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

[fatandfast]

The race was excellent. I have ridden roads similar to this with the addition of some small amounts of running water on the road. My azz was puckered most of the time. Coming in and out of shadowed and shaded corners is really hard. Racing in a tropical terrarium proved too hard for those laying on the ground. Poland had a great showing but gold was not to be.Van Avermaet has had a complete turn around and raced really well, so corticoids are not all they are chalked up to be.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Re:

didn't you see the crowds? it seems at romanian level

Such a travesty, you have such great potential for racing out there. If they could only have had the support riders to have made Mircea Romaşcanu a star in the late 70s/early 80s rather than pick off the bones the Soviets left...

 

[Netserk]

If it was to be made into a future one-day race, I think they should only use the first circuit (9 times would be great), with the same start and finish as the TT.

 

[F e r o x]

Even in the official broadcast it was clear that Nibali was in front of Henao and the first one who crashed. I don't understand why people are still debating against this. Just rewatch the original images.

 

[toolittle]

Re: Re:

GVA deserved it more than Majka.

Why?

Exactly, majka was stronger in uphill, he had bad luck his companions crashed, GvA had no chance to win it without that crash, majka had

The gap at the hairpin on the descent (before the crashes) was 10-12 seconds. There would be half a dozen guys chasing (including GvA, Birdsong and G) against Nibali, Henao and Majka on a flat section of nearly 10km. I wouldn't say that GvA had no chance without the crash(es).

I reviewed the video today.
Geraint Thomas was in GVA group and crashed.
Nibali + Henao + Majka vs Geraint + Fungsang + GVA. It is impossible to stay away.
1st Chasing group still have Alaphilippe + Rodriguez + Aru + Meintjes + Zeits as reserved power
Even no crash and 12 leaders re-group, GVA is going to win the sprint easily among 12 leading riders.
So, I had to revise my previous comments
Mistake : 1. GVA win (with luck) 2. if no crash, Geraint should win.
Correct : 1. GVA win (without bad luck) 2. if no crash, GVA should win.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

GVA deserved it more than Majka.

Why?

Exactly, majka was stronger in uphill, he had bad luck his companions crashed, GvA had no chance to win it without that crash, majka had

The gap at the hairpin on the descent (before the crashes) was 10-12 seconds. There would be half a dozen guys chasing (including GvA, Birdsong and G) against Nibali, Henao and Majka on a flat section of nearly 10km. I wouldn't say that GvA had no chance without the crash(es).

I reviewed the video today.
Geraint Thomas was in GVA group and crashed.
Nibali + Henao + Majka vs Geraint + Fungsang + GVA. It is impossible to stay away.
1st Chasing group still have Alaphilippe + Rodriguez + Aru + Meintjes + Zeits as reserved power
Even no crash and 12 leaders re-group, GVA is going to win the sprint easily among 12 leading riders.
So, I had to revise my previous comments
Mistake : 1. GVA win (with luck) 2. if no crash, Geraint should win.
Correct : 1. GVA win (without bad luck) 2. if no crash, GVA should win.

I'm not sure I understand this. In which scenario do you see Thomas win?

 

[Cannibal72]

Re:

If it was to be made into a future one-day race, I think they should only use the first circuit (9 times would be great), with the same start and finish as the TT.

I'd really like to see a proper South American racing calendar; in place of the pointless astroturfed non-races in the Middle East, perhaps, filling the gap between the TDU and Paris-Nice. Start off with San Luis, use this good idea for a one-day race, and maybe have a WT race in Colombia - where there's actually interest in cycling. It's good terrain for it, and the conditions would be pretty good for racing.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Nah, no WT, 2.1 at most, get Boyacá Raza de los Campeones, Manzana-Postobon and co along for the ride, maybe persuade a couple more to go Continental Pro.

