You could not make it up ! [Olympic Cycling]

**LINK**

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/olympics/annemiek-van-vleuten-cycling-celebration-tokyo-b1890105.html

MichaelG.

I suspect this is not common in elite circles; normally they'd get essential updates from their team car etc.

It's a good illustration of the hubris of paying insufficient attention to underdogs.

Well it did make it a bit more of an exciting race than the Men's which did not really get going until the last hour.

As radios are not allowed in the Olympics and the lack of "domestics" to drop back to the cars for supplies and to talk to the DS in the car did not help. there also seemed to be very little info given to the riders from the officials where the time differences are usually shown to the riders on a chalk board held by a motorcyclist, she was resorting to asking the TV crews for time gaps.

Van Vleuten still did well to finish second considering she had gone over the handlebars earlier in the race when she ran into a rider who had fallen infront of her.

Mens Moutain Bike race tomorrow morning, Tom Pidcock has a good chance though MVDP will give him a run for his money, Womems Tuesday and interesting to see if anyone can beat the French domination so far this year, Evie Richards has a chance at a podium.

Edited By JasonB on 25/07/2021 15:51:18

Looking forward to Adam Peaty 100 metre breath stroke final 3.30am our time. He has broken his own world record time 13 times, will this be number 14..?

Ron

Some autocorrects are just superb!
Bet Peaty will be hypoxic

pgk...

I would guess: typically Dutch? 😉

There is something about cycle racing that I do not understand. What is the peloton? And what does it do? And what advantage does it give, if any?

Any offers for an easy to understand explanation?

Peter G. Shaw

Hi Peter, Peloton I don't know much about either, but I don't have much interest in sports and I'll not be sorry when the Olympics have finished, it's taken over too much mainstream TV, what with the footie and the tennis already.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 26/07/2021 10:55:06

Nick,

Agreed. But then I've never been to any public, ie paying, event since my father took me as a young, very young, sprog to watch Huddersfield Town, not that I could see anything. And today? Quite frankly, I'd rather read a book, or watch a good film, or ..... than watch 22 overpaid children who have failed to grow up kicking an inflated bladder around.

Peter

A good explanation, which makes it all the more surprising that the fashionable (solo) exercise bike is so named.

Not really, Ega. The main appeal of the Peloton bikes, as I understand things, is that they allow you to participate in virtual group rides/classes via your* computer/phone.

What many people don't appear to know is that you don't need a Peloton bike in order to be able to do that. You can do it on any static bike as long as you have an appropriate digital device to participate in online group rides via, for example, Zwift.

I've never bothered myself with the interactive stuff; a Kurt Kinetic trainer (12 years old now), heart rate monitor and power meter are enough to tell me how woefully I'm performing these days.

*EtA: actually via their computer

Edited By Bill Phinn on 26/07/2021 11:49:03

I've read Nick's reference. First thoughts are that it makes a mockery of a race, where one person attempts to win: instead, it becomes a team race. Now ok, other games, soccer, rugby, hockey etc are indeed a team effort, but in this particular event it doesn't seem right to me. Presumably this same idea could be applied elsewhere, eg running. No, I think it's stupid.

ega,

You make a good point about the Peloton exercise bike. Indeed, the ads that I have (unfortunately) seen are more than enough to put me off ever considering one. (I'm not that interested in young ladies dripping sweat!) Plus, there has been a problem with Peloton treadmills and feet being caught in it with painful results. (That's my limited understanding of what happened - I didn't really pay that much attention to the report.)

Interestingly, about 5 years ago I bought an exercise bike. Earlier this year, it broke. To be precise, the flywheel axle broke probably because the depth of metal where the grooves for the drive belt were situated wasn't thick enough. The makers, although I think they are more likely distributors/importers, no longer made that model, so I bought what appeared to be a similar model. It lasted all of two weeks before failing. Dismantling it revealed that internally it was identical to the previous model, but this time, the drive belt had jammed down the side of the axle. I suspect it has been poorly assembled such that the pedal drive, and the flywheel were not in correct alignment. So, I'm looking for a new drive belt, and then we shall see, but I'm not exactly hopeful. Why didn't I send it back and claim under warranty? Well, I'd had to complete external assembly, and I'd got rid of the packaging, and I didn't really fancy packing it up to return. Plus, it's quite heavy. So, I'll replace the drive belt, reassemble it, and see what happens, but, I've now no great faith in it lasting. In which case I'll just write it off and buy a different make.

Peter G. Shaw

The start of the Triathlon was an even bigger disaster. Half the competitors could not enter the water when the start horn went because there was a boat in the way.

Peter

Even at Olympic level where G, S & B are awarded road cycling is still a team (country) event. If you watched the race from the start you would have seen that the other Austrian riders did not do any work on the front of the Peloton to close the gap knowing a team mate was up the road who eventually went on to win. When Van Vleuten had to drop back at one point just before her crash she was paced back to the peloton by her team mate Voss and the other two Dutch girls were also sending attacks off the front forcing other countries to work to shut them down.

If you follow cycling and understand what's going on it can make the racing far more interesting.

As I said yesterday Tom Pidcock had a good chance and he got the gold this morning, good race to watch even though Mathieu van de Poul crashed out early on.

Only ever been interested in two wheel sport,even better with an engine in the frame,absolutely fed up this summer,with tv time flooded with,footballers who cant kick,tennis and now olympics,just saw a few minutes of mountain biking this morning,and then its over, other sports get hours,Tom Piddock really showed how it was done,when I was a lad(mid 1950s) ,we used to make up track push bikes and ride round the local chalkpits,I was 15or 16 when I made a pair of spring pivoted link front forks similar to the DOT motor cycles they worked well until a bolt sheared,could have been nasty if I had been riding fast on the road. And then watching last weekend F1 grand prix, and Hamilton getting penalised for racing hard. Getting a bit like the days when MS ran into David Coulthards rear end and then said it was Davids fault. Verstappens driving has been getting harder and he played it a bit rough and then complained,tough luck.

Bill Phinn:

Thanks for enlightening me. If Peleton gets people on to "real" bikes then I suppose there is something to be said for it.

Edited By ega on 26/07/2021 14:42:46

Similar to you, Nigel, I too used to go track riding around an old quarry on a standard drop handle-bar bicycle. Main problem was all the punctures I used to get! I've also a recollection that I used to get problems with the chain as well.

Still, it was all good fun - no crash hats, no thick puncture proof tyres, poor sidepull brakes, metal "rat-trap" pedals. And I enjoyed it.

Just for fun, I reckon I could do up to about 40mph on that machine - 4 speed deraileur type, 27 x 1.1.25 inch wheels. Any advance?

Peter G. Shaw

There was a comment on YouTube to the effect that the solo winner, who is the Austrian time trial champion, is not good at riding in the bunch and therefore chose to attack alone from the outset. Oddly enough, this seems to have been a triumph of brain over brawn!

Students of UK cycle sport will know that solo time trial racing was the norm until a breakaway group organized so-called massed start racing.

I'm not sure any more, Ega. A former clubmate was killed a week ago when a vehicle pulled out on him during a time trial. By a cruel twist of fate the organising club's event-secretary had recently had to give up competitive cycling permanently after a flatbed truck pulled out on him during another event.

Maybe we should stick to riding the track or the turbotrainer, at least here in the UK.