From the start I have a funny feeling that one of the stories of this Olympics will be shock results for many of our and other favourites. Just didn't want it to happen today. At least my younger son still said, "I want to go out on a road bike now".
I hope that the road paint fades quickly. Cycling past "Go Cav" will be too painful
Only gives me judo bbc3 and bbc1 as options..
Very disappointing, but I think all the other teams knew exactly how they needed to play it to beat us.
Can't believe how shite the BBC coverage was as well.
What would football fans say if the score wasn't displayed, and everything the commentator (not cb) said incorrect?
[b]chunkypaul[/b] - MemberPSA - the women's beach volleyball is back on...
Dirty old man.
No volley ball option for me either! 😉
The Olympic road race is always covered badly in terms of cameras and commentary. Compared to the grand tours anyway.
The motorbikes were rarely confident enough to go alongside riders.
Trying to pick up riders in unusual team colours is tricky too, although I expected Hugh and Chris to do slightly better.
Combined with Twitter, it was perfectly ok though - getting a full list of who was in the breaks was the hardest thing. A couple of riders were still a surprise when they popped up on the results sheet!
Disappointing result and, let's be honest, a slightly disappointing performance from team GB. No-one helped, not even teams with sprinters and I've no doubt there'll be strong words tonight in the debrief and over the next few months across the whole pro peleton.
As for all the druggie stuff and personal insults, well it's not a surprise. People get emotionally involved in things and lose a little dignity when it goes wrong.
Why? isn't it another 4 years until they'll ride as a team again in an olympics?and I've no doubt there'll be strong words tonight in the debrief and over the next few months across the whole pro peleton.
Why? isn't it another 4 years until they'll ride as a team again in an olympics?
World champs?
I wonder if radios would have made a difference. It looked as though the other teams held off chasing until may too late to make any difference and maybe team ordered would have changed that.
Well played by the breakaway though
Ah, ok.
cheers!
I didn't get the result I wanted, so I am now in favour of team Radio!
I wonder how often the riders were updated on the gap?
didn't see the old "motorcyclist with chalkboard" thing, and many of the roads were too narrow for team cars to drive alongside - so probably not too many updates....
....pro cyclists becoming to used to riding to "team orders" and not using their own race judgement ???
Racing without radios is great, a real shame Cav didn't get his chance though. Actually I'm happy for Vino to get the win in that way, doping blemishes aside (different discussion to be had there?) I like his aggresive riding attitude and it did him well today. He goes for it in a do-or-die manner and this time it worked out. Seemed like he was almost given it at the end, but he made the right move to be there to take it in the first place.
Mounty_73 - Member
No volley ball option for me either!
It's on pay per view after midnight. 😉 Channel 94
didn't see the old "motorcyclist with chalkboard" thing
I did see that once in the last hour after Box Hill, but only the once
I thought the Germans may have helped out sooner had they had radios/been told to.
Huh? Germans helping out?
Huh? Germans helping out?
They had no one in the break and Greipell would have been 50/50 with Cav for a sprint, but they held off expecting GB to do all the work and they could just lead Greipell out for a win once GB were knackered. But it backfired when GB couldn't manage that many breakaways and as a result rather than it being Greipell and Cav sprinting for 1 and 2 they also ended up with nothing.
Basically every other team had a game plan to beat team GB including the Germans, the only difference is the German plan relied on Cav being in 2nd place with Greipell just in front not 40th. so by not helping at all they ended up just ahead of Cav as planned, but 40 places down. As a result everyone elses plan worked and the win came from a breakaway leaving the sprinters out of it despite it being a good finish for them.
Stuff that, there's Roger Moore in a Lotus on as well!
+1
Hope Vino doesn't retire now. Whatever his past mistakes, like a number in the pro-peloton and most of the great past tour riders, itsl in the past now. People need to get over it. Allowing ex-dopers to ride in the Olympics was the right decision. Hope he gets to ride in the Olypmic colous. He's right battler. Shame we didn't get a medal but then no one was prepared to help out. Hope we do better tomorrow in the women's race.
Disappointed that Cav did not win (or even get a chance) but in some ways it was refreshing to see a race that was not as tightly controlled as the big tours.
