The peloton should share the load of pulling back the leading group, take turns in leading, not just leave it to GB it is exhausting to pull that sort of lead back. The rest just gave up. They maybe misjudged how far ahead they would get, but probably thought they would get some help. Unfortunately they didn't.
London 2012 Olympic Competition
- Thread starter mariachi-19
- Start date
The peloton should share the load of pulling back the leading group, take turns in leading, not just leave it to GB it is exhausting to pull that sort of lead back. The rest just gave up. They maybe misjudged how far ahead they would get, but probably thought they would get some help. Unfortunately they didn't.
If all the better cycling countries had a rider in the break away, why would they try to help the best sprinter catch up?
Obviously I'm wrong and GB did amazing.
Trouble is someone has to want to take the responsibility of leading. It seems only us and the Germans were willing to do it.
Basically as with a stage in the Tour De France etc, it is fecking hard to win.
Hence making anybody a 'favourite' as such in a race like that, is nonsense to some degree.
Once you have a bunch finish, or see who is in the breakaway, you can decipher a likely winner/stronger sprinter, but pre-race it's very difficult.
No shame on GB's part, just dissapointment.
Hence making anybody a 'favourite' as such in a race like that, is nonsense to some degree.
Once you have a bunch finish, or see who is in the breakaway, you can decipher a likely winner/stronger sprinter, but pre-race it's very difficult.
No shame on GB's part, just dissapointment.
Switch things up? What are you suggesting here?
They persisted in leading the peloton because no body else was helping. In the breakaway group there were around 30 riders rotating the lead, GB had three because Cav wasn't doing it. They needed some help from the other countries, Germany offered the odd rider for half a minute but besides that it was all GB.
What should team GB have done then?
We evidently should have tried to get in that leading pack from the get-go and not fanny around hoping in others to help out.
Good race that. Enjoyed it, except for the classless interview after it.
Well there tactic kind of was that of a stage on the tour where as everyone else's wasn't. That is how I viewed anyway.
Obviously with hindsight that's how it turned out, but if other riders would have contributed then the tactic would have worked fine and the peloton would have caught up.
Nobody could have predicted that it would be left to GB and the odd German to lead the entire peloton for 5 hours.
Got Cavendish into the leading pack to at least make a go for it. Tell me what we did right?
For Roger, playing on centre court in a red t-shirt probably feels like pissing in a posh hotel's swimming pool.
Did people really expect the teams to play cricket rules in an Olympic one-off race? It was obvious for ages that we were doing the work and yet people take fecking holier than thou attitudes toward cycling and opinions that we didn't do great in here - incredible.
How would you do that? It's not really as simple as it sounds, and if he tried getting away with a group they would most likely stop. Cavendish also wouldn't get the same protection in a breakaway, so it's not certain by any means he'd be able to keep up for a long time. He also wouldn't be able to react to attacks towards the end. He needs people to get him to the sprint and the only way he could get that was by staying behind his team and hope they catch the breakaway.
I think you lot did what you could do. It was always going to be team GB vs the rest. Your problem is that Cavendish is so much better than anyone else in a sprint, and because of that no one really wanted to help you.
Cycling is weird. Nothing the commentators say make sense, the whole GB team is racing for one man? Only he can get a medal?...So why don't the others want one?...And the guys who are leading the race aren't in a good position tactically?
My brain hurts.
They all ride for Cav because he's the one who has by far the biggest chance of winning this race. Also why the Germans ride for Greipel, the Australians for Goss, etc.
Normally, if you're leading and the peleton is chasing you so far from the finish, you're in a bad position, because there's a big chance the peleton will catch you back. But in this case the leading group was too big and in the peleton there was only GB that wanted to really take them back. So they stayed ahead.
But cycling isn't the easiest sport to explain in a few sentences. Best way to learn is to watch (and not only watch the TdF, which is tactically completely different from a lot of one day races)
These chinese players are everywhere.
Most of the other countries had riders in the breakaway. Can't expect them to ride for the pack. The only ones that can be blamed are Germany.
But that's the downside of being proclaimed hot favorite. You have to carry the weight of the race. Sky did that perfectly in the Tour de France, but here there were only to take control of the race and it proved not enough.
Interesting. A Brazilian chick just beat a Romanian one in Judo and it's the first time that they've made it into the final. Surprised at that given their history of Jiu Jitsu.
That would be quite stupid. A breakaway with Cav would never carry till the end as well. Nobody wanted to go to the finish with Cavendish.
GB did what they could and did what they had to do but it just wasn't enough. Because of the circumstances and the cooperation between other countries/riders in the breakaway.
And in these kind of races, especially when the teams are so small, it was always dangerous to talk about an 'absolute favorite'. This race is too hard to control for that.
Yes, everyone else's fault but ours, evidently. It would be stupid having the sprinter in a position whereby he could sprint to a potential victory.
I despair.
I agree completely with your two latest posts King Eric.
Basically Cavendish didn't win because he's too good. Normally you would have 2-4 rather evenly matched sprinters and their teams would work together and it'd be decided in a sprint, but because of Cavendish' superiority it was all down to team GB to make sure the sprint happened. Germany also wanted a sprint, but they knew that they needed most of their riders to be fresh in order to beat Cavendish so they didn't want to work for it until the end.
Basically Cavendish didn't win because he's too good. Normally you would have 2-4 rather evenly matched sprinters and their teams would work together and it'd be decided in a sprint, but because of Cavendish' superiority it was all down to team GB to make sure the sprint happened. Germany also wanted a sprint, but they knew that they needed most of their riders to be fresh in order to beat Cavendish so they didn't want to work for it until the end.
What's the aim in Judo? You trying to make them tap out or what?
Seem to be just flinging each othe to the floor without really doin much atm.
They should have an MMA type event.
Seem to be just flinging each othe to the floor without really doin much atm.
They should have an MMA type event.
You really don't get it, do you? He was in the best position he could be for a potential victory. What do you expect when almost everyone is working against you? Are you arrogant enough to believe that your 5 man team is better than the rest of the world?
Does anyone know when:
A) The tennis starts?
B) Federer plays?
A) The tennis starts?
B) Federer plays?
Federer is on now. Been on for a while
Are you for real? First you say he was by the far the best when there are at least 4 or 5 sprinters who could claim a win. Secondly, he evidently wasn't in the best position as his team fell about around him and he didn't come close to winning. I'm not sure when I said our team is better than the rest of the world, or even insinuated that. You would do well to cut the condescension out also.
Not sure if serious?Come on Adzz, you've been more condescending than anyone else in the thread.
You can make them tap by applying a submission or you're trying to throw them to the ground with their shoulder or back hitting the ground first.
Yea an MMA type event would be cool but I doubt it would ever happen.
Come on Adzz, you've been more condescending than anyone else in the thread.
It began when Wowi said directly that I didn't understand cycling, a comment which it pointless because that is something you cannot know about anyone.
Secondly, I stand by all the points I made in those posts, none of which were explicitly aimed at anyone, aside from the general tone of the cycling discussion.
Tone is hard to judge in text, the obvious GB did amazing post was a joke. Other than that, I entered bombastically, but that wasn't aimed at anyone. That's the big difference.
I've never really understand the whole idea of what the teams do in cycling? Why don't they all go for the win if they're able to do so, only trying to help a teammate win if they know they won't? I just don't really get it.
Ahh okay cool. Yeahh I just saw a woman get points for throwing them on their back.
MMA would be amazing, the Judo is pretty cool but it needs some strikes to really make it interesting, but I agree it wouldn't happen as bit too violent probably.
Edit - also some real boxing would be cool. Not the amateur version with the headgear
Is anyone watching archery....feck me how do they do that.
Look at the bows they're using though! They should be using a big feck off longbow, see what they can hit then.
Belgium has the first medal already. In Beijing we had to wait till the last day before we got the first...