Also, I think this course would perhaps be best with a day 1 loop of the Canoas climb semitappe, short TT along the coast road, then a full day's stage of the circuit with the small hills and the cobbles the day after.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

Re:

Nah, no WT, 2.1 at most, get Boyacá Raza de los Campeones, Manzana-Postobon and co along for the ride, maybe persuade a couple more to go Continental Pro.

Also, I think this course would perhaps be best with a day 1 loop of the Canoas climb semitappe, short TT along the coast road, then a full day's stage of the circuit with the small hills and the cobbles the day after.

The Volta Ciclista Internacional do Brasil of 1987 featured a semi stage itt to the Corcovado. It was won by the mighty Cássio Freitas, who later won the three major cycling races of Portugal: A Volta, Volta Algarve and Porto-Lisboa. I'd love to see such a short mountain itt.

Also in the 80ies the Clasico RCN was a nice prep race in May for guys like Lemond, Fignon, Mottet and even Hinault.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Yea, but the invite system was so different back then, you couldn't open up the kind of 10, 12, 14 stage races at UCI level and have the big names show up like you could sometimes back then in the Pro-Am days. The points are a big problem, it's hurt races like the Volta as well, because what teams other than the locals want to go and suffer for 11 days in baking heat being tonked by the Portuguese péloton, and only get the same points for a 2.1 race as you can from two days at Paris-Corrèze? There used to be loads of races longer than the one-week races but not GT length that could be used to test recovery and warm up the engines for the GTs that you just can't do anymore sadly. Even the races that have survived the end of the Pro-Am era are wildly different, l'Avenir used to go all over France and last nearly 2 weeks with stages that mixed espoir length and full on pro stages, not so much anymore. The Milk Race lasted 12 days, the Coors Classic was two weeks, even the Niedersachsen Rundfahrt lasted 10. You could call .2 races the equivalent of the old Pro-Am races I guess, and indeed some of them do last more than 9 days sometimes (Tour du Maroc lasts 10 most years, for example, Táchira is usually around 10, and the Vuelta a Colombia varies between 12 and 15), but many of the races we're talking about don't have any UCI categorization now, which in this era of increased professionalism may mean greater freedom (we've been told on a few occasions that the UCI discourages or their rules have to agree an exception to include the monolithic Alto de Letras due to maximum altitude gain restrictions or some such, whereas with no UCI categorization the Clásico RCN doesn't have to worry about that) but also means the pros can't show up as they're forbidden (and with the money in the men's bunch, there's not the same tendency for occasional mercenaries or hometown heroes like you sometimes see among the women's bunch).

 

[Mr.White]

Re: Re:

Phenomenal race! Sad for Nibali and Henao, extremely happy for GVA...what a rider! Congrats to Majka and Fuglsang, too. Would have been happy to see Purito get a medal, but Spain made a tactical mistake.

Why do Spain always make a tactical mistake whenever they don't win? Valverde clearly didn't have the legs so sacrificed himself for Purito, who also couldn't quite hold on during the climb, and had no chance on the flat.

They tried their best but just weren't strong enough today.

The tactical mistake was in my opinion when they missed the split when Nibali and Aru attacked on the descent. For example Majka and Yates followed the move and that's why the Pole got a medal in the end. If Majka had stayed behind when the move happened, he wouldn't reach the podium. I don't know exactly what happened there because the camera didn't show. But Valverde and Purito should be easily able to follow Nibali, Aru, Yates and Majka on a descent. They didn't so they made a mistake. If it was bad positioning, it's an equally big mistake. I wonder if it had something to do with the Porte crash. If I'm not mistaken it happened just before the mentioned attack. Then on the last climb Purito clearly showed he was very strong. He bridged a gap of more then 30s. I think he was just as strong as Nibali, Henao and Majka, so he could have followed them in the finale IMO.

Yeah it had, Porte crashed along with one more rider and that slowed them down. Valverde and Rui Costa confirmed that

 

[aarononymous]

Anyone know where I can get video of the last climb on the last lap? Was in the car so could only follow on here.

