Cav is an Olympic sook !!!!

[jules21]

Background at MTBR

after reading the story behind it, i almost accept his reaction

[brentono]

British (gutter) Press... "The world ganged up on Cavendish and Britain’s road race team... "

[Baldy]

Its a bike race, sometimes the break wins.

Its not an upset or a shock or a boilover or any of the other hyperbole type descriptions they were going on with at 7 with Kenny n Karl

The break is a race within a race. Ya gotta be in it to win it though and we were in it up to our armpits thanks to OGrady. So were a lot of other nations, there were no real standout winners in either break which made for a good race I think.

I'd even say its a fitting victory for an attacking individual rider like Vino. In context of it being an Olympic team event where only the person who wins gets gold and not the whole team. I'd rather see an aggressive racer win from a break than someone like Cav get delivered to the line so fast that no one else can come around. But im not a big fan of trains, even when its us doing it for Goss. I think trains are good for the last 20-30kms of a race to clear out some of the chaff. But the sprinters ideal train that is so fast pretty much no one has a chance is amazing to watch but not exciting at all.

[wurtulla wabbit]

From what I can fathom, they're cheesed off at other teams not sharing the peloton lead etc.

It's not the tdf , it's a short event and they shouldn't expect favours.

Stiff shizen !

[Bandelero]

What was Bernie Eisel doing in the British train? Would have been interested if it came to a bunch sprint to see what Bernie would have done for Cav....

[foo on patrol]

And the one thing that was/is being missed........it's supposed to be an individual race not a teams race.

Foo

[Mulger bill]

Sometimes yer gotta do a bit more than ride tempo all day and trust everybody else to blow up, somebody mighta told them that if they were using radios.

Great win by Vino (never thought I'd say that), played the mind games of the last few kms like a boss.

[avroncotton]

I would just like to say that I was very happy for Vino, what a rounding off to his career. Good on him!

[wombatK]

I'm astounded so many above are happy for Vinokourov to win. The guy is a convicted
unrepentant and unapologetic drug cheat. That's just the kind of image cycling needs, and
really Cav's antics pale into insignificance beside it.

Give me a sook to applaud on the podium anyday before giving me an unapologetic druggie.

[AUbicycles]

I don't take Cav's comment too seriously, the british team judged it to be a sprint finish and expected more chasing... Leading on from the Tour de France there were massive expectations of the home team and both the GB and Aussie team commented on the team size as well as the size of the roads.

[Paul B]

Perhaps Cav was expecting that the event had been organised as a parade in honour of his well deserved victory

[RonK]

I'm astounded so many above are happy for Vinokourov to win. The guy is a convicted
unrepentant and unapologetic drug cheat. That's just the kind of image cycling needs...

+1

Drug cheats should get a life ban...

[silentbutdeadly]

The road race results (and the racers and general publics reaction to them ) demonstrate that the absence of race radios make for much more interesting racing and enjoyably unpredictable results.

It puts the final result firmly back upon the talents of the athlete and his/her team mates on the road at the time. Sadly, it can't continue...

[AUbicycles]

The road race results (and the racers and general publics reaction to them ) demonstrate that the absence of race radios make for much more interesting racing and enjoyably unpredictable results.

It puts the final result firmly back upon the talents of the athlete and his/her team mates on the road at the time. Sadly, it can't continue...

True, racing is less predictable though the safety advantages of race radios are the flipside.

Maybe the solution is to limit race teams to e.g. 4 radio broadcasts per races... limited to 160 characters. (Though they can dial 000 at any time).

[silentbutdeadly]

The road race results (and the racers and general publics reaction to them ) demonstrate that the absence of race radios make for much more interesting racing and enjoyably unpredictable results.

It puts the final result firmly back upon the talents of the athlete and his/her team mates on the road at the time. Sadly, it can't continue...

True, racing is less predictable though the safety advantages of race radios are the flipside.

Precisely what are the safety advantages of the race radio to the rider? If there's a problem then Our Racer could simply have a 'duress' button...

Most of the time, race radio seems to simply be used for tactical purposes between the rider and the team car. Or simple hurry up and pedal messages from the team car.

If that makes for exciting and interesting viewing then imagine every AFL or NRL player wired up to the coaches box...

