Olympic RR **spoilers**

[raindog]

Actually I think you can, for once: there was no Plan B at all. Perhaps Team GB should have been prepared to get a rider in the break - say, Stannard, who was the freshest rider.

If they'd done that and still got no medals, everyone would've said it was because they were a man short with Stannard up front in the break.

 

[Nearly there]

Id love to be a fly on the wall in the team area now

 

[yello]

Uran looked the wrong way entirely. For some very weird reason, I feel quite pleased for Vino.

Agree with FM though, I reckon TeamGB got that wrong. All the eggs in one basket as it were. Admitted, they were expected to dominate, they were being watched, the pressure was on them... but even so, by sticking to their plan they ruled themselves out of the medals. I'd stay clear of Cavendish for a couple of hours.... he'll not be full of the joys of spring.

 

[srw]

The BBC coverage is bollocks

It's not the beeb, it's Olympic Broadcast Services. The beeb is a customer, and, I suspect, a mightily pissed-off one.

 

[aJohnson]

Uran looked the wrong way entirely. For some very weird reason, I feel quite pleased for Vino.

Agree with FM though, I reckon TeamGB got that wrong. All the eggs in one basket as it were. Admitted, they were expected to dominate, they were being watched, the pressure was on them... but even so, by sticking to their plan they ruled themselves out of the medals. I'd stay clear of Cavendish for a couple of hours.... he'll not be full of the joys of spring.

I think they should have put Millar in the breakaway in my opinion.

 

[ColinJ]

I wonder if people would be like this if Millar won, probably not...

The difference between convicted cheat Millar and others like Vinokourov, Valverde et al is that Millar (eventually) owned up to what he had done, expressed deep regret, apologised to his fans, friends and family for what he had done and has worked hard for clean cycling ever since. Valv Piti moaned about his 'rights' being abused (how dare they do a DNA test on the blood reputed to be his stored in that dodgy doctor's fridge!), and denied everything. I don't remember Vino ever saying much about the illegal stuff he got up to either.

 

[Smokin Joe]

This might seem like hindsight, but having watched almost from the start it never looked on. Trying to control the race with only four riders was asking way too much.

As for the coverage, it wasn't only the lack of information but the director needs shooting. Switching away from the important moves the race became hard to follow at times.

Still, a very good race with a great finish. And good luck to Vino, he served his time and is perfectly entitled to be back where he is.

 

[Nearly there]

Oh look beach Volleyballs on

 

[dragon72]

The commentators were just appalling.
"Ghee-sink", "Hen-ey-oh" etc.
Plus calling "Gry-'pell" in for 4th when he was 15 or so back? WTF?

 

[raindog]

If Germany had shared the work properly with GB there would've been a massed sprint and they would've had a good chance at a medal, maybe even gold, as it is they came away with nothing too - bit of a pathetic attitude imo.
Oh well, bring on the girls tomorrow.
What's the weather forecast over there?

 

[Paul_L]

Greipel must be wondering what the point in coming to London was. Germany rode just hoping to pick up the scraps of GB's work. For all the complaining about GB not having a Plan B, Germany didn't have a Plan A.

 

[ColinJ]

This might seem like hindsight, but having watched almost from the start it never looked on. Trying to control the race with only four riders was asking way too much.

You can see why most of the other teams didn't want to give Cavendish an easy ride to a sprint finish, but did the Germans actually have any faith in Greipel or not? If they did, then they should have been prepared to do their full share of the work and the best sprinter would win at the end. They would probably have got a gold or silver medal out of it. Instead, they rode to stop Cavendish winning and in doing so lost any chance of a medal for Greipel.

 

[ColinJ]

Ha ha - you two beat me to it!

 

[MrJamie]

I feel a bit disappointed, it was the only thing in the olympics i cared about the result of at all. Ive not seen much cycling before, but i struggle to see why a team would want to lead the pack pretty much the entire race (or at least everytime i flipped channel ). I couldnt imagine Team GB controlling the pack the entire race and then dominating the sprint too, surely far too many rivals wanting to spoil those plans.

 

[Strathlubnaig]

@ smokin joe ......At least team GB had 5 riders (4 plus cavendish).
sorry.... broken record etc.....