The breakaway riders were rewarded for boldness - something that rarely happens nowadays.
The race was quite long for team GB to control, and quite soon after the tour, when so many of the team put in such a big effort.
I do wonder if any other nation would not have set it up better for a home advantage. Was it just bad luck that it turned out that way, too much fair play or just a little stupid.
Team GB were on the front for pretty much 250km ....with no help from other teams....good effort in my book..
Top effort, but too many strong guys in the break.
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/7663114278/ ]DSC_5512[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr
Top effort, but too many strong guys in the break.
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[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/7663114278/ ]DSC_5512[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/brf/ ]brf[/url], on Flickr
There was a tweet from Millar that said that Cav had the legs to try to keep with the breakaway on the last climb but they thought they would catch up. A pity as that would have made for fabulous viewing
There was a tweet from Millar where he said that Cav had the legs to chase the break on the last climb but they thought they could still catch them after so didn't. A pity ad that would have been brilliant to watch
Pround to support GB, on the front for nearly all the race chasing the break aways with little or no help. Dont forget the one, two in Le Tour and Cavs mid blowing sprints as well.
A dejected sounding Cav was pretty damning of the Aussies in the post-race interview..
Disappointing result, but hats off to Vino and all the riders who hit that break. I had money riding on Boonan and thought i could have been in when he was in the break, but he just came out the back, i assumed he had a mechanical or nuked. Bit gutted for cav, particularly as brailsford said he was welcome to bog off from sky.
particularly as brailsford said he was welcome to bog off from sky
But didn't Brailsford also say he would rather Cav stayed?
Fantastic effort especially after all that was achieved in the Tour. We were up at Headley Heath and the atmosphere was amazing - well done to everyone that made it out to support the boys as well 8)
Kuco - yes he did, if Cav were to be happy riding with a team with a GC/ yellow jersey focus (well, plan of total domination). So I guess we can all speculate as to the message Cav has taken. Not wanting to argue with the experts on here, but no sure i would be happy as one of the worlds best sprinters and be essentially a domestic with some perks.
Re Coverage and info
Pretty heroic effort by team GB today. Such a strong break though, shame other teams rode so negatively.
A statement of the obvious perhaps but a fabulous atmosphere, huge support for GBR of course but respect for all competitors and huge encouragement to the tail enders.. Was on box hill and it was very clear even from our narrow perspective GBR did all the work to reel in the breakaway. Credit to the breakaway group for shaking things up and taking their chance.
To the non chasing group why bother turning up ? Am embarrassment to your nation.
I think today will be a huge motivation to the rest of the GBR team. Huge respect for our road race team.
Wiggo was giving it everything when he came past us in Putney...
Shame we've started on a non-result but I think Brit team is mature and competitive enough to use it to spur them on for the rest of the cycling events...
Good luck to Wiggo in the Contre La Montre
Have to say that I thought Miller's tweet was rather odd, if Cav had the legs then get him the break even if it means blowing all support and let him fend for himself.
From my spot on box hill I don't see how Cav could have caught the breakaway on the last climb, GBR had certainly made up significant ground but by my timing were still 60 sec down and the climb was far too short to make that up. (I was timing the breakaway every lap)
This sums it up "3's and 4's bunch engine mentallity"
How did they let so many quality riders get away? We were caught out.
Genuine question (since all the ins and outs of roadies are pretty new to me): Had Wiggins been told to go out from the outset and try to win for himself, would he have been likely to go with the break away groups and be in with a chance? Or would he have been dropped on the hill or something?
Obviously all very well to ask a question like that after it has all happened, just wondering. Had an awesome time watching it today though.
To be fair to OBS, Hugh Porter was a useless choice of commentator who couldn't pronounce riders names properly, left big blank spaces between ramblings then suggested that spain, denmark and and another random country that I can't remember had possibly came third. Third place was Norwegian! FFS.
Did this man not look at the team kits sometime over the last week.
An UN_trained chimp would have made more sense.
Chris Boardman for a knighthood putting up with that drivel
Edit
It was frustrating having half a dozen or so time splits over 3ish hours.
