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There will already have been some performance modelling done in BC regarding the chainset. If there's any benefit, we'll see it widely adopted (until the UCI ban it). I expect there are other asymmetry aspects worth exploring too.
There will already have been some performance modelling done in BC regarding the chainset.
They did it 10 years ago. Just didn't tell anyone (and obviously social media wasn't what it is now for pictures to be shared instantly). No benefit found.
All of this 'marginal gains' stuff is bobbins.
In what way? Also, it's not "marginal gains", it's "aggregation of marginal gains".
You put 0.5% here, 5 watts there, a quarter of a second somewhere else and suddenly you've got a significant advantage.
F1 do exactly the same with car technology.
[quote=crazy-legs ]
There will already have been some performance modelling done in BC regarding the chainset.
They did it 10 years ago. Just didn't tell anyone (and obviously social media wasn't what it is now for pictures to be shared instantly). No benefit found.Aye, but even performance modelling has developed in the last 10 years. 😆
Speaking of bike tech, quite like the front of the NZ team's Avanti...
http://cyclingtips.com/2016/08/avanti-unveils-two-new-track-bikes-for-new-zealands-olympic-squad/
Funny about the forks. GB seemed to go for wide forks for their London bikes, now seem to be back to fairly narrow forks on the Cervelo.
Just be slightly wary of how her word might have been reported. The press love stuff like this.Oh I also hear Vogel thinks the British performances are suspicious.
Look at what they suggested Anna Mears said and then see what she actually said and what she restated this morning. All just hype.
All of this 'marginal gains' stuff is bobbins.In what way? Also, it's not "marginal gains", it's "aggregation of marginal gains".
Don't feed the troll, it's school holidays and he's bored.
All of this 'marginal gains' stuff is bobbins.
With a continuous endpoint (seconds for 4000m), it's called multivariate analysis. 8)
Level Playing Field. Professional (indeed any) sport is generally about trying to gain an advantage before the event starts, whether that's Olympic level prep or using xtr/lighter kit for an xc bike. Also of course training and tactics, its all about trying to start with the confidence that you will be the winner. IMO this is another area where lottery funding makes a huge difference as we have the budget to look for small gains, to follow up ideas / hunches and also to fund full time training partners, I know they do this in the sailing for example with the ladies training against top male (but below Olympic level) sailors with both having wages/accomodation etc paid
In what way? Also, it's not "marginal gains", it's "aggregation of marginal gains".
It's just daft. It's an appealing Sherlock Holmes style fantasy.
The size of pillows, hand washing techniques, the roundness of wheels, the fuzziness of gloves - none of these things explain how good athletes become unbeatable world beating athletes on a four-year cycle.
I think the 4 year cycle is a key point though. I can't recall where I've read it recently but one of the riders was essentially told to take 18 months off after the last Olympics. Presumably they were still being paid though...
If other nations are hand to mouth every year where a poor championship result means loss of funding etc then it could very quickly feel like being on a treadmill. If team GB acknowledges that it only matters once every 4 years and funds accordingly then they might have fresher (physically and mentally) athletes who peak at the right time.
1/ Why doesn't it? We're talking fractions of a second, not country miles.
eg: handwashing. If an athlete spends a week a year ill because of avoidable colds, that disrupts their training program by 2%. Doesn't mean they're automatically 2% slower, but if that can be avoided simply by avoiding shaking hands and by using hand sanitisers, why wouldn't you? Just because no-one thought of it first doesn't mean it's not valid.
2/ To use your Sherlock Holmes analogy. After all other possible explanations have been exhausted, whatever remains, however unbelievable / unpalatable must be the truth. You seem to be suggesting that selecting the best athletes, giving them the best equipment and best training techniques, ekeing out every tiny possible improvement and adding them all together, and then planning the whole 4 years around being the very best you possibly can be for a week in August - none of these things explain why we are unbeatable (* which we aren't; Vogel / Ligtlee / Viviani all beat us, plenty others were bloody close) while for the other 47.5 months we're ordinary (* we aren't; plenty of World class performances / titles in the interim too). So all that leaves is......
Is that what you think?
So all that leaves is......
Elementary my dear Watson
Gains are not bobbins, but to assume somehow that coaches do not move teams and share all the techniques etc is just naive. So the marketing by BC that somehow the secret sauce stays in the GB camp over time is just that - marketing.
There was an interview on the bbc web site with a new GB coach who just moved from russia to france to GB. He basically said there is little difference and the knowledge whether it be technical or sports coaching is pretty much identical. He said what does matter is how much money is spent on logn term programmes, and this does change per team. Much like in business.
So copa a quick question for you. How many people are actually involved in this doping and have been involved since it began would you say?
If team GB acknowledges that it only matters once every 4 years
the continued funding/amount of funding is based on Gold medals count isn't it? If so it does only matter every 4 years, no point spending time and effort wining the world championships and other races as nobody cares who wins those
Oh I also hear Vogel thinks the British performances are suspicious. I find her performance suspicious then.
She was saying that before the event, not afterwards. Did you see her on the start line against both British girls - staring hard from behind mirrored shades ?
