will Cav be at 2016 olympics on the track?

[charlieivan]

I read somewhere that if Cav wants to compete on the track in Rio he will have to give up his road commitments and concentrate all his attention to the track team. Can anyone confirm this as it does seem to be unfair to treat him this way. Others have managed to combine both road and track so why single him out for this? I haven't heard that any of the women have had this restriction imposed on them. Laura Trott and Lizzie Armitsted both do road and track and have been very successful.

 

[ColinJ]

Is it that he would be made to give up road racing for a year in order to be considered, or simply that it in practice it would be unlikely that he could get himself back to a high enough track standard unless he did?

 

[oldroadman]

Is it that he would be made to give up road racing for a year in order to be considered, or simply that it in practice it would be unlikely that he could get himself back to a high enough track standard unless he did?

That's about right. Olympic podium athletes are required to comply with the BC system, which severely restricts road racing except selected races for endurance. No-one can argue that it's not successful, and both genders are on that plan. The women's racing where you may have seen track riders racing in 2012 would have been carefully planned and approved by the coaches. To win medals requires total attention to detail and following plans to the letter, which is why GB are top nation.

 

[Noodley]

Much the same as others have had to do.

 

[SWSteve]

Medals are pretty important so they recieve free money from Lottery fund. If I was in charge of single mindedly hunting down medals I wouldn't want someone half hunting a track medal whilst keeping an eye on GT racing if there was someone who has his entirely life set on earning that medal.

 

[jdtate101]

Plus road race crashes are quite common especially if you're a sprinter. One crash could scupper his track chances, so it's worth it to limit on that score alone.

 

[Rob3rt]

It is called focussing and even if it was not imposed by a greater power, any athlete with sense would impose this restriction on them self!

 

[oldroadman]

Which sort of answers the original question nicely!