Olympic cycling - track and road (may contain spoilers)

[mjr]

They used to manage it, it was the rule, so people had to stick to it, it was something like 10m in line and 2m box to the side if overtaking.

Ha ha. No, they didn't. Some drafting was penalised but smaller events just haven't got enough referees to watch everyone.

There probably should be two events: triathlon racing and triathlon time trial; but who would watch the duller TriTT?

 

[mjr]

Meanwhile, Germany have lopped seconds off the women's team pursuit world record in qualifying. Australia tried to match it, blew up and did not qualify for the semis.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Meanwhile, Germany have lopped seconds off the women's team pursuit world record in qualifying. Australia tried to match it, blew up and did not qualify for the semis.

4.5 seconds! GB in 2nd place but they almost blew up themselves.

 

[Beebo]

4.5 seconds! GB in 2nd place but they almost blew up themselves.

Not the greatest game plan from GB.
They were over a second under the new record at half way. They went off far too fast.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Not the greatest game plan from GB.
They were over a second under the new record at half way. They went off far too fast.

And then Archibald rode off the front at the death leaving the 2 remaining riders to straggle behind. It's good that she looked strong, not so good as far as marshalling resources are concerned.

 

[matticus]

And even in draft legal races you still need to be a good cyclist. We saw people dropping off from the lead group in both the men's and the women's race.

There is clearly a huge difference in the performance gap needed to drop weaker rider, vs the gap needed to drop a weaker runner. It's simple physics, you can see it played out in thousands of bike races available on Youtube et al.
That suggests that of two closely matched athletes, the weaker cyclist would usually win in triathlon. [Ignoring the swim of course!]

 

[matticus]

And then Archibald rode off the front at the death leaving the 2 remaining riders to straggle behind. It's good that she looked strong, not so good as far as marshalling resources are concerned.

I doubt that she chose that tactic :P
Things do go wrong in these team events, despite best intentions and planning. I hope they get it together to give the Germans a good fight 👍

 

[Dogtrousers]

What are the rules/conventions around the wheels in the different track events?

Sometimes we see two disc wheels, sometimes we see tri-spoke wheels, and maybe other possibilities I don't remember.

 

[Sittingduck]

Yikes! That looked nasty.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Yikes! That looked nasty.

Aye, not a Boardman bike by any chance

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

That was as close as I've ever seen someone come to running themselves over. Catastrophic equipment failure.

 

[Dogtrousers]

What happened? To whom?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

What happened? To whom?

4th wheel Aussie. Handlebars broke and the rider fell forwards.

 

[Aravis]

Ha ha. No, they didn't. Some drafting was penalised but smaller events just haven't got enough referees to watch everyone.

There probably should be two events: triathlon racing and triathlon time trial; but who would watch the duller TriTT?

You say that (BIB), but has anyone ever tried it? I think it would be absolutely fascinating and we'd get a true picture of the competitors' relative strengths.

I enjoy seeing triathlon on television. The spectacle it currently produces is certainly good to watch, but all pretence of an even balance between the three elements was abandoned long ago.

One point I've often seen made is that drafting is quite significant in the swimming phase as well, so trying to eradicate it from the cycling arguably replaces one inequality with another. The situation seems to be crying out for an ITT variant, but I can only think the governing body fears that their "shop window" event would be undermined.

 

[rich p]

Kirby is on Eurosport track commentary. A discipline he knows even less about