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Too Late, Too Furious: Tokyo Drift - The 2020 Olympics Thread

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Is this crash fest, eh, madison really better than individual pursuit? For men you might have an argument, but since it means that you need to have also women's, who seem to have no experience, it should be self-evident.
 
Is this crash fest, eh, madison really better than individual pursuit? For men you might have an argument, but since it means that you need to have also women's, who seem to have no experience, it should be self-evident.

Yeah well, it were the most experienced women that crashed actually.
Current world champions Wild and Pieters from the Netherlands,
Former world champions D'hoore and Kopecky from Belgium...
 
The madison was just a dominant display, nothing really to take away from it. I don't know if there's maybe more tailored track training since Archibald has done no road riding in two years and Kenny doesn't ride road anyway, which has helped comparative to the likes of Wild/Pieters, Dideriksen/Leth and Kopecky/d'Hoore who have full road calendars to work around, but those are all extremely strong teams who the Britons made look decidedly average. About the only thing to say negative about their day is that Kenny's interviews are usually nails on a chalkboard stuff.
 
The madison was just a dominant display, nothing really to take away from it. I don't know if there's maybe more tailored track training since Archibald has done no road riding in two years and Kenny doesn't ride road anyway, which has helped comparative to the likes of Wild/Pieters, Dideriksen/Leth and Kopecky/d'Hoore who have full road calendars to work around, but those are all extremely strong teams who the Britons made look decidedly average. About the only thing to say negative about their day is that Kenny's interviews are usually nails on a chalkboard stuff.
Maybe that, and how boring/down to earth Jason is is why they havent been made a Dame/Knighted when all the other British Olympians with similar success have.
 
Gotta love King Jason VII who realises it's best for the sport to spread the medals around ... so he played possum in the sprint before surprising the field in the always exciting and entertaining keirin final. Long Live the King (and the lovely and talented Queen).
 
I just realised that. So there is no individual TT or pursuit on track at all. That's just rubbish. I don't even know what the tempo race is supposed to be.
The "tempo race" is nothing new or scary, it's been raced for decades at track leagues everywhere but known as "point a lap" in most places. The "one day/four event/all bunch races" is a better format than the previous two day/six event format which required two bikes and for some a change of position/setup on each.

The two day format meant the omnium could not be held at one day track festivals and the two bike requirement made it prohibitive for many U-17's and U-15's most of whom would already have a road bike and possibly a mountain bike. The alternative of changing bars and position between every event was not that inviting or practical for many riders either.

The new format is just like an evening at track league, which is the most popular form of track racing.

Regarding no kilo and no individual pursuit I wish they were still part of the Olympics, but as stand alone events, not part of the omnium. And I'm sure it was just a coincidence that when the kilo was dropped for 2008 GB (Queally, Hoy) had won the two previous Golds and when the I.P. was dropped for 2012 GB (Wiggo, Wiggo) had won the two previous Golds (and of course in 2008 GB won Gold and Bronze in the men's and Gold and Silver in the women's I.P.).
 
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The "tempo race" is nothing new or scary, it's been raced for decades at track leagues everywhere but known as "point a lap" in most places. The "one day/four event/all bunch races" is a better format than the previous two day/six event format which required two bikes and for some a change of position/setup on each.

The two day format meant the omnium could not be held at one day track festivals and the two bike requirement made it prohibitive for many U-17's and U-15's most of whom would already have a road bike and possibly a mountain bike. The alternative of changing bars and position between every event was not that inviting or practical for many riders either.

The new format is just like an evening at track league, which is the most popular form of track racing.

Regarding no kilo and no individual pursuit I wish they were still part of the Olympics, but as stand alone events, not part of the omnium. And I'm sure it was just a coincidence that when the kilo was dropped for 2008 GB (Queally, Hoy) had won the two previous Golds and when the I.P. was dropped for 2012 GB (Wiggo, Wiggo) had won the two previous Golds (and of course in 2008 GB won Gold and Bronze in the men's and Gold and Silver in the women's I.P.).
I don't know, since they also at that point brought in the Team Sprint which is a pure wattage test and where the British investment in tech has more direct impact than in any other discipline, being less reliant on tactics than match sprinting and with fewer variables than the IP, TP and mass start races.
 
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As an event, current omnium is probably better than the old "let's combine all events that didn't get to olympics" was. But I dislike how sprint and team based the current olympic track schedule is. And in Finnish, tempo=TT, so the name was quite confusing.
 
Team sprint was introduced (for men) at the 2000 Olympics. The French were the three time defending world champions and had been in the medals every year since it's introduction to the world championship program. By contrast GB had only one silver medal in that time. France won the first Olympic Gold, Germany won in 2004 then the Evil Empire won the next three before the Dutch relegated them to silver in Japan.

It is definitely unfortunate the individual pursuit was dropped from the Olympic program (although Sir Brad may not have won the Tour if it wasn't!) but let's not rain on the Dutch parade with all the unwarranted negativity about the team sprint.
 
Team sprint was introduced (for men) at the 2000 Olympics. The French were the three time defending world champions and had been in the medals every year since it's introduction to the world championship program. By contrast GB had only one silver medal in that time. France won the first Olympic Gold, Germany won in 2004 then the Evil Empire won the next three before the Dutch relegated them to silver in Japan.

It is definitely unfortunate the individual pursuit was dropped from the Olympic program (although Sir Brad may not have won the Tour if it wasn't!) but let's not rain on the Dutch parade with all the unwarranted negativity about the team sprint.
I don't care who wins it. I just don't think it adds anything. I think it defeats the purpose of both sprinting and pursuiting, and it doesn't fill a niche for riders with an extremely specified skillset either. It just there for stat padding for sprinters who are good enough to win and a chance to medal for a countries 3rd and 4th sprinter.
 
I don't care who wins it. I just don't think it adds anything. I think it defeats the purpose of both sprinting and pursuiting, and it doesn't fill a niche for riders with an extremely specified skillset either. It just there for stat padding for sprinters who are good enough to win and a chance to medal for a countries 3rd and 4th sprinter.

If you're man 1 in TS these days you are probably one of the most specialised athletes in the sport... these guys are closer to weightlifters than bike riders!

Anyway, TS is blue-ribband in the UCI's eyes (if you qualify a TS team you get two spots for IS and Keirin), so don't expect that to change anytime soon.

The Omnium was originally a fudged event to keep the IP and Kilo at the Olympics in some form when they had to lose a load of events to get parity for men + women. I think it definitely needs some timed events to mix it up and bit and make riders actually develop all-round to win it.

Can't see any reason why bike nerds like us wouldn't want more events anyway, not less...
 
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