 

[huge]

Quoting myself from the Women's Road Race

After seeing all those crashes and potential lethal consequences I firmily believe that the race organizers have been utterly irresponsible. Not covering with soft protections those exposed cement curbs along the dangerous corners was a huge unforgivable mistake! Two riders with spinal fractures says it all! And thanks God those injuries turned out not to be life threatening or permanent.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Re:

Quoting myself from the Women's Road Race

After seeing all those crashes and potential lethal consequences I firmily believe that the race organizers have been utterly irresponsible. Not covering with soft protections those exposed cement curbs along the dangerous corners was a huge unforgivable mistake! Two riders with spinal fractures says it all! And thanks God those injuries turned out not to be life threatening or permanent.

Two riders with spinal fractures? Who is the other rider apart from Van Vleuten? I hadn't heard about anyone else.

 

[Jungle Cycle]

couldn't some of those be riders mistakes?? should we judge the descent by the injuries??
probably good to hear the ones who know best and were there; riders themselves..
haven't heard the riders yet.. did someone read/heard their view on it??
they were all(most men) here a year ago doing recon and not only like it but were anxious to race it. and the pavement were a lot worse then. + about a week doing it every day and didn't read any "bad prediction" or complain from them....

 

[DFA123]

Re:

couldn't some of those be riders mistakes?? should we judge the descent by the injuries??
probably good to hear the ones who know best and were there; riders themselves..
haven't heard the riders yet.. did someone read/heard their view on it??
they were all(most men) here a year ago doing recon and not only like it but were anxious to race it. and the pavement were a lot worse then. + about a week doing it every day and didn't read any "bad prediction" or complain from them....

Agree completely; there was absolutely nothing irresponsible about the course design. In the men's race, riders were just pushing themselves too hard, especially on the final lap. That's just one of the risk/reward decisions that they have to make in every single cycle race.

Van Vleuten's crash looked very bad, and it's good that she has no really bad injuries. But it was a result of her taking an absolutely awful line into the corner and then slamming on the front brakes in panic. Choosing good lines and braking well are essential one day skills and are challenges which should always be present in big one day races.

 

[3wheeler]

It was Trench Warfare out in the jungle.... The riders were all aware of it so I guess it was down to personal risk-reward was how far they pushed the envelope.... I guess the deep gutters -are there for rain forest type storms... Bottle issue was worse in some ways ,as the one of those Bounce outs could of wiped out half the bunch......They still had not fixed it in time for the ladies race either..

 

[huge]

Re: Re:

couldn't some of those be riders mistakes?? should we judge the descent by the injuries??
probably good to hear the ones who know best and were there; riders themselves..
haven't heard the riders yet.. did someone read/heard their view on it??
they were all(most men) here a year ago doing recon and not only like it but were anxious to race it. and the pavement were a lot worse then. + about a week doing it every day and didn't read any "bad prediction" or complain from them....

Agree completely; there was absolutely nothing irresponsible about the course design. In the men's race, riders were just pushing themselves too hard, especially on the final lap. That's just one of the risk/reward decisions that they have to make in every single cycle race.

Van Vleuten's crash looked very bad, and it's good that she has no really bad injuries. But it was a result of her taking an absolutely awful line into the corner and then slamming on the front brakes in panic. Choosing good lines and braking well are essential one day skills and are challenges which should always be present in big one day races.

Choosing good lines and braking well are essential one day skill... that remark, as obvious as it is, doesn't make any sense in this context. Those are top class riders, not sportive guys on their first day out on a bike. They know very well how to take lines and when and how to brake. The point is that during such an important race they would all push beyond their limit making the chances of a mistake extremily high, as we saw.

The organization should have foresaw that and made sure that some protections were put in place in the most dangerous places. No one is blaming them for the crashes, which are part of bike racing. They are to blame for having left those cement curbs totally exposed.

