How to watch Olympic mountain biking this Sunday & Monday

Wow… The atmosphere! Security for Tom please!

Woohoo!!!!!!! Well ridden TP!

Holy mother!

boos werent good on the line though but what a race

Classic! Love a bit of barging around in mass start races

that was absolutely insane

How did he do that!

TP getting a fair chunk of booing for that result.

French being French

Superb ride!

Good finish for Aldridge.

CRY MOOOAAAR BITCH!

TP is gonna get hounded at the medal ceremony!

That has to be the most exciting racing (of any kind) I’ve seen for many a year.

Sad that some of the crowd are booing. That close miss is one of the risks in MTBing.

Yeeehah!

That was incredible. Worst coverage I’ve ever seen of an MTB race though, they nearly missed the finish and the commentators seemed like they weren’t even watching.

No hugs between the winners at the line like the women’s race. I can see the podium being a bit frosty.

Aldridge – 10/10, superb race, and I’m gonna post it again for those that didnt see – a one hander/toboggan mid-olympic race…

 

https://thumbsnap.com/vomGdLiD

Koretzky, wow, fair play he was incredible, that will be very, very hard to take.

Pidcock was win or bust.

Proper racing that.

Fantastic race.

Bet the course designer is glad they put that second line in.

Worst coverage I’ve ever seen of an MTB race though, they nearly missed the finish and the commentators seemed like they weren’t even watching.

Switching channels mid-race (and therefore missing the drama of TP’s puncture), an immediate cut back after the finish to the eventing so they’re missing the medal ceremony too… BBC did a shit job on that one.

I think the actual coverage as supplied by the broadcaster wasn’t too bad but what the BBC did with it took it down a few notches.

crazy-legs

Full Member

Ooh that was close. I can see a complaint coming about that one

I thought Pidcock took the shorter line, accelerated prior to the pass and K bumped into Pidcock when they merged?

Wasn’t deliberate just unfortunate and K could of chosen the line Pidcock took but didn’t.

I am not a race referee!

It be good advertising for Pinerallo 2 golds one on a  hardtail and the other on  full-suspension. Not bad for Specialized either 2 silvers.

Bet the course designer is glad they put that second line in.

Likely they were French, so probably not!

Bet the course designer is glad they put that second line in.

French course designer put in a second line that GB rider used to beat the French race leader. Lovely stuff.

Just like Verstappen/Hamilton, this will run and run but fundamentally Tom was in front when they came together so its tough luck for Koretzky.

Just went back to watch the finish on Eurosport and it was 100% better. If you have Eurosport don’t bother with the BBC.  You could almost tell the BBC were desperate to cut away to the bloody horse riding. If it was any other sport a UK gold medal would be savoured a bit more.

Switching channels mid-race (and therefore missing the drama of TP’s puncture), an immediate cut back after the finish to the eventing so they’re missing the medal ceremony too… BBC did a shit job on that one.

I think the actual coverage as supplied by the broadcaster wasn’t too bad but what the BBC did with it took it down a few notches.

Switching channels at the time of the puncture – not a lot they can do about that, tv schedules are fairly fixed things. They cut immediately to the eventing as we’re in with a shot of a medal there too, and horse fans are allowed to see their stuff as well as bike fans. And all the camera shots come from the official coverage, the Beeb just get and show what they’re given.

The commentary wasn’t brilliant, granted, but most commentary of that kind of stuff is fairly dire – you’re either pointing out the obvious or filling time.

Switching channels mid-race (and therefore missing the drama of TP’s puncture)

Yeah, bad enough that there was a gap between BBC2 stopping and BBC1 starting, but unbelievable that they were still blathering on about swimming when you could clearly see Tom stopping in the pits on the coverage.

Likely they were French, so probably not!

Apologies, I should’ve put a winkyfacetongueout there.

Nick Floros designed the course who did both the Tokyo and Rio courses.

That race back to the front and that last lap!

Isn’t it the same course designer as Rio and Tokyo?

Edit: thanks for clarifying, Kuco.

Odd Discovery had no adverts for the mens race but whacked a load in for the womens.

 If it was any other sport a UK gold medal would be savoured a bit more.

Or the beeb wants to go to the event where they could get a 2nd GB gold in a day?  It can’t be easy for them with multiple live feeds but if the medal ceremony isn’t in the highligths show I’ll be amazed.

After all the Peaty overindulgence last night they need to improve

Switching channels at the time of the puncture – not a lot they can do about that, tv schedules are fairly fixed things.

They have multiple channels, and an on demand streaming service. It’s not beyond them to show two things at once, you’d think if it was good enough for Glastonbury it would be good enough for the Olympics. Discovery+ are still showing the post-race analysis so at least someone is getting it right.

Great race – I thought Koretzky had it sewn up and the lead was insurmountable but it was almost as if Pidcock had team radio in the ear telling him when he could go based on his theoretical efforts.

The pass was totally legit – Pidcock picked the faster line, Koretzky tried switching lines halfway through. You could say Pidcock trying the overtake or Koretzky moving over were the cause of the contact but in reality no one’s to blame.

Just like Verstappen/Hamilton, this will run and run but fundamentally Tom was in front when they came together so its tough luck for Koretzky.

Was he? I’d say he was behind but was on the line without the tree in the way – K had to come back on to the left line and Piddock was there already. But if it was a photo finish 2m before the tree where it narrowed the French guy would have taken it. Maybe even 1m.

Good race though. How the French guy had enough in him to duke it out with Pidcock given how easily P had munched K’s lead up is pretty amazing.

A moment for Nino Schurter aswell, footage showed him absolutely balling his eyes out over the line, must be hugely emotional. Respect.

Is there any chance that racing like that might make MTB racing a bit more acceptable for any of the mainstream broadcasters?

Switching channels mid-race (and therefore missing the drama of TP’s puncture)
Yeah, bad enough that there was a gap between BBC2 stopping and BBC1 starting, but unbelievable that they were still blathering on about swimming when you could clearly see Tom stopping in the pits on the coverage.

They switched it off completely on the iPlayer feed for a while, Don’t understand why that couldn’t have just carried on as there was no channel change.

Pidcock his usual self in the interviews.

Gave his respect to Victor, acknowledged his great ride but “rubbings racing and the olympics are no different”.

Ruthless. Champion.