Where does the Olympic Road Race rank in prestige?

[karlboss]

Considering Cav's track record in one day races this year I wouldn't call him the favorite just yet.

Sagan?????

 

[El Pistolero]

Sagan?????

Definitely a big favorite.

 

[Red Rick]

TDF
Giro, Olympics
Vuelta, Worlds
Monuments
Stage races and other classics, TDF stages
Giro and Vuelta stages

TT's not included

Ofcourse it's way bigger than a monument. If Cav wins the ORR, he's gonna be a legend in Britain. If he had only one MSR only the real cycling fans would give a damn

 

[argyllflyer]

The difference in Cavendish is the favourite to win the olympics, Boonen is an outsider due to the course.

Last year they went round Box Hill twice, for the Olympics it's nine times.

Dave Harmon and Rob Hayles go along the route:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0roSxMKeBM

While it's not exactly the Pyrenees, all of that repetitive climbing will surely put a dent in some of the pure sprinters?

 

[personal]

I think that for a cyclist and true cycling fans it is bellow monuments, but for general public it is above.
Prestige you get by winning one or another is different.

 

[karlboss]

Last year they went round Box Hill twice, for the Olympics it's nine times.

Dave Harmon and Rob Hayles go along the route:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0roSxMKeBM

While it's not exactly the Pyrenees, all of that repetitive climbing will surely put a dent in some of the pure sprinters?

Box hill is just too far away from the finish and not hard enough. Added to that knowing it's a sprinters course, Cavendish, Goss, Kittel/Greipel, Farrar, will all turn up with a bunch of timetrialists to bring a break back. I just can't see it being anything other than a sprint.
There are a few scenarios where this is not a sprint, they just aren't very likely.

 

[595RED]

meh... I enjoy watching it becasue many riders want to win, but i don't even rate it higher than Amstel

Good call Im with you on the Amstel level.

 

[greenedge]

They watch the olympics and build statues for Samuel Sanchez

A lot of Spanish people follow cycling.

 

[The Hitch]

Considering Cav's track record in one day races this year I wouldn't call him the favorite just yet.

who is the favourites for worlds then?

Serious q so don't just put boonen then wink.

 

[meat puppet]

I did not have the glutes to sit through all the nitpicking, so sorry if something to this effect has been said above.

WC and ORR are really prestigious races, to be sure. From the viewpoint of the general public, they certainly top the monuments. However, they also harbor a tendency of offering routes tailored to certain riders / national teams. Classics and monuments, due to their history, usually do not allow for this kind of tailoring. To me this alone makes them more prestigious. The winners must negotiate what the tradition tosses in front of them, not hit and run a course on which they were always meant to win. In this regard I think Pisti might have a point, although it could have been worded a lot better and in a less condecending manner.

Put it another way, as courses, the last WC and the ORR are fanatically bent towards the present, and moreover reproducing the current status quo. That is dull from any possible angle apart from the nationalistic and marketing ones. Many stage races tend to fall into this as well, sadly. The classics rather borrow from the past but also point towards a future, which is largely as yet undetermined. The latter are simply more open ended, as the Ardennes week of this year again testified. The view is simplified and even a bit romantic to be sure. But Iglinsky and Gasparotto, I take it, would agree.

I like that, unpreidctability.

Also I really don't care too much about what the "objective status" of whichever race is, but I expect the ORR to be a dull procession to produce a highly marketable olmypic champion. That I dont like.

 

[El Pistolero]

who is the favourites for worlds then?

Serious q so don't just put boonen then wink.

Peter Sagan, Fabian Cancellara, Oscar Freire and Philippe Gilbert. Of course you'll say Gilbert has done equally poor in the one day races as Cavendish this year, but that's not true. Even a weak Gilbert was one of the strongest men on the Cauberg.

Tom Boonen is a very dangerous outsider for the win, he can handle the Cauberg. If he could beat Gilbert on his terrain in Aywaille, the hills of Limburg should be no problem. He will want to take revenge for 2010 where he missed a big opportunity to become world champion for the second time in his career.

 

[Cult Classics]

The difference in Cavendish is the favourite to win the olympics, Boonen is an outsider due to the course.

Boonen is 33/1 with Ladbrokes and I shall be having some of that. Is the course easier than Gent-Wevelgem, where Boonen stayed with the group and Cavendish didn't? I guess the 5-a-side factor could play its part. Aside from the fact the hill has cobbles, I think G-W is probably the closest one day race course to this olympic course given the distance from final hill to finish.

 

[Caruut]

Boonen is 33/1 with Ladbrokes and I shall be having some of that. Is the course easier than Gent-Wevelgem, where Boonen stayed with the group and Cavendish didn't? I guess the 5-a-side factor could play its part. Aside from the fact the hill has cobbles, I think G-W is probably the closest one day race course to this olympic course given the distance from final hill to finish.

The course is so easy. Boonen at 33-1 is great, though.

 

[The Hitch]

Boonen is 33/1 with Ladbrokes and I shall be having some of that. Is the course easier than Gent-Wevelgem, where Boonen stayed with the group and Cavendish didn't? I guess the 5-a-side factor could play its part. Aside from the fact the hill has cobbles, I think G-W is probably the closest one day race course to this olympic course given the distance from final hill to finish.

gw was during boonens season peak time - march April.

Olympics is during cavs peak time - July.

 

[El Pistolero]

A good rider can peak at least twice a year.

Cav has peaked in March before back in 2009. Was also good in the Tour that year. And no Boonen's peak is in April, not March.