[RICHARDH]

Can understand why Cav's upset, but really how else was it going to play out everyone had stated beforehand that they wouldn't chase. When i woke up and checked cyclingnews i was gutted , Vino? ffs anyone but him. Feel exactly the same as when he won LBL

Aus. Team played it well, O'Grady was a good guy to have in the break. Though i think this kind of finish would suit Gerrans more, he seems to be suffering a bit from his early year good form. Fingers crossed we have something to shout about on the Track

[AUbicycles]

Precisely what are the safety advantages of the race radio to the rider?

Sure, race radios are mostly used tactically however they are also used from teams and race organisers to warn of dangers ahead including crashes.

Here is an argument for race radios by Jens Voigt

[igstar]

While everyone is hearing about Cav's sooking, I was so impressed by O'Grady's effort to finish 6th and that is getting no recognition in our media... Seems like unless it's gold, the athlete's not worth it.

[brentono]

And for those that understand the idiosyncrasies of tactics in competitive cycling,
the attempt "Rogers at 1min, peloton at 5 min 55 sec" at which Rogers tried to
cross to the intermediate group (which contained the eventual winner, AFAIK/remember)
That effort, which may have resulted in a different outcome, when you consider the
recombination of the groups and the O'Grady/Rogers teamup for the final chopup.
A fact that was missed by the Press/Cavendish-
when there was the slagging off of the "Australian Team" for non-effort
O'Grady's effort to finish 6th was not lost on me, as already mentioned here.
(Might have been even better if Rogers had of made it across the gap, nice try)

[JV911]

British press are having a field day

Instead of gold, the cyclist feted as the fastest man on two wheels, finished an embarrassing 28th. Instead of glory, this was the most deflating result in GB Olympic history since Dave Bedford went to Munich in 1972 telling the world what he was going to do in the 10,000m and ended up nowhere

more http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/news-lon ... 237aq.html

[Speedster]

I'm astounded so many above are happy for Vinokourov to win. The guy is a convicted
unrepentant and unapologetic drug cheat. That's just the kind of image cycling needs, and
really Cav's antics pale into insignificance beside it.

Give me a sook to applaud on the podium anyday before giving me an unapologetic druggie.

Hate to be a pedant but Vino has never been sanctioned for using a banned PED. His sanction was for blood doping (receiving a blood transfusion to increase his red cell count).

[jules21]

I'm astounded so many above are happy for Vinokourov to win. The guy is a convicted unrepentant and unapologetic drug cheat. That's just the kind of image cycling needs, and really Cav's antics pale into insignificance beside it.

Give me a sook to applaud on the podium anyday before giving me an unapologetic druggie.

+ 1 from me too

the guy is most likely still doping - he was described as a 'reformed doper' in one of the papers

i just don't get how people can follow the sport, knowing that this is guy is most likely cheating while other clean riders are busting a gut trying to keep up, then cheer his victory as courageous. he's a festering sore on the peloton.

and then there's the matter of his payments to kolobnev after LBL...

[clackers]

The road race results (and the racers and general publics reaction to them ) demonstrate that the absence of race radios make for much more interesting racing and enjoyably unpredictable results.

+1. The riders' intuition and flexibility get tested.

It was inspiring to see Stuey darting back and forth doing shuttle diplomacy in that breakaway group, giving directions that the riders would normally get from their team cars, and checking gap times with the race official's car.

Oh, and in between, seeming to spend more than his fair share of time doing the work at the front.

[vander]

And for those that understand the idiosyncrasies of tactics in competitive cycling,
the attempt "Rogers at 1min, peloton at 5 min 55 sec" at which Rogers tried to
cross to the intermediate group (which contained the eventual winner, AFAIK/remember)
That effort, which may have resulted in a different outcome, when you consider the
recombination of the groups and the O'Grady/Rogers teamup for the final chopup.
A fact that was missed by the Press/Cavendish-
when there was the slagging off of the "Australian Team" for non-effort
O'Grady's effort to finish 6th was not lost on me, as already mentioned here.
(Might have been even better if Rogers had of made it across the gap, nice try)

Rogers effort was before the the second break went away which had the eventual winner in it, not exactly sure what his effort was for. Also dont know what Gerrans was there to do if he didnt go with the Nibali group I thought that would of been his job.

[Alex Simmons/RST]

Rogers effort was before the the second break went away which had the eventual winner in it, not exactly sure what his effort was for. Also dont know what Gerrans was there to do if he didnt go with the Nibali group I thought that would of been his job.

I think he was looking to get another small group going to have some reserves up the road for later in the race, but no-one wanted to do that quite so early so he was left to fry for a while. The big (non-GB) guns were being more patient.