Viewing 40 posts - 81 through 120 (of 137 total)
  • Women’s Olympic XC MTB race (spoilers)
  • crazy-legs
    Full Member

    I am glad I don’t have to listen to those two commentators again.

    Rochelle was the DS/owner of Women’s road team, Team Wiggle High5 for a while and a reasonable enough road racer back in the day herself.

    Her commentary though is just dire – it always has been, just a mix of cliches (“she’s such a strong rider”, “look at the injection of pace now”, “attack off the front here…”)
    Like Hugh Porter but in a grating Aussie accent.

    She’s got very little knowledge or experience of MTB though, it seemed at various points in the commentary that she was just reading off a sheet of paper.

    akira
    Full Member

    Also after watching leconte crash and lose quite a few places she later suggested that maybe she was trying a different tactic by not sitting at the front. You saw her crash, that’s why she’s not at the front.

    ayjaydoubleyou
    Full Member

    I thought they made that look really easy, in particular they looked less laboured on some of the uphill sections than the men – though the rain maybe changed the pedalling/riding style required.

    In WC XC it seems the men often go full gas right out the gate, while the womens race has a bit more nuance and tactics to it.
    Possibly more so this time, as I see the women did 5 laps to the mens 7. Normally it is only a 1 lap difference.

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    steve_b77
    Free Member

    I would question why the boards were in place, I suspect a few teams “complained” wouldn’t have changed the result. Neff over the rhythm section was sublime, flew over the jumps

    The boards were put back in and one of the rock garden a-lines removed due to the conditions after the overnight rainfall as instigated by the weather protocols.

    Cracking race and the way Neff settled into her pace was brilliant, just like Pidcock yesterday, push it on the safe parts, relax a bit on the techy parts.

    As for commentators, it’s not an easy job, they’re trying to appeal to an audience that more than likely aren’t aficionados of MTB like everyone on here seems to be.

    bumpy
    Free Member

    Cracking ride there by Neff and it looked like Evie Richards really enjoyed herself!
    Those Trek Supercalibers look pretty smart, first XC bike I’ve like the look of since my old S-Works Epic a few years back.

    big_n_daft
    Free Member

    As for commentators, it’s not an easy job, they’re trying to appeal to an audience that more than likely aren’t aficionados of MTB like everyone on here seems to be.

    I don’t doubt it’s hard but Rochelle Gilmore has form, both for being dull and for coming out with with tripe from the dark ages. She should have been replaced ages ago with someone with more talent and enthusiasm

    LS
    Free Member

    Rochelle Gilmore has form

    “Liam Carlin”

    LS
    Free Member

    Not unless he’s quite tasty on an XC bike!
    The Liam Carlin who looked very much like Liam Killeen, but was pronounced as such for a whole 90 minutes during (IIRC) the Commonwealth games a few years ago.

    mmannerr
    Full Member

    Very impressed about Neff’s ability to dodge hesitating PFP on the big feature, she landed heavily on her front wheel but was able to ride on from that. Could have easily broken the wheel under bigger rider and also remembering that her hand was broken in June.

    Edit. This part: https://www.instagram.com/p/CR0kSMZBN9h/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading

    john_l
    Free Member

    As for commentators, it’s not an easy job, they’re trying to appeal to an audience that more than likely aren’t aficionados of MTB like everyone on here seems to be.

    I suspect that she’s being paid for this though, like it’s her actual job, so not unreasonable to have higher expectations.

    hels
    Free Member

    The female commentator was just grating – repeating inane facts from the crib sheet – zero research.

    I am not saying it is an easy job, but at least try and learn how to pronounce the riders names!

    Houns
    Full Member

    Cycling seems to attract grating commentators, see also Porter and the Irish chap on Eurosport. These two doing the Olympic coverage may be commentating for all English speaking channels so may be out of the BBC’s control

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Cycling seems to attract grating commentators, see also Porter and the Irish chap on Eurosport.

    Thing is, back in the day, it was (mostly) OK to just repeat crap since the audience, especially for the Olympics (and to a certain extent the Tour de France), don’t really know or care what they’re watching, it’s just sport. Same for Wimbledon, the commentary there needs to appeal to “British people watching sport and supporting the British underdog”, not “tennis aficionados”.

    But that commentary did none of that. It wasn’t entertaining, it didn’t describe the sport to a newcomer and it wasn’t accurate or informative enough for the aficionados. Standard fare then is for the commentator to slip into a load of trite cliches:
    “such a strong rider” – yes Rochelle, she’s riding in the **** Olympics, I don’t really expect her to be “a bit above average” or “not bad”…
    “attack off the front” – ah yes, as opposed to those devastating attacks off the back… 🙄

    Hugh Porter was certainly just as bad and Phil Liggett was getting that way towards the end of his time on TdF coverage. Really brings it home when you hear educated intelligent commentary from the likes of Ned Boulting and David Millar how good it can be.
    Chris Boardman commentated on the Olympic MTB in London 2012, he was very good.

    lovewookie
    Full Member

    I heard a lot of riders ‘losing motivation’ when slowing down. probably not due to motivation, probably due to being knackered.

    made it sound like they were slowing because they stopped trying.

    richmtb
    Full Member

    Great race though. I’ll make a point of showing it to my 6 year old daughter later. Great to see the women absolutely bossing the course. Yolanda Neff has some serious skills.

    Should have got Rob Warner to do the commentary

    lovewookie
    Full Member

    Yolanda Neff has some serious skills

    very much so. that save off the rock drop was quite something.

    watching the WC XC, when lecomte is out front, the handling skills she’s shown are phenomenal. just smooth and unfussed, looks like she’s out on a sunday ride. neff was pretty similar, I wonder if you’re not chasing, you are more focussed on the obstacles and not splitting attention between that and the wheel in front.

    steve_b77
    Free Member

    watching the WC XC, when lecomte is out front, the handling skills she’s shown are phenomenal. just smooth and unfussed, looks like she’s out on a sunday ride. neff was pretty similar, I wonder if you’re not chasing, you are more focussed on the obstacles and not splitting attention between that and the wheel in front.

    Less stress to a point, you’re leading so you’re not focusing on trying to catch anyone, there’s no one in your way and you know that your effort is doing the job, whereas if you’re not leading and you think you should be / are capable of that little extra push can send you over the edge handling and concentration wise; he says after never having won a bike race in his life 😀

    Trimix
    Free Member

    Was Lecomte using a dropper ? I tried to see, but couldn’t make one out.

    steve_b77
    Free Member

    Was Lecomte using a dropper ? I tried to see, but couldn’t make one out.

    Don’t think so, she hasn’t used on in the WC this year so I don’t see why she would suddenly introduce one for this race.

    MrsToast
    Free Member

    I can’t get my head around how bonkers some of the features are on competition xc tracks are nowadays, and the fact people are riding them with no pads, on hardtails.

    reggiegasket
    Free Member

    every bike I saw was full suss…

    +1 with the shonky commentators. Get Reece on the job!

    didnthurt
    Full Member

    Scampers off to look at Supercaliber’

    Ouch! Nearly £11k for the top one!

    Cool advert though…..

    https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/supercaliber/

    ThePilot
    Free Member

    I thought exactly that, @MrsToast! I’d need an enduro bike if not a DH one to even think about riding some of those features. And then I’d take the chicken run 😉

    MrsToast
    Free Member

    This is what you get for watching it in a tiny window on your phone. 😬

    (Still mental though!)

    big_n_daft
    Free Member

    I can’t get