The Olympic Road Race 2012 - Post Mortem

[dellzeqq]

Item 1.
No Surrey rider who has ever ridden Box Hill, Woldingham, Cut Mill, White Downs or Leith Hill......

I've ridden up White Downs, Woldingham (presuming you mean the tougher ride up to the Camp), Leith Hill and Box Hill many many times and

- the race didn't go up Leith Hill, Woldingham or White Downs
- Box Hill is easy-peasy for me, let alone a bunch of pros who are half my age and superfit.

so I'm not entirely sure that I find the case for the Surrey Hills entirely compelling.........

 

[lukesdad]

I lay the blame for this thread firmly on one particular members doorstep.............

 

[Hip Priest]

Wow Rob 88, give yourself a pat on the bac...oh, you already have.

 

[Ajay]

Item 10. Psycho – Babble

You need to put your chimp back in its box

 

[GrumpyGregry]

The fault is in the IOC and UCI. Had they allowed the British team to ride high wheelers or, at the very least, fixies like real men we would surely have won. Provided the riders handlebar moustaches didn't get caught in the spokes.

 

[GrasB]

As far as I'm concerned Team GB had a plan & seemed to be unable to deviate from that plan be it from physical exhaustion, over commitment to the plan & lacked the willingness to deviate from it or simply not reading the situation properly. Tactically they got it wrong. I feel sorry for Cav being left out of the medals again but that's how the whole thing played out.

Item 1.
No Surrey rider who has ever ridden Box Hill, Woldingham, Cut Mill, White Downs or Leith Hill 8 or more times would think that Cavendish would have or deserve a cat in hell's chance of winning on a Surrey Hill's course in the company of world

... where I TT & race that course is the definition of a sprinters course! FYI I train with & race against cat 1 & 2 riders.

 

[User16625]

I know nothing about cycling and despite what you said about the types of people allowed to contribute to this topic, im gonna do so anyway coz im ignorant.

It seems to me the reason why cav/team gb didnt win was because he/they didnt cycle faster than the winner of the road race. Perhaps cav had a cold or something that reduced his performance. As humans our performance on one day may not necessarily be as good on another day. Dont know if that applies to cav tho.

 

[Andy_R]

Does anyone want to swap two guinea pigs or a flat hedgehog for a cat so I can comment in this thread?

 

[Cheshire Celt]

Does anyone want to swap two guinea pigs or a flat hedgehog for a cat so I can comment in this thread?

Are the guinea pigs flat too Pmsl

 

[Andy_R]

Are the guinea pigs flat too Pmsl

No, just noisy.

 

[Ian H]

I have raced as a 3rd cat, but never as a guinea-pig.

 

[asterix]

Rules of discussion - do not even think about contributing unless you have won a 1st Cat Road Race or are a county level chess player and happen to understand road cycling. ie no managers, no couch potatoes, no wannabees, no sun glasses.

.

Permission to speak?

(i once beat my brother at chess and he was a pub champion and I don't have a sofa. Having said that I'd never be any good at team cycle racing since I'd want to beat EVERYONE and to hell with being in a team. Teams are all about money and sponsorship, IMO )

They cocked up. That's all you need to know. Having PMs changes nothing.

And anyway did you know that a fit cat can run faster than Usain Bolt? But probably in the opposite direction?

 

[oldroadman]

Perhaps the first post should have said no-one should comment who has not raced as a pro, and knows what actually goes on. Which the poster clearly has no idea about. Hindsight is a wonderfully exact science. Criticism is easy, good alternative ideas are harder.
The race was not hilly by pro standards, made for a sprinter, GB played their hand, and it's reasonable to expect the race to play out like a proper pro race, which it did in a way. Aussies and Germans both had sprinters who were at least podium prospects, but failed to ride for them. It did look, as a friend put it, "as if the rest of the peloton decided that a TdF win and World Cjhampion was all that GB were going to get", so rode against them, even to their own detriment. The only thing they didn't see coming was who would win, which was not the best result for anyone except an unrepentent Kazach.
Silly comments about DB, he has constructed what is seen as the strongest team (Sky) in the peloton from a standing start in 3 years. That takes commitment, management skill, and vision.

 

[Thomk]

As the only person seemingly qualified to contribute to this thread I will tell you what I think went wrong.

As is often the case when the peloton is chasing a breakaway the riders/teams in the peloton are playing a game of prisoners dilemma. It is of benefit to all teams in the peloton to contribute effort into catching the breakaway as that is the only way to have a chance of winning a medal. If none contribute then all in the peloton lose. However....if team GB commit to the cause and the others (e.g. the Germans) don't then there is a chance of greater benefit to the Germans (and others) i.e. the Brits knacker themselves out so much in catching the breakaway that their leadout train fails giving the big German bloke a chance of getting gold. But there is a great danger in this and this is what happened. The Brits were not capable of catching the large and talented breakaway on their own and by the time the others caught on and began helping it was too late.

So in short - we did not have the opportunity to win the race because:

1. We were not strong enough on our own to catch the breakaway
2. The other teams gambled and failed in their gamble not to help the Brits
3. The breakaway was too big and talented to catch without other teams helping
4. The Brits did not conceive that the other teams would have such bad judgement (which in itself is bad judgement)

 

[Monsieur Remings]

If Wiggins was a chess piece, would he be a King or a Queen (given the strange analogy between chess and road cycling)?