Olympic cycling - track and road (may contain spoilers)

[matticus]

The lovely lovely Cecilie did! The Dutch girls were notable in their blanking of the winner! I’m hoping they didn’t realise she was there and went later to congratulate her but it didn’t look good! View attachment 600873

Yup, nice one Cecilie, good to see. (I'll assume she wasn't just looking for someone else in Red-n-White to talk to.)

I'm happy to cut the Dutch some slack. They were focused on winning, with immense pressure as favourites; they're only human, their initial reaction was bound to be shock, and wanting more information.
Anna v-V was very gracious in later interviews. She was open+honest about the "controversial" information situation, but gave proper credit to the Austrian Anna 👍

(I actually think Vos has more questions to answer, as apparently she was the only dutch rider with all the info - in which case why didn't she tell A v-V?? )

 

[GuyBoden]

Another bad day for the Dutch, Van der Poel had a bad crash early in the MTB.

"I tell ya, the Dutch are weeping, In four languages at least" M.E Smith

 

[matticus]

That was some sprint from Pog

Well ...
WVA had done 90% of the work to that point, so I fancied Pog to stroll past him. But then I saw he'd let Mollema box him in as they prepared to sprint.. Luckily we were spared another inquisition about dodgy tricks, as Mollema was too slow to keep Pog boxed in once WVA lit his final set of afterburners, and the door opened for Pog to make a photo-finish out of it!

<dare I say it was a more exciting contest than the Womens' ? >

 

[andrew_s]

(I actually think Vos has more questions to answer, as apparently she was the only dutch rider with all the info - in which case why didn't she tell A v-V?? )

Perhaps because she didn't know Annemiek didn't know.
After all, it's easy to assume that an experienced teammate can count to 3.

It didn't make any difference anyway; Kieserhofer was too far in front and too close to the line by the time they caught Shapiro & Plichter.

 

[matticus]

...
It didn't make any difference anyway; Kieserhofer was too far in front and too close to the line by the time they caught Shapiro & Plichter.

Well yes, good point.

If true, the important "missing info" was the size of the gap to Kieserhofer; that was information they should have acted on earlier. If they had it ...

EDIT: I wonder if Vos was the only dutch rider with extensive experience of riding without radios? So using all other info available was more instinctive to her?

 

[Shadow]

"I tell ya, the Dutch are weeping, In four languages at least" M.E Smith

Oh, that is lovely, very droll.
For the ignorant hordes like me, who is M E Smith? (cannot be bovvered to look it up)

 

[Shadow]

If true, the important "missing info" was the size of the gap to Kieserhofer; that was information they should have acted on earlier. If they had it ...

They DID have it. Orange shirted soigneurs at the side of the road gave the info to AvV at least once of the size of gap to leader and gap to chasing peloton. They also had the opportunity, if were not actually told, from the pit lane.

Outlandish theory of the Dutch having history of messing up: in 2010, one of the world's greatest speed skaters 'lost' the gold medal in the 10k because of a messed up lane change, blame to the coach not the athlete.
Yes, different time, different sport, so maybe just showing we are all human and make mistakes. Gold medals at stake makes human error magnified beyond
imaginable proportion.

 

[mjr]

Well yes, good point.

If true, the important "missing info" was the size of the gap to Kieserhofer; that was information they should have acted on earlier. If they had it ...

EDIT: I wonder if Vos was the only dutch rider with extensive experience of riding without radios? So using all other info available was more instinctive to her?

I cannot find it now but I think one of the riders said they saw on a chalkboard that G2 was +1:30 and G3 was +4 but did not realise the break had split up (so they thought they were G2 not realising they had become G3), which is pretty odd because the board usually also shows the leader number(s) (see example below) and often the rider numbers in small groups... but if this misunderstanding was widespread, it may act them to act like there was missing info. I wonder if any fan pics of the chalkboard will get posted online.

So was it an error due to lack of racing without radios, like AvV being surprised that a lone chaser gets no regular time gap updates?

 

[Adam4868]

Oh, that is lovely, very droll.
For the ignorant hordes like me, who is M E Smith? (cannot be bovvered to look it up)

Mark E Smith.....lead singer with the Fall.Doesnt everyone know that !

 

[Shadow]

the Fall.

A popular beat combo, I presume?!

Doesnt everyone know that !

Err, no.....obvsly!

 

[GuyBoden]

A popular beat combo, I presume?!

Err, no.....obvsly!

 

[Dogtrousers]

Mark E Smith.....lead singer with the Fall.Doesnt everyone know that !

Commenting from beyond the grave

 

[JBGooner]

Brilliant performance by Tom Pidcock.

I heard Rob Hatch say he was only ranked 49th in the MTB rankings?!

 

[mjr]

I heard Rob Hatch say he was only ranked 49th in the MTB rankings?!

Quite likely: it looks to me like he was still competing in the U23 last year and only did one of this year's four world elite races — which he won, though. They don't count his CX or road results in the MTB XC rankings.

 

[Amazonian]

Brilliant performance by Tom Pidcock.

View attachment 601045
I heard Rob Hatch say he was only ranked 49th in the MTB rankings?!

He was ranked 15th (now 12th) but regardless, still impressive