How to watch Olympic mountain biking this Sunday & Monday

To add, as an XC racer myself (even if I’d still be going round that course half an hour after the medal ceremony), if I were Koretzky there I’d not be pointing fingers. I’d be beating myself up for letting a faster line open up (done that before!), but not blaming myself or the other rider for that incident.

Pidcock got a lot more cheers on the podium than I thought he’d get from the crowd.

The Olympics is a weird one – people watch it because it’s the Olympics, not because they have any interest in the sport in question. Witness for example the Curling at the Winter Olympics in Beijing when half the nation stayed up ridiculously late cos GB were in the gold medal match. No-one cares about curling or even understands it but everyone stayed up to watch it!

However if you put curling on the TV as a standalone sport, the viewing figures would be nearly non-existent. And it’d be the same with most of the sports in the Olympics.

The exception is football which everyone watches normally and no-one bothers about the Olympic football cos it’s kind of meaningless against the World Cup.

Witness for example the Curling at the Winter Olympics in Beijing when half the nation stayed up ridiculously late cos GB were in the gold medal match.

Yeah I get that, but at no time has curling been that exciting for such a prolonged period of time, surely?

Discovery+ (well, Disney, who own them)

Thanks, was stating the same yesterday about the lack of BBC coverage on iplayer and knew there was a reason but couldn’t remember from last time.

Corrections corner though, Discover is owned by Warner Brothers not Disney

So the tree jumped out in front of VK before TP got to him?

Oops!

had far more in his legs it seemed

Except when Pidders did pass him he went on to win with a 9sec margin. Someone with more in their legs would have closed that down.

If it had come to a sprint I’d not have been backing TP.

Maybe so, but the race is not won by deciding who might have won in a sprint, or who might have had more in their legs at the end.

Except when Pidders did pass him he went on to win with a 9sec margin. Someone with more in their legs would have closed that down.

Did you watch it? He lost half of that straight after the clash as he lost most of his momentum, had to clip back in etc etc. He lost the other half in the role into the line when he knew he’d lost and backed off.

They weren’t even in the same race

Might want to watch more of that last lap.
With out the two errors it might at best have at best been a sprint with Pidcock in second wheel
If pidcock had closed down that gap and it went to a sprint, my money would’ve been on Koretzky

Anywhere to watch it back?

There’s short highlights on BBC iPlayer, 12 mins or so

The YouTube highlights don’t really capture the chase back on, worth watching the full iPlayer coverage of the chase if you can

It was an outstanding race, really gripping stuff. Proper drama, well worth watching all of it if you can.

Did you watch it?

Live, and again on catch up. Did you watch it?

He lost half of that straight after the clash as he lost most of his momentum.

Someone with “more in their legs” would have been chasing Pidcock down to re-pass him rather than giving up nearly a minute from the finish.

Totally legit.

And absolutely shameful from the Frog crowd booing.

To my eye, two lines either side of the tree, and at that point Pidcock was absolute full gas for the corner and had a wheel in front. Even at level, his was the inside line and no reason to yield that because Koretsky was trying to hit the same line, that’s only a consideration if Koretsky was in front. Even then to avoid contact Koretsky would need a clear gap or for Pidcock to back out and on the second last corner of the Olympics, that ain’t happening. So Koretsky tried to take Pidcock’s line for me, made contact, and came off second best. There was no complaint, I think he knew he’d messed up the line choice. If it had gone the other way and Koretsky had put Pidcock off, I think there might have been grounds then for a complaint.

I’d suggest that sometimes riders know when the task in insurmountable.

Don’t know if you don’t try. Had the contact damaged his mech and when he tried to shift he’d have unseated his chain, whatever…… it’s never over until the portly woman has commenced her repertoire.

Would being 40s back with 2 laps to go count as insurmountable 😉

I popped round a mate’s house and he had the MTB race on the telly. It was just on in the background as we chatted, but the last few minutes were very exciting! Great overtaking move up the inside from Pidcock; Senna/Verstappen style. The French rider can’t have any complaints; it’s racing and you have to be on the lookout for such a move. Pidcock holds his line, he has nowhere else to go, and Koretsky veers left into Pidcock.

Watching that has made me want to get back on an MTB, after years away. Sport is wonderful.

I suspect all the hoo-hah about that pass is generated because the BBC commentary was from a retired golf/tennis pundit whose whole credentials for bike racing is watching a bit of Formula 1 on the telly.

And what mech was Pidcock using?  I’ve seen a picture of him holding up his bike with what looks like a gear cable sticking out of it.

Edit – just seen it’s XTR Mechanical.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/it-was-part-of-racing-victor-koretzky-gracious-in-olympic-mountain-bike-defeat-after-last-lap-clash-with-tom-pidcock/

I think Koretzky’s got the last word on whether the pass was a problem or not.

Looking at it, and this crash –

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/video-the-mistake-that-cost-a-gold-medal-in-the-olympic-mens-mountain-bike-race.html

I think Koretzky was paying for his last attack. He looked strong but it must have really taken it out of him and he’d started to make mistakes – slipping on a corner, picking the wrong line where he was overtaken. It’s a familiar story to anyone that’s ridden a bike hard for a while. Eventually fatigue starts showing in your decisions and technical riding as well as in your legs. He must have given it a million percent effort to try and get gold – good on him.

The cut-out in this picture shows what @theotherjonv says. Pidcock is not only in front but he’s on the far left of the trail and is turning left.