive in sharign the glory and giving something back

Why was he attacking with Allphillipe on his wheel with Thomas up the road...seen that before
Stop hogging the limelight ...even sprinting at the end....give others a chance Froome
Thomas rides his ar** off for you ...let him take some glory and be leader FFS

Froome just doesn't know how to race without his radio. I think he has some mild form of autism or something.

can't believe mods let post like this go

 

[Taxus4a]

it was a great day, congrats to Greg. For me is not a coicidence that with that cooble sectio Van Avermaet and Fulgsang beein 1st and 2nd.

I think the humidity weather plays an important role.

 

[HelloDolly]

So Frank Schleck beat Chaves
And Simon Clarke beat Valverde

And only 63 finished ...even wore than Tour of Poland

The thing is in cycling he need all kinds of races...that differnt riders can excel in ....we need to mix it ip

 

[hfer07]

Re: Re:

Can Brazil get savvy and utilize that spectacular course for a World Tour race?

With 9 men teams and radios?

NO - as it was ridden today!!!

 

[toolittle]

Re: Re:

There are cobbled sections (Big rocks) in Rio road race with climbs...

1. Beglium is hottest favour.
2. Colombia - Uran is my pick also.
Then, there are
Great British - Geraint Thomas
Slovakia - Sagan

The race looks like favour pure climber.
From Rio test ride this spring, we knew the climb is not too difficult for someone like gilbert or even GVA.
Non-climber may be able to recover during downhill between climbs.

Climb is a factor. But cobbled stone, coast winds, downhill and a 17 km final are also considered.

 

[Andy262]

That was such an awesome race. Field strung out like the washing on that final climb; GvA was almost dropped on the lower section but hauled himself back on. But all three laps of the final circuit were brilliant. Only criticism of the course would be that the descent was so tricky but then that's racing.

Have to say the TV coverage was pretty ropy though, missing critical moments on the penultimate and final descents, falls; how the chasers got by the falls etc.. And with a general lack of info about the positions on the road. But hey ho, they got the dash to the line well.

Great to see GvA win a big one. He just looked so hungry throughout. Shame Nibs, Henao and G fell. All would or could have been in the mix.

 

[May0maniac]

Re:

So Frank Schleck beat Chaves
And Simon Clarke beat Valverde

And only 63 finished ...even wore than Tour of Poland

The thing is in cycling he need all kinds of races...that differnt riders can excel in ....we need to mix it ip

And Arashiro finished 27th. One of the biggest surprises was Buchmann finishing 14th, that was really good for a young diesel climber, I know that he won the 2015 NC RR, but still, that's an awesome result.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

From The Guardian:
Dan Martin described the race as quite the ordeal. “It was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life on a bike,” he said. “It was a brutal, brutal, strange old race.”

A race for the really tough guys with excellent racing instincts.
(and some luck)

That's it. Some riders who are used to pulled by teammates on every occasion are in for a hard time. It was a race for hard men.

 

[Kwibus]

Re:

So Frank Schleck beat Chaves
And Simon Clarke beat Valverde

And only 63 finished ...even wore than Tour of Poland

The thing is in cycling he need all kinds of races...that differnt riders can excel in ....we need to mix it ip

You can't compare the numbers of riders finishing between a one day race and a stage race. I'm surprised 63 finished tbh.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

From The Guardian:
Dan Martin described the race as quite the ordeal. “It was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life on a bike,” he said. “It was a brutal, brutal, strange old race.”

A race for the really tough guys with excellent racing instincts.
(and some luck)

To be honest, that doesn't mean much coming from Dan Martin. He's said it multiple times, every hard race was his hardest day on the bike... Last year was the Dauphiné stage to Villard-de-Lans.

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

So Frank Schleck beat Chaves
And Simon Clarke beat Valverde

And only 63 finished ...even wore than Tour of Poland

The thing is in cycling he need all kinds of races...that differnt riders can excel in ....we need to mix it ip

You can't compare the numbers of riders finishing between a one day race and a stage race. I'm surprised 63 finished tbh.

I didn't compare I simply said it was akin to the dreadful conditions in Poland :surprised:

 

[HelloDolly]

Re: Re:

From The Guardian:
Dan Martin described the race as quite the ordeal. “It was the hardest day I’ve ever had in my life on a bike,” he said. “It was a brutal, brutal, strange old race.”

A race for the really tough guys with excellent racing instincts.
(and some luck)

To be honest, that doesn't mean much coming from Dan Martin. He's said it multiple times, every hard race was his hardest day on the bike... Last year was the Dauphiné stage to Villard-de-Lans.

Well maybe they were (progressively) hard
Oh and he dosn;t gte pulled along on GC by team mates ...rarely has any

 

[huge]

Re:

Have to say the TV coverage was pretty ropy though, missing critical moments on the penultimate and final descents, falls; how the chasers got by the falls etc.. And with a general lack of info about the positions on the road. But hey ho, they got the dash to the line well.

Motorbikes were seriuosly struggling to keep up with the riders on that descent!

The one following Nibali, Henao and Majka was always "a corner behind". Whenever it was coming out of a corner, they were simply disappearing around the next one. And don't forget that those guys riding the TV motorbikes are simply phenomenal!

What I think sometimes was really poor was the choice of images to be shown. They kept showing uninteresting stuff for ages when all the action was somewhere else.

 

[toolittle]

Re: Re:

Cobbled stones are in last part of the race. It is quite different from the stones in the open kilometers.

If coast wind blow up, the race will be in the favour of powerhouse.

Hate that. The route looks too many hills for Fabian Cancellara. His way to end PR is too bad. I hope he could say goodbye in perfect way.

Classic riders with good climb ability are able to join breaks and catch and outsprint pure climber in final.
With 17 km windy flat final, slim climber is going to stuck. Larger group of riders is likely to catch leaders.

For me, this race seems to favour bigger climbers such as Uran or Thomas. And also favour climb"able" rider such as Gilbert or GVA.

Bigger climber is able to catch and join slim climber in last 17km. If bigger chase group form and catch leading group., it favour climb"able" riders.

Gilbert race schedule seems to target Olympic. GVA missed this spring. In TDF, he showed us that he lost some weight and more climb"able". Gilbert or GVA in break means that they could be in chase group of the final.
I believe, Gilbert is a better option for Beglium. But GVA go and take it by some luck.

Without crash, it will be Geraint Thomas to lose.