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.

How did they let so many quality riders get away?

I’m not sure they were caught out by the riders which got away (which was to be expected), but rather by the lack of help chasing them down after box hill. Once Tony Martin dropped out I’m not sure anyone else popped up to help until too late

Chris Boardman for a knighthood putting up with that drivel

CB didn’t cover himself with glory either imo – he called the race pretty poorly with a couple of laps to go claiming it was going to come together any minute. A lot of us doubted that that and sadly were proved right.

I rode 20 miles to Richmond Park this morning, watched them saunter by – managed to spot Cav and Wiggins so was chuffed about that.
Couple of pints by the river then headed home.
The stewards let us ride a couple of miles of the closed route through Putney and up towards the river which was brilliant. Pretending to be Cav sprinting then giving his usual salute. heh heh heh. 😀
shame about the result, but London feels very special now the Olympics are finally here.

who couldn’t pronounce riders names properly,

Which was quite amusing/confusing.

Did this man not look at the team kits sometime over the last week.

In his defence, he did say that it was difficult to see his screen due to the sunlight.
Not the best conditions to be commentating in. It must be quite difficult doing a job with 5 million (or however many people were watching) critics sharpening their knives. It’s easy to be an expert in the comfort of your own home.

That and calling the GB team team sky all the time. Top commentary. The GB team were over confident in thei ability to chase the breakaway pack down, they failed.

CB didn’t cover himself with glory either imo – he called the race pretty poorly with a couple of laps to go claiming it was going to come together any minute. A lot of us doubted that that and sadly were proved right.

I agree that CB wasn’t the best but HP was awful.

In his defence, he did say that it was difficult to see his screen due to the sunlight.
Not the best conditions to be commentating in.

He should be in a darkened studio for the commentary then, and as an experienced commentator should have pointed this out to the BBC who he’s contracted to. A couple of sheets of newspaper taped to the windows should reduce the glare on the screen somewhat I’d suggest.

He should be in a darkened studio for the commentary then

Perhaps the IOC budget couldn’t stretch that far and he had to make do with what he was given, but you’re right a newspaper might have saved the day. It must be quite nice to be so perfect, flatfish, all the time.

Everyone thought cav would win, and he didnt,they had no race radios, also cav doesnt do hills very well.

Also there didnt seem to be any racing just a club ride for most of the event.

A totally poor race.

It’s not rocket science Dion simone, sorry, Don Simon, I couldn’t see the screen properly. 🙄

It’s not rocket science Dion simone, sorry, Don Simon,

Did you think of that one yourself, or did mummy help you?
The overriding point being it’s easy to criticise, innit?

Sadly a few bad days at the office all round. Poor Cav, hope he sleeps well. Feel gutted for him. Looked very good when we saw them on Coombe Lane.

BBC just quoted that the road race was possibly the event with the highest ever spectator numbers in the history of the Olympics

Yes I did think of that myself, thank you.

Unless you had faecal matter in your eyes you could tell it was a Norwegian in third place not Spain, Denmark or whoever else he shouted at the time.

Perhaps the IOC budget couldn’t stretch that far and he had to make do with what he was given

Surely it’s LOCOG or the BBC’s fault?

THE PELETON were over confident in THE PELETON’s ability to chase the breakaway pack down, they failed.

Fixed. A tactical error by everyone in the peleton sadly, but an outstanding tactical victory by those who chose to go up the road. I expect the peleton were as confused about the time-gap, composition and size of the break as the commentators and we were. And I expect that contributed to the result. Well done Vino for the win, especially for jumping the breakaway with Uran. I’ll keep hoping you were clean.

At the end of the day, 4 riders no matter how strong, could not catch a breakaway of 30 riders from various teams, all on their own. Cav and Millar are right to question the honour of the other sprint teams who were happy to guarantee loosing over trying to win against Cav in a bunch sprint.

IMO it’s marvellous that team GB managed to bravely hang on and not to loose more time. What a difference between the courage of our riders and the others. I just hope Brad is not spent, before Wednesday.

Unless you had faecal matter in your eyes you could tell it was a Norwegian in third place not Spain, Denmark or whoever else he shouted at the time.

You’re AWESOME, but I believe he was confused between The Netherlands and España.
Again as you’re perfect in every way I have to bow down to your superior knowledge.

I was surprised by Miller etc stating before the race that they only had one plan and that was Cav. I assumed at the time it was a bluff. But alas no. If they rode the race again I fear it would have the same result. A four man team can’t control a race particularly when no one else is prepared to help which is not surprising because they had team mates up fromt. The only thing GB could have done was to follow the final break but I guess Cav did not have the legs for it.

If they had sent Froome off in an early break (as I posted yesterday), then things might have been a bit different. It might wake up the Peloton a bit to Cav’s benefit.

But alas I suspect there was a bit of pay back to Cav for being a TdF dogbody hence GB weren’t able an either/or type of plan.

