Olympics- Where is Fontanas saddle?

Commentators didnt spot it. I didnt see where he lost it. Anyone see it?

I got it……

Let’s hope it gets stuck in Helen Skelton’s gob and keeps her quiet for a while

bottom of the rock garden/ start of the breath taker. on the last lap

Yep he was on a Crack’n’fail. It broke with a lap to go.

I couldnt believe boardman didnt spot that, er Fontana seems to be struggling, standing up quite a lot…

I saw it come off and wondered why it wasn’t mentioned.

Pity there wasn’t a water splash in the course.

Rick.

Getting rid of unnecessary weight to try and catch the leaders.

Definitely deserves his medal for keeping going. Epic.

She was utter rubbish, asking Annie Last whether Liam will ride another Olympics, like she is his coach?

All the commentry on Mtb has been crap

Is spotting it like where’s wally?

Good work Ian.

I missed the begining. Anyone see Liam fall? How was he doing before he came off?

That’ll be carbon for yer.

While we’re on the subject of components what’s with the straight bars, binned them 10 years a go because of the crappy handling and bad wrists. Am also sure I saw some bar ends. Is this sort of retro stuff in the rules?

Did wonder if i was watching the same race as the commentators…..

Fontana was ace, cheeky little whips over the boardwalk rock garden jump, testing attack on lap 5, then go for it last lap, and lose the seat post like that.
Top marks for carrying on and holding 3rd 🙂

Flat bars keep the front end low on the wagon wheels.

They seem to be running wider bars than on most world cups? The women did at any rate.

While we’re on the subject of components what’s with the straight bars, binned them 10 years a go because of the crappy handling and bad wrists. Am also sure I saw some bar ends. Is this sort of retro stuff in the rules?

Don’t you worry about it, they know what they’re doing.

Riser bars are for people who bought a frame the wrong size 😉
Even DH bars are almost flat again now…
Get back to the noughties with the

Shocking omission not mentioning the seat post going. But I think they were both watching another sport as neither of them seem to be that into mtbing. Interesting that one of them sells so many!

Enjoyed the race,cracking(ha ha) finish.
Were there any 26ers?

They seem to be running wider bars than on most world cups? The women did at any rate.

I got that impression too from some shots. Looked like one of them could barely reach both ends of the bars, but it may have just been a trick of camera angle.

There was at least one; a FS 26er, but I gave up counting. There were 5/47 FS. And the winner was one of them.

Coming from the appalling road commentary i thought this was pretty decent. Perhaps they missed the post as they more concerned with the leaders action?

Course looked good!

Would have to agree with the Helen girl, like she was presenting a kids tv programme..er for kids. Should’ve had Rob Warner instead

To be honest, I didn’t realise he’d lost his seat post either….until now! In hindsight I remember seeing something drop from his bike and at first I thought he’s smashed the mech on a rock or something, but he seemed to carry on, but that’s when he started dropping back and the cameras mainly kept with the other two. Big shame, he was doing well.

Better than breaking yourself though…

Dayshift bump 🙂

Curious as to “what really happened” any photos, english interviews cropped up yet anywhere ? haven’t seen anything myself yet.

Did Fontanas seatpost
A)snap off ?
B)work loose and fall off ?

From the race footage i watched, i saw the post fly off and bounce on the ground. Followed by several shots of Fontana carrying on standing up, and appeared to be sitting on the top tube as he rode through the tech area without stopping. From that i will assume he didn’t have a jagged hole reamer, and i didn’t see him stop and fiddle with the clamp or remove/drop jagged remains into the seat tube.

🙂

Fontana rode intelligently in allowing the other two, who were the top favourites, to set the majority of the pace. In the closing stages, Fontana began to show his strength with a series of accelerations. However, any chance of the win evaporated when his seat post snapped on the final lap, and he was forced to nurse his bike home in third.

“I did a very smart race – always in the front (group). I planned everything with my coach and my psychologist,” said Fontana. “I knew I couldn’t lose energy. I didn’t do turns (at the front) as I knew Nino and Jaroslav had to lead the race. They wasted a lot of energy and perhaps in the final part, I had something more. When I broke the whole seat in the last (passage through the) Rock Garden, I risked losing the medal, but I stayed calm.”

Fontana was left to ride the final stages without a saddle. “It’s really hard climbing the switchbacks without a saddle because you don’t have balance.” Then he gave himself a pep talk to motivate him to ride courageously to defend the third spot until the finish.

I missed the begining. Anyone see Liam fall? How was he doing before he came off?

Yes. He failed to exit the rocky berm properly at the bottom of Deone’s (sp?) Drop on lap 2. I think his front wheel may have slid on some gravel and as he stuck a leg out, he caught his foot awkwardly on the ground. I think he was running in about 24th/25th place then.

Really unlucky. Poor chap looked in agony to start with. It took the medical staff a while to stabilise his ankle and get the ambulance in a position to cart him off the course. It was strange how the mad cheering for Killeen stopped so abruptly.

Ta Druidh 🙂

They always seem to complain about poor quality monitors to watch what they’re commentating on (same with Eurosport coverage of live road races). Do they need special tiny crap quality monitors for the feed they get or can’t they just use a decent size HD TV? I’d rather no commentary than incorrect info every 2 minutes like in the road race where people at how could clearly tell the different between say an Italian jersey and a Columbian one…

from what I saw all the press seats and monitors seemed to be outside just in front of the start / finish, unless these were for something else but they all had clear plastic rain sheets attached to the booths which made me think there was electrical equipment there

I personally thought the comentary was great, chris boardman knows an awful lot about and is involved in the development of all the team GB cyclists and teams, and the other guy seemed to know an awful lot about the current crop of world cup cyclists and teams and past experience. It was informative without being patronizing (it was after all aimed atthe whole of the UK, not just the singletrack masses – and ebven they were left embarrassed after publicly breating chris for saying the xc riders were using tubs..!)

Rob Warner would have been an embarassment, and tbh prob knows nothing or has any interest in xc racing.

Rob Warner would have been an embarassment, and tbh prob knows nothing or has any interest in xc racing.

He did okay with the eliminator XC this year but being honest, it’s a short sprint half way house between 4X and XC anyway

Do they need special tiny crap quality monitors for the feed they get or can’t they just use a decent size HD TV

they would love to watch it on a decent HDTV, but they would have been crammed into a tiny booth shoulder to shoulder, with a poxy little monitor, trying to juggle rider biog notes, start lists etc etc and not missing any of the action on a ropey no-expense-spent monitor. When they do the occasional shots of commentators (eg. TdeF) their kit and environment is pretty basic.

I saw “something” bounce under the bike and also thought it was his rear mech as it was as he rode directly between 2 boulders (pic posted on here), then in the next shot it was obvious he was riding a trials/jump bike….