 

[huge]

Re: Re:

Quoting myself from the Women's Road Race

After seeing all those crashes and potential lethal consequences I firmily believe that the race organizers have been utterly irresponsible. Not covering with soft protections those exposed cement curbs along the dangerous corners was a huge unforgivable mistake! Two riders with spinal fractures says it all! And thanks God those injuries turned out not to be life threatening or permanent.

Two riders with spinal fractures? Who is the other rider apart from Van Vleuten? I hadn't heard about anyone else.

I think Henao, but I might be wrong.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Re: Re:

Quoting myself from the Women's Road Race

After seeing all those crashes and potential lethal consequences I firmily believe that the race organizers have been utterly irresponsible. Not covering with soft protections those exposed cement curbs along the dangerous corners was a huge unforgivable mistake! Two riders with spinal fractures says it all! And thanks God those injuries turned out not to be life threatening or permanent.

Two riders with spinal fractures? Who is the other rider apart from Van Vleuten? I hadn't heard about anyone else.

I think Henao, but I might be wrong.

Iliac crest (part of pelvis) http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/olympic-injury-update-fractured-iliac-crest-for-henao-porte-suffers-fractured-shoulder/

 

[Netserk]

Not that I think the descent wasn't fit for a race, but they could have made a nice alternative circuit as well with the Canoas and Joâ climbs.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

"We may get a second spot because quite a few countries aren't using their TT places" (Geraint Thomas)

What places are available? Do Italy and Australia not have any other rider who wants the places that would have been for Nibali and Porte? Are other places being foregone? And by what criteria are others invited to fill them?

If it is based on the 2015 WC (the only criterion whereby teams currently have a second spot) Portugal would be eligible before GB.

Edit: Sorry, this should have been in the TT thread, and when I went to delete it I didn't realise that it needed a confirmation until after there was a reply.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Re:

"We may get a second spot because quite a few countries aren't using their TT places" (Geraint Thomas)

What places are available? Do Italy and Australia not have any other rider who wants the places that would have been for Nibali and Porte? Are other places being foregone? And by what criteria are others invited to fill them?

If it is based on the 2015 WC (the only criterion whereby teams currently have a second spot) Portugal would be eligible before GB.

Poels might also not start, and Mollema/Kruijswijk will not replace as they dont have their ITT bike in Rio. I dont know what the rules are though.

 

[bassano]

Re: Re:

GVA deserved it more than Majka.

Why?

Exactly, majka was stronger in uphill, he had bad luck his companions crashed, GvA had no chance to win it without that crash, majka had

The gap at the hairpin on the descent (before the crashes) was 10-12 seconds. There would be half a dozen guys chasing (including GvA, Birdsong and G) against Nibali, Henao and Majka on a flat section of nearly 10km. I wouldn't say that GvA had no chance without the crash(es).

I reviewed the video today.
Geraint Thomas was in GVA group and crashed.
Nibali + Henao + Majka vs Geraint + Fungsang + GVA. It is impossible to stay away.
1st Chasing group still have Alaphilippe + Rodriguez + Aru + Meintjes + Zeits as reserved power
Even no crash and 12 leaders re-group, GVA is going to win the sprint easily among 12 leading riders.
So, I had to revise my previous comments
Mistake : 1. GVA win (with luck) 2. if no crash, Geraint should win.
Correct : 1. GVA win (without bad luck) 2. if no crash, GVA should win.

And Aru, Zeits or Rodriguez would definitelly take pulls
Fuglslang would not take pulls aswell if Nibali and Henao were still there, or if group would be large he pulled only because his medal was sure
just look at facts, they barely got Majka alone, they had very miserable chance to catch them with Nibali and Henao still there because Niabli and Henao were just strongest ones

 

[Escarabajo]

Cipollini is a nice dude, but come on, there is nothing right about he says here:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cipollini-nibali-should-have-offered-henao-cash-to-help-him-win-olympic-gold/

For Henao and Colombia was not important????
$100,000 would have been enough?

What's next, we still live in "Chozas"?