The Olympic Thread.

Evening, all (Cyc, Jongleur, Dan, Odddog, Zenyatta - long time gone, how are you all ?)

Just looked in to record my view that various types of hubris have been quite properly punished. Specifically:

1) Why do the BBC assume that their history entitles them to give the public the take-it-or-leave-it presentation we got in the road race today ? I understand, and sympathise with, the fact that they weren't getting the time-splits between the leaders, the poursuivants and the peloton. But they should have made their own arrangements for that - they knew it wasn't going to be like the TDF where the team cars and the media have on-the-road priority over pretty much everything. And their choosing two 'experts' instead of one expert and a professional presenter simply reinforced the feeling of what'sgoingon inside the final 20 km. Listening to Porter and Boardman telling each other they didn't have enough information simply insults the viewers. A Coleman, an O'Sullevan or a Benaud would have blagged it through seamlessly.

2) And this is a championship, not a team race. I'd been quietly appalled for some days by the way Team GB were saying they'd get Wiggins, Froome and Stannard to set Cavendish up for the sprint as if it were some divine home-team right. At least when the Kenyans orchestrate a long-distance track race, they make the last 400m a genuine race between themselves. And did anyone else detect a certain amount of whimpering afterwards, to the effect that the other countries 'wouldn't ride', as if not falling in with the GB masterplan was somehow unsporting.

I'm not anti-Brit, and I'd hoped that one of ours would get gold. And I'm not particularly anti-BBC either, but this was the day when some of the triumphalism came and bit us on the backside.

Finally, I've never ridden a road-bike in anger, but I do know something whereof I speak. I stood on the Izoard in 1954 and watched Anquetil rip through the opposition (some of whom got out of his way suspiciously promptly imo) and I was at the press conference when Geminiani asked a journo who was dropping hints about stimulants if he (the journo) really thought the boys rode the TDF on sugar cubes. Truthfully, I don't regard Vino's 'history' as anything particularly shameful, and I'm glad he won it. What's the equivalent of a knighthood in Kazakhstan ?

Won't be posting often, so it's been nice looking in on you all, and I send you my rich and continuous blessings.

 

Rainer, good to hear from you.
I agree with all you say re. the Road Race.
For hours on end, the hopeless commentary centred on the GB team being "totally in control to set up Cavendish."
Post-race, Boardman's and Lineker's comments were pathetic and utter "sour grapes"- saying the opposition would not race from the front/share the pace- and were prepared to lose to prevent a Cavendish win.
What a supercilious and mindless attitude!
Do they think the other competitors/teams were racing for Cavendish's benefit? They chose their tactics and Team GB chose theirs'. That's their prerogative.
Greipel's German team were obviously planning to come to the fore later in the race, and they made exactly the same mistake as Team GB. Neither of them made a real effort to get to grips with the breakaway group- or weren't good enough to do so. Congrats to that breakaway group for being positive and ignoring a stupid, preconceived idea that all the riders would ultimately form one single peloton- and then just wait for Cavendish to win the sprint!
The ultimate disgrace by the BBC was their post race interview with the winner- about five or six disjointed words amidst an amateur cameraman's inept footage. What a shambles!
One of the worst sporting TV coverages I have ever seen!

 

The Olympics has started so cue people who know next to nothing about a sport to jump on their soap boxes and act like experts.

 

Quelesprit...be specific towards a member and respond with your comments. Innuendo is fatuous.

 

Thanks for the feedback Tam. I'll keep that in mind next time I post. Your language is a tad verbose for a horse racing forum don't you think?

I'd not read your post when i commented but clearly i've struck a chord so if the cap fits...

 

Quelesprit, when I read a post (immediately after mine), I think there's a good chance it relates to what I said. Yes, it may have related to someone else's comments. If not mine, whose comments were you referring to?
Either way I don't agree with a vague , disparaging reference. Say what you think to the person who said it, however much you disagree.
What do you mean by "a tad verbose," by the way?

 

Rainer: Good morning to you! Good to hear from you again and hope you are well. Enjoyed your thread and do agree with the points you raise (watching Olympics through Filmon streaming service here - very good incidentally). The race took place very much in places I know so well from my childhood and youth. Boxhill, Hampton Court Palace, etc. - couldn't believe my eyes when they cycled over Hampton Court bridge and in two shakes of a pig's tail they were in Richmond Park. Don't ask me how long it would have taken me on my rusty old bike to do the journey in those days, 10 to 15 minutes at least (with flat tyre repair), I dunno really. I was slow, true, and no Oddog on a bike! LOL.
SwanHills.

 

Just one comment. None of us pretends to be an expert. The only, and I repeat ony, expert we have horseracing-wise is PrincessNewmarket. Supposed to be a bit of fun, this forum.................

 

The thing with the Olympics is that you end up watching things you wouldn't go the the bottom of your garden to watch, and after catching up on the highlights package that's what happened to me this morning... I have no intention of going to watch gymnastics, be it the women or the men, but the power, strength, agility and skill that the men showed in the team events last night was amazing... The hand stand that they all have to do, arms out wide before pushing up, is just simply awesome. The strength these lads must have in their arms and shoulders...!!!

Its come a long way from hop, skip, jump or how to attempt a roly-poly at primary school in your black plimsoles, the ones with the elastic band across the top. One size fits all type of thing...

I wonder what sport or event will catch my eye today...

 

I think the problem with the road race was that the other teams left GB to do all the work. It didn't pan out for Cavendish but how do the other teams feel who just sat in behind the British workhorses throughout? They might as well have stayed at home. It seemed like it was a cutting off your nose to spite your face job to me. I may be wrong because I am no cycling expert but no other teams helped themselves by refusing to help the Brits with the workload at the front of the peloton.

 

Sky had 8 riders to share the load. GB had 4, and then Cavendish who they were protecting.

But yes, possible that the tactics were wrong. If you place yourself in the position of the other teams you either sit behind Britain and hope to pounce near the death or you help them with the workload and then get done by Cavendish on the line. I suppose they were between a rock and hard place as well.

A curious sport which I'm only beginning to get to grips with.

 

I don't understand this cycle racing at all. I see what looks like a block of a million cyclists and wonder how the hell can anyone get past.

Anyway it would seem to me that the race was a tactical victory for someone. Not unlike some horse races, if you get it tactically wrong you lose. Whose fault is that?

I did notice that Cavendish seemed a very bad loser. A reporter asked him if the result was affected by tiredness from the Tour de France, to which he replied "No" and walked off looking back at the reporter as if looks could kill saying something like "Stop asking stupid questions".

Not a good advert for the Olympic spirit I thought.

 

I would suggest not a good advert for BBC interviewing either.

 

Blimey - its a wonder the commentator did not say "Did you not read the script - you weren't supposed to win"

 

Oddy: Thought I was hearing things and had got it wrong, but it seems that's what I did hear. Terrible, really.

 

Good Chinese Double Bet with 32 Red.
Ye Shiwen 5/7 (Womens 200m Medley)
Sun Yang 21/11 (Men's 200m Freestyle)

These 2 Chinese swimmers(already won Golds yesterday) are absolute class and must be backed. £70 double nets £349.