You Bastard I thought you were talking about my favourite kids show [video=youtube;cAfRzbC3nLc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAfRzbC3nLc[/video]
I'm an expert now... the other teams didn't help the chasing peloton catch the first peloton because there was nothing in it for them as they had guys in the first one. GB needed to do all the pushing themselves and, indeed, johnny foreigner slowed them down deliberately when they were at the front of the second peloton.
It's all about slipstream: the cyclists behind the leader of the pelotron expend up to 40% less energy as they benefit from the leader's slipstream. That's why teams swap the lead every so often to give the guy at the front a rest.
So they have no one to blame but themselves but have started pointing the index at Jonny overseas already?
Simply its harder to be at the front of the peleton or group of riders as you are the one doing all the work, setting the pace & riding in to the wind......those behind move in to your slipstream and are able to use less effort just to follow you. If you watch they swap positions every so often to take it in turns at the front to give each other a rest. In this case nobody else took over from GB & left them to do what they wanted. As said above most other teams had a rider in the breakaway group & did not want to catch them as GBs plan was to unleash Cavendish who is a beast of a sprinter. If they did catch the breakaway group there were a few sprinters in the main group who would have challenged anyway. The sprinters are usually rubbish at climbing the hills and lack the endurance like other riders thats why Cavendish never went to the front & the German & Dutch sprinters stayed at the back of the group till the last few KM. GB could have let someone like Froome or Wiggins loose to join the breakaway but they have events in the week so would have been gambling potential medals in other events - this was Cavendish's chance of a medal.
Kind of except teams like Germany had nobody in the breakaway groups and they had a similar plan to GBs with their sprinter except they did nothing to try & chase the breakaway. Cavendish has claimed some teams were happy to see GB fail then there own country win. Just sour grapes as he never won a medal last time either & he's not in any other events
Kind of - but as I said the team had 5 riders in & guys like Froome, Wiggins are in another event on Wednesday I think & they should win those events so to try & win this would have been a gamble for them
