What can Sagan achieve in RIO in MTB race?

[SKSemtex]

22. 2.5 min down

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

It was probably his fault to have that puncture but he looked really impressive for 15 mins

How the f*** can you say this? It could be his fault, but probably?

To quote Roger de Vlaeminck:

When you’re really fit, you rarely get a flat tyre because you’re more lucid. I had a puncture once, in 1970, and then never again in 10 years. The other secret is confidence. I often started with the idea that I was going to win. I missed my chance once or twice but no more than that.

It is very likely that the puncture is caused by his mistake, I doubt that Schurter will have any punctures in this race.

lol, so because de Vlaeminck once said something that was absolute ****, it should be treated as gospel?

It's a shame for Sagan personally and for the fans so we can't see what he was capable of. However, there is some kind of karma that such a blatant publicity stunt by specialized was ended by a mechanical.

 

[El Pistolero]

Re: Re:

It once again proves that road cycling is the queen of cycling though.

Uhm, how so?

A mountain-biker could never focus a whole year on mountain-biking to then all of a sudden compete with the best on the road race in the Olympics. Just like a track cyclist who focuses on the track for a whole year could never hope to compete for the road race.

Eventually a lot of the best track cyclists come to the road to try their luck.

You rarely see good cyclists on the road go to track cycling or mountain-biking instead (I mean permanently, not just in an Olympic year). Vincenzo Nibali said he wants to do some mountain-biking after he retires on the road. I hope he actually does it because it would be interesting to see.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

It once again proves that road cycling is the queen of cycling though.

Uhm, how so?

A mountain-biker could never focus a whole year on mountain-biking to then all of a sudden compete with the best on the road race in the Olympics. Just like a track cyclist who focuses on the track for a whole year could never hope to compete for the road race.

Eventually a lot of the best track cyclists come to the road to try their luck.

You rarely see good cyclists on the road go to track cycling or mountain-biking instead (I mean permanently, not just in an Olympic year). Vincenzo Nibali said he wants to do some mountain-biking after he retires on the road. I hope he actually does it because it would be interesting to see.

But we didn't get to see if Sagan could compete with the best MTB'ers.

 

[Red Rick]

I agree with Pisti. Did any of the current great MTB'ers every try the road?

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

It once again proves that road cycling is the queen of cycling though.

Uhm, how so?

A mountain-biker could never focus a whole year on mountain-biking to then all of a sudden compete with the best on the road race in the Olympics. Just like a track cyclist who focuses on the track for a whole year could never hope to compete for the road race.

Eventually a lot of the best track cyclists come to the road to try their luck.

You rarely see good cyclists on the road go to track cycling or mountain-biking instead (I mean permanently, not just in an Olympic year). Vincenzo Nibali said he wants to do some mountain-biking after he retires on the road. I hope he actually does it because it would be interesting to see.

But we didn't get to see if Sagan could compete with the best MTB'ers.

Indeed, what we basically saw was him sprint really quickly and then hold his position for 1/7th of the race. Pretty impressive, but to be expected from one of the fastest sprinters in the world, and certainly not indicative that he would have done anything exceptional in the race as a whole.

 

[TomLPC]

Great to see Santiago botero reinventing himself as a mountain biker

 

[MacBAir]

Re: Re:

It once again proves that road cycling is the queen of cycling though.

Uhm, how so?

A mountain-biker could never focus a whole year on mountain-biking to then all of a sudden compete with the best on the road race in the Olympics. Just like a track cyclist who focuses on the track for a whole year could never hope to compete for the road race.

Eventually a lot of the best track cyclists come to the road to try their luck.

You rarely see good cyclists on the road go to track cycling or mountain-biking instead (I mean permanently, not just in an Olympic year). Vincenzo Nibali said he wants to do some mountain-biking after he retires on the road. I hope he actually does it because it would be interesting to see.

But we didn't get to see if Sagan could compete with the best MTB'ers.

Tell us, what did you see?

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re:

I agree with Pisti. Did any of the current great MTB'ers every try the road?

Schurter did a few years ago.

 

[burning]

Re:

I agree with Pisti. Did any of the current great MTB'ers every try the road?

Schurter rode Romandie and Suisse and he was fairly decent

 

[MacBAir]

Re: Re:

I agree with Pisti. Did any of the current great MTB'ers every try the road?

Schurter rode Romandie and Suisse and he was fairly decent

Was he at the front at any times/got some good results on those b or c tier races?

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

It once again proves that road cycling is the queen of cycling though.

Uhm, how so?

A mountain-biker could never focus a whole year on mountain-biking to then all of a sudden compete with the best on the road race in the Olympics. Just like a track cyclist who focuses on the track for a whole year could never hope to compete for the road race.

Eventually a lot of the best track cyclists come to the road to try their luck.

You rarely see good cyclists on the road go to track cycling or mountain-biking instead (I mean permanently, not just in an Olympic year). Vincenzo Nibali said he wants to do some mountain-biking after he retires on the road. I hope he actually does it because it would be interesting to see.

But we didn't get to see if Sagan could compete with the best MTB'ers.

Tell us, what did you see?

I saw Sagan riding with the best for 1/6 of the race until he punctured, which doesn't tell us much. It might be the case that he could have followed the best, but most likely he wouldn't have been able to. All we know is that he was impressive in the beginning (which was predicted) but then punctured (which could be because of bad luck or lack of skills).

Besides, Sagan is dropped from his group now and bleeding time.

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Good for MTB, the advertisement was amazing - and good for the riders who do this sport for their daily job.
Had a good start though, the bronze was maybe a chance until the mech.

He can still get up a lot of places though, gaps in womens yesterday got capped really easily before the penultimate lap.

I see the what-ifs, and or buts are already starting..

Nibali was an excellent MB'er before taking to the road, like Sagan if I remember correctly.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

Lost 2 minutes in 1/2 lap. Probably another puncture, or a fall. DNF incoming.

 

[MacBAir]

Re: Re:

I saw Sagan riding with the best for 1/6 of the race until he punctured, which doesn't tell us much. It might be the case that he could have followed the best, but most likely he wouldn't have been able to. All we know is that he was impressive in the beginning (which was predicted) but then punctured (which could be because of bad luck or lack of skills).

Besides, Sagan is dropped from his group now and bleeding time.

Who were the others that went from the last few positions to the front group? Not one of them. Only Sagan.
You also don't know why he is losing time.

Stop acting like it isn't well known that he is 3x the athlete of any guy here. If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

I saw Sagan riding with the best for 1/6 of the race until he punctured, which doesn't tell us much. It might be the case that he could have followed the best, but most likely he wouldn't have been able to. All we know is that he was impressive in the beginning (which was predicted) but then punctured (which could be because of bad luck or lack of skills).

Besides, Sagan is dropped from his group now and bleeding time.

Who were the others that went from the last few positions to the front group? Not one of them. Only Sagan.
You also don't know why he is losing time.

Stop acting like it isn't well known that he is 3x the athlete of any guy here. If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power.

No, I don't know why he's losing time now (probably because of a crash or another puncture - do you start seing a pattern here?), but look at his times:

He wen't from:
+0:03
to:
+1:56
which obviously was because of the puncture, but look what happened afterwards and uptil his latest time loss:
+2:12
+2:44
+2:49
which shows that he was slowly bleeding time anyway.

Also from the pictures, it's pretty clear that he doesn't have the skills like the other riders. I don't know what you mean by "If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power" as the skills are obviously as important as stamina and power.

And I have no idea if Sagan is 3 times the athlete of any other rider here, I don't know enough about MTB to answer that. How would you even determine that? Is Usain Bolt 3 times the athlete of Michael Phelps?

 

[laurensde+]

Re:

Nibali was an excellent MB'er before taking to the road, like Sagan if I remember correctly.

Dontcha mean Fuglsang?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Sagan punctured again

2 punctures. Seems like wrong choice of material

 

[MacBAir]

Re: Re:

I saw Sagan riding with the best for 1/6 of the race until he punctured, which doesn't tell us much. It might be the case that he could have followed the best, but most likely he wouldn't have been able to. All we know is that he was impressive in the beginning (which was predicted) but then punctured (which could be because of bad luck or lack of skills).

Besides, Sagan is dropped from his group now and bleeding time.

Who were the others that went from the last few positions to the front group? Not one of them. Only Sagan.
You also don't know why he is losing time.

Stop acting like it isn't well known that he is 3x the athlete of any guy here. If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power.

No, I don't know why he's losing time now (probably because of a crash or another puncture - do you start seing a pattern here?), but look at his times:

He wen't from:
+0:03
to:
+1:56
which obviously was because of the puncture, but look what happened afterwards and uptil his latest time loss:
+2:12
+2:44
+2:49
which shows that he was slowly bleeding time anyway.

Also from the pictures, it's pretty clear that he doesn't have the skills like the other riders. I don't know what you mean by "If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power" as the skills are obviously as important as stamina and power.

What I'm saying is that trying to surpass riders, riding alongside lots of riders will expose his lack of skills much more than if he was at the front, where he had the space to make up for it in power, as you could see.

 

[This Charming Man]

Re:

Lost 2 minutes in 1/2 lap. Probably another puncture, or a fall. DNF incoming.

We like your credibility. :idea:

 

[MacBAir]

Re:

Sagan punctured again

2 punctures. Seems like wrong choice of material

Oh god, someone had specialized woke up from their dream.

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Re: Re:

I saw Sagan riding with the best for 1/6 of the race until he punctured, which doesn't tell us much. It might be the case that he could have followed the best, but most likely he wouldn't have been able to. All we know is that he was impressive in the beginning (which was predicted) but then punctured (which could be because of bad luck or lack of skills).

Besides, Sagan is dropped from his group now and bleeding time.

Who were the others that went from the last few positions to the front group? Not one of them. Only Sagan.
You also don't know why he is losing time.

Stop acting like it isn't well known that he is 3x the athlete of any guy here. If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power.

No, I don't know why he's losing time now (probably because of a crash or another puncture - do you start seing a pattern here?), but look at his times:

He wen't from:
+0:03
to:
+1:56
which obviously was because of the puncture, but look what happened afterwards and uptil his latest time loss:
+2:12
+2:44
+2:49
which shows that he was slowly bleeding time anyway.

Also from the pictures, it's pretty clear that he doesn't have the skills like the other riders. I don't know what you mean by "If he is losing time without any more mechanicals, it's due to lack of necessary skills, not stamina and power" as the skills are obviously as important as stamina and power.

What I'm saying is that trying to surpass riders, riding alongside lots of riders will expose his lack of skills much more than if he was at the front, where he had the space to make up for it in power, as you could see.

You're right about that, but he was at the front after 2 minutes.

 

[Thepirateisgood]

Re: Re:

Nibali was an excellent MB'er before taking to the road, like Sagan if I remember correctly.

Dontcha mean Fuglsang?

Him too, great MB'er, and Evans. But like Sagan I believe Nibali only did it in like the first junior year. Didn't check it thoough, my head sometimes only remember what if wants

 

[carolina]

Re: Re:

Sagan punctured again

2 punctures. Seems like wrong choice of material

Oh god, someone had specialized woke up from their dream.

specialized is going to get a medal anyway.

 

[This Charming Man]

In this type of race, would the front runners back off a bit, if their competitor had a mechanical, or crash?