Clearly she was doing all she could to unsettle them and undermine them - can you blame her ? And maybe it made the difference. Not that she was lacking in skill, ability and experience, but she had also had that killer instinct
I said last night - she definitely out-noused Katy Marchant. And then I'm not convinced Becky James isn't actually that fast over the longer drawn out sprints - she has an amazing turn of speed over a short distance, for example in the Kierin but only from a point where it wasn't quite enough to close the gaps completely; and Vogel just went early enough to draw the sting. Beaten by tactics, but they all count.
Careful Boardman. There'll be letters
A minor twitter spat did ensue, a female journo got upset, ignored those who suggested she'd misinterpreted the remarks, including Mrs Boardman, who pointed out that "What's for tea" doesn't mean "What are you making for tea" and her husband is very much a feminist himself !
It also turns out that Kenny does most of the cooking, wheras Trott has been known to set the kitchen on fire trying to cook a baked potato. Can't be brilliant at everything I suppose!
Bmx seeding runs are on now.
Nasty face plant off the first jump...
Bmx seeding runs on now
Well informed commentator that seems stuck on aero' and why don't they wear skinsuits.
Didn't Rob Warner do the London Olympics commentary.
D post, doh!
It appears the bmx qualifiers are on!
Is the track a bit slow? Seen quite a few cased jumps
Fun to watch the BMX, great skill and must be hard work. Just looks wrong though - no disrespect to the riders (and I wish I could jump and pump like that) but still looks like dads riding their kids bikes!!
Would be fun to try that track though
9th for Phillips
[b]A minor twitter spat did ensue, a female journo got upset,[/b] ignored those who suggested she'd misinterpreted the remarks, including Mrs Boardman, who pointed out that "What's for tea" doesn't mean "What are you making for tea" and her husband is very much a feminist himself !
So the fella in the velodrome wasn't the only one who was quick on the draw.
[quote=teamhurtmore ]Just looks wrong though - no disrespect to the riders (and I wish I could jump and pump like that) but still looks like dads riding their kids bikes!!
As mentioned earlier, Jess Varnish nailed this one: https://twitter.com/JessVarnish/status/765663169817763842
Did I miss the BMX quali-s, damn who knew ? 😉
Political Correctness gone totally mad re: Boardman's remark.
cloudnine - Member
Is the track a bit slow? Seen quite a few cased jumps
Sure looks it. Not sure it's going to be the best spectacle when there's 8 guys or girls on the track, 1/2 of them are casing the jumps even at flat out on their own speed. Think it may be a bit ambitious. Too many riders having to do that annoying "I'm only going to clear this if I wiggle the bike in the air" style of jumping. The one that has no style.
Oh and what IS Liam Phillips wearing? Looks gash.
Joris Daudet all the way for me - just so smooth and double quick
Jamba, qualifying is tomorrow, time trails for seeding for the qualis tonight. Not convinced by the track especially the 'road gap' at the end of the third. Will wait to see what bar to bar racing brings.
[quote=cloudnine ]Is the track a bit slow? Seen quite a few cased jumps
There've been questions raised about the track already, I thought they'd remodelled it?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/35959905
Hmm, watched a couple of runs (inc Daudet & Phillips) then turned the telly off. Really don't find it exciting or even interesting, maybe if they had their mums chasing them telling them to get home as it's time for tea and they have homework to do it would be better 😛
Sorry if it's your thing but it's not for me. I'm oot!
LOL at all the BMX hating from a load of middle aged men who also ride bikes for fun (actually I'm with you!) It should get more interesting when they start racing against each other though.
Where's the hate? I said I wasn't interested - big difference.
Or perhaps wait until they start racing!
[quote=whitestone ]Where's the hate? I said I wasn't interested - big difference.
I think the line about mums calling them home for tea - though it's a fairly gentle sort of hating and I'm laughing along with you rather than at you!
It's not *any* form of hating, it's called poking fun.
Let's be honest; as a grown up riding any sort of bikes whether it be around the block, around the woods, over jumps, down hills - it's all daft. In fact all sport's daft. I'd ban it all, apart from the fact that it's bloody brilliant and is a major contributor to the fact that we don't all get morbidly depressed and kill ourselves.
Pretty much everything in life needs to have some sort of fun extracted from it.
Thinking back to my day - the race would start not with the 'Watch the Gate' call, rather my mum screeching 'JONNY! TEATIME!' from 3 miles away; and as well as the usual berms and jumps, would include some dogshit to weave around and also being shouted at by the farmer for taking a short cut through his yard rather than around the footpath.
I'd also like to see 'negotiating the rhythm section' to be replaced by 'negotiating with the rhythm section' in which racers have to broker a settlement in Morrissey and Marr vs Joyce and Rourke before moving on to the final big set of doubles.
Looks like they are struggling to find enough able bodied riders to make up a moto after the first round.
Not really racing. First out the gate wins, everyone else just trying to get to the finish line.
Snapped bikes and massive stacks all good so far!
Commentator said, the Dutch rider broke his "FRONT FORKS" ! Lucky he didn't snap his rear forks eh ?
I missed the crash because the BMX was on the BBC Olympic channel that said 'boxing'. Great stuff BBC. As if it's not hard enough to flick between BBC 1 and 2 every 30 seconds !!!
Ah well, Sagan in the mountain bike race in a few days and not forgetting the Vuelta starts on Saturday.
There was a good interview with Mark Cavendish this morning, on BBC breakfast.
He wasn't ruling out Tokyo in the way he seemed to be a couple of days ago...