In reality, Cav had no excuse for sucking at Milan-San Remo and Gent-Wevelgem. They were his spring season goals and he failed to win both of them. This whole peaking debate is nonsense anyway. Sometimes you just got to admit a better rider won on the day and not use excuses like "he didn't peak".

 

[Cult Classics]

Gilbert showed in 2011 that it's perfectly possible to be on form in April and July.

 

[LugHugger]

I think that for a cyclist and true cycling fans it is bellow monuments, but for general public it is above.
Prestige you get by winning one or another is different.

Yep, for most cycling fans the gt's and monuments count for much more than the ORR. Non cycling fans can identify the prestige of a gold medal and are barely able to differentiate between the yellow/pink/red and points jerseys let alone the relative merits of different races.

 

[The Hitch]

A good rider can peak at least twice a year.

Cav has peaked in March before back in 2009. Was also good in the Tour that year. And no Boonen's peak is in April, not March.

In reality, Cav had no excuse for sucking at Milan-San Remo and Gent-Wevelgem. They were his spring season goals and he failed to win both of them. This whole peaking debate is nonsense anyway. Sometimes you just got to admit a better rider won on the day and not use excuses like "he didn't peak".

He didn't peak isnt a valid excuse anyway. No one is making excuses, I don't care much for where Cav finished that race, nor too much for the race itself for that matter.

Thing is, this discussion is about the olympic road race. And no matter how many times you shove your fingers in your ears and scream "MRS was his early season goal" "GW was his early season goal", it wont change the fact that when it comes to the road race one will expect the Cav, the man who won the world championship last year afterall, to be in tip top shape with 110% focus and willing to leave it all on the line?

I find it hard to believe, that even you, seriously expect Cav to go down without a fight at possibly the biggest race in his life, because he sucked in Ghent Wegelhelm?

 

[burning]

My sort of list

TDF
Giro
Olympic RR/World RR
P-R
RVV/LBL
Vuelta
MSR/GDL
FW/AGR
GW/CSS/P-T/E3
Good stage races
Lame stage races

 

[El Pistolero]

He didn't peak isnt a valid excuse anyway. No one is making excuses, I don't care much for where Cav finished that race, nor too much for the race itself for that matter.

Thing is, this discussion is about the olympic road race. And no matter how many times you shove your fingers in your ears and scream "MRS was his early season goal" "GW was his early season goal", it wont change the fact that when it comes to the road race one will expect the Cav, the man who won the world championship last year afterall, to be in tip top shape with 110% focus and willing to leave it all on the line?

I find it hard to believe, that even you, seriously expect Cav to go down without a fight at possibly the biggest race in his life, because he sucked in Ghent Wegelhelm?

Never said he was going down without a fight. I just don't see him as the big favorite unless he does something impressive before the start of the Olympics. As of yet, I haven't seen an awful lot of impressive moments from the world champion to suggest he's the man to beat. The world championship last year was shorter and flatter than the Olympics this year. The Olympics also has 5 man teams instead of the normal 8.

Yeah, Cav is going to leave it all on the line at the Olympics. You make it sound like he's going to be super aggressive and risk everything to win it. While in reality all he has to do is follow and hope it all comes back together in the end.

I don't think a rider deserves to be called the big favorite for a race when he has sucked in every single big one day race he started in. Simple as that.


110% focus? Does that mean he's going to take a banned substance to increase his focus?

 

[The Hitch]

love how so many times when you lose a debate you retreat to the "oh but i was just saying he is not The Big Favourite" as if the whole discussion had been blind Cav fanboys claiming no one else had a chance and stalwart defender of reason, El Pistrollero in the corner, taking them on.

 

[El Pistolero]

The difference in Cavendish is the favourite to win the olympics, Boonen is an outsider due to the course.

Nope, it started with this post. Cav being the favorite to win the Olympics as opposed to a favorite. Nice try though.

 

[The Hitch]

Fair enough. You are right, my bad.

 

[avanti]

I imagine that an Olympic gold medal is probably the highest rated event for women.
For men I believe it is less important than many other events but it probqably depends on which country he represents.

 

[karlboss]

GV vs ORR.
2 points.
A selection was made on the Kemmelberg after a long day of more difficult climbs than the ORR. I argue that it is a more selective climb than box hill, being much steeper, almost as high, and cobbled.
The Gap opened up in the 35km after the climb(which included another climb) as the front 30 odd pulled away. Cavendish whinged that noone would help bring them back. His helpers were Hayman and Stannard, good riders no doubt, but not as strong a combination as Wiggins, Thomas, Stannard(I'd say) and Froome(though will he bring career form or Vuelta for?), before you consider the Germans bringing things back together for Greipel or Kittel, with Martin and Grabsch.

Another good point of comparison might be the geelong World champs. 11 laps gaining 245m each lap at 10%, finish line 6km after last climb. Versus 9 laps gaining 125m each lap at 5%, finish line 50km after last climb. Cav was only dropped in the last few laps.
Or previous olympic games Athens, again a tougher loop, 2 got away, on the second to last lap with about 20km and 4 climbs to go, and held off a bunch of 60.
Or Sydney. The loop was easier(one obstacle 1km at 8%), but there wasn't 50km flat to the finish, where the 3 attacked 1.5 laps from the finish, all rode for the same team. A bunch of 70 came in after them, including the greatest climber of the year Robbie McEwen.

I just don't see the loop as tough enough for the race to be decided by the strongest riders. The only way it is not a sprint is if the chasing peloton doesn't cooperate and a strong break does.