Never hope they they’re bit more flexible tomorrow for the womens race

who do you think feels worse – Cav whose team road all day for him to be in with a chance or Greipel, Goss & Farrar whose teams barely tried…

No Hugh Porter didn’t do as good as job as Phil Liggett at the TdF. But he wasn’t getting TdF style time split information, so was pretty much in the dark like the rest of us and he is 72 years old!

Fixed. A tactical error by everyone in the peleton sadly, but an outstanding tactical victory by those who chose to go up the road.

Not everyone – Anyone who had a team mate up the road, and with 30 odd up the road that’s quite a lot of them, was never going to work to bring that group back. Added to that the large group of also rans normally not racing at the very highest level who did pretty amazingly to just hang on to the GB coat tails and the number of people willing and capable but not prepared to work in the peleton would be really quite small.

THE PELOTON were over confident

Must admit I was expecting the break to be caught as I watched the times come down each lap but when the 2nd break went I thought that shouldn’t have been allowed to happen. Exciting watching on the Boxhill loop though.

Don’t be try to be a t**t, you’ll never achieve it.

Keep yer knickers on, love. I’m just impressed at the position you have and your lust for critisism. Some of us have worked under the public gaze in less than perfect conditions, it’s a bit of a sickener when Joe Public knows more, but it is part and parcel of the job. 😆

the number of people willing and capable but not prepared to work in the peleton would be really quite small.

In the interest of brevity I’m going to refer to this group as ‘The Germans’

You are right covert but it shows how they fear British riders IMO. That a 1 in 30 chance of their breakaway rider winning is better odds than their sprinter sprinting against Cav. Cav said himself he could not grasp why the Aussies preferred to let Goss bimble round while their guy up the road was never going to win. Even the Germans, whose hope was Greipel, left it very late before they helped and then only half heartedly.

The worst thing is no-one in the public will understand why Cav came 40th. Oh well.

dont think Miller was too happy with the whole affair. clearly they made a mess of it, and blaming other teams like some on here is silly.i thought it was only the bbc who expected all other teams to hand it to cav on a plate, but no stw do too!

froome or miller should have covered the breaks, if they had then gb team would have a gold right now.

I was surprised by Miller etc stating before the race that they only had one plan and that was Cav

When you have:
a. The best sprinter in the world in your team
b. The remainder of the team made up of 4 excellent tempo riders with a poor one day pedigree.
c. A relatively flat course

there really can’t be a plan B. It was literally Cav or nothing.

what the hell is the point in riding the race if they wern’t going to race…i can understand the teams with a decent guy in the break but everyone else…ffs.

i was like watching team sky on on the training ride with 50 sunday warriors following them.

GB did a great job but is just prooved too much at the end.
hope wiggo is still fit enough to spank it in the TT

there really can’t be a plan B. It was literally Cav or nothing.

Surely this was payback for Cav super domestique?

Surely this was payback for Cav super domestique?

It might look like that but I think it was the only chance (and a bloody good chance) of a British victory. After all, it worked at the worlds.

We can over analyse this with the benefit of hindsight. I think it was a good choice of tactic that didn’t quite come off on the day.

Super domestique was reference to Cav being singled out as the plan A victor.

We can over analyse this with the benefit of hindsight. I think it was a good choice of tactic that didn’t quite come off on the day.

The lack of success I see as being due to lack of information being passed to the riders, be it by radio or chalk board.

Yes cause no one thought that the rest of the teams might not fancy dragging cav to the finish line 🙄

Yes cause no one thought that the rest of the teams might not fancy dragging cav to the finish line

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there.

Think it was refreshing to see a breakaway group go out there and beat the peleton.Can’t see what the big attraction is for those sprint finishes over the last few hundred metres in such long races anyway.Takes more guts to go out and win from the front.GB came unstuck because it wasn’t a normal peleton for the reasons already stated in other posts.They weren’t gonna help Cav,no instructions ,updates via radios etc from team directors.Much more about experience, racing instincts and guts which is what I thought Millar was in the team for.

If it was up to Millar I don’t think they would have rode the race like that.

same tactics as sky used in Paris-Roubaix, with the same result…

Daisy_Duke – Member
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.

I know this is going back a bit in this thread but I couldn’t disagree more with any positive feeling towards Vino. I used to think he was amazing but it is so clear now that most of his great performances were doped performances. He was with telecom at the hight of their doping programme. Then caught blood doping and he was implicated in a bribing scandal, where it was claimed that he bribed other riders so he could win. He’s a total disgrace in my eyes it would be hard to find a less worthy athlete. Everyone makes mistakes and I have no problem with guys like Millar who genuinely shows regret and remorse for what he did and makes a stand to make things better.

Vino should have never been at the Olympics, in my eyes he is a terrible advert for cycling. I don’t often swear but I did a lot when that little doping Sh1t bag broke away and was clearly on for the win.