What can Sagan achieve in RIO in MTB race?

[42x16ss]

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.

Way too pull a quote out of context. That quote is about Paris-Roubaix only. Ofcourse De Vlaeminck had much flat tires in his career.

Very much so. Burning, being a Froome fan I'm sure you're familiar with the 2011 Vuelta Castilla y Leon, the race where Froome bragged about beating Contador at the peak of his powers.

Contador had three punctures that day, were they due to inattention or lack of confidence? Keep in mind that Contador had just won the most difficult GT in decades standing on his ear and was confident enough to go for the Giro-Tour double.

Similar stories with Porte and Froome's punctures this year and Valverde's in 2013

 

[peloton]

Too bad with the flats, but he looked great coming back in the first laps.
Upside, he didn't crash.

He still has at least Tokyo and maybe next one, nice try still

 

[King Boonen]

Hard to blame Sagan for the puncture, it could well have been his fault but it's part of racing and sometimes it just happens. He was obviously lacking skills, you could see him struggling if he didn't have a wheel to follow and he couldn't keep the rhythm of the course as well as Schurter and Fontana and was having to put in harder efforts to get back on. This would no doubt have told over the course of the race and it's very hard to predict how he would have done but I'm sure a top 10 would have been in his reach, possibly a top 5 although that seems unlikely.


However, what actually happened seems pretty much a disaster PR wise to be honest.

 

[Keram]

According to slovak media he thinks he could done top 10 but for medals he has lack of skills and lack of experience from MTB. But he was satisfied with his effort until first flat tyre. He felt good. He admitted that first flat was completly his fault because he hit the rock. He has flat at really wrong places both times and had to running 1/2 lap downhils and uphils both times. He twisted his ankle probably somwhere. He was really angry because he really was taking it serious and skip Vuelta because of that ( it is better actually I think he should go Plouyay and Canadians classics). And for the starts. He used his experience form bunch sprints and somehow he managed to get top three in first 500 metres He was trying starts day before race and broke two chains

 

[doperhopper]

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.

Way too pull a quote out of context. That quote is about Paris-Roubaix only. Ofcourse De Vlaeminck had much flat tires in his career.

in any case, from the post-race interview it's clear Sagan is aware of this, and more or less admitted the punctures are not completely "force majeure" (saying something in the sense that apparently "the best ones did not puncture")

 

[MatParker117]

Re:

Too bad with the flats, but he looked great coming back in the first laps.
Upside, he didn't crash.

He still has at least Tokyo and maybe next one, nice try still

The road race will suit him a lot more than Rio.

 

[RedheadDane]

I've got nothing against Sagan, but I think it was probably a good thing he didn't win, or even top-10.
Come one, if he'd been able to start "for fun", and then make a good result, that wouldn't have been fair!

 

[Echoes]

Sagan would have dropped anyway, without flat tyre.

It's Jens Schuermans speaking

(Today's Belang van Limburg)

I had already raced against him earlier this season and he already dropped after canon starts. Mountainbike is racing an hour and a half in the red. A different effort from the road.

So SOAR GRAPES!!! :lol:

In Saturday's edition of the same newspaper, Sven Nys did not rate Sagan's chances higher than a 15th place.

Nys was 9th in Londnn and since then MTB is always harder. In Peking they raced for 1h15' and in London it was 1h30'. Now the race is a little bit shorter and hence a bit more clenched and explosive. He rated Sagan's chances between 10th and 15th.

In his opinion the fact that Mathieu Van der Poel did not manage to qualify says a lot about the quality of the field. Okay there are fewer starters at the Olympics than in World Cup events, he admits but in technical passages you often only have one line whereby it's often standstill and waiting.

The sport is ever more technical and there are more of the so-called rock gardens with technical obstacles. Sagan is an acrobat but more technical than Julien Absalon or Nino Schurter? "No! I don't think so". There's more to it than just bike handling. Tyre pressure, suspension. Everybody has to adjust precisely to that. This is about experience and you can't make up for that in a few weeks training.

Nys' favourites were Schurter and Absalon. Kulhavy was an outsider. If he were Sagan he would have done both the road race and the MTB. Wih 14 das in between it would have been doable. When you see that Van Avermaet won and then Sagan judged the route inaccurately.

 

[Flamin]

No, Peking was 2 hours.

Anyway, Nys is a true connaisseur. I rate his opinion very high in this.

 

[Echoes]

I just translated the article without checking. Thanks for correcting

 

[toolittle]

Sagan would have dropped anyway, without flat tyre.

Nys' favourites were Schurter and Absalon. Kulhavy was an outsider. If he were Sagan he would have done both the road race and the MTB. Wih 14 das in between it would have been doable. When you see that Van Avermaet won and then Sagan judged the route inaccurately.

Well, Rio road race is too much for Sagan. He need more than a year to prepare. Loss 10 KG is not so easy.

If he target WC in Doha, he need to have a lot of muscle and power. Sagan must be interested in MSR and PR. Then, he had to keep high body weight and power.

GVA is another story. He need to reduce 3 kg to climb well. Sagan's arrival means GVA's hope to win PR, TOF, MSR by high power is difficult. It might be more easy for GVA to climb better and try his luck in Spring Classics.
Then do well in Climbing classics as well.

 

[max_powers]

Re:

Go go Sagan He started last (50th) but after 2 minutes he's in third position.

Watching the replay he left a gap at the start so he got a run on most ahead of him and barged to like 7th after 1 minute!

the opening section was tailor made for him. and his TDF fitness could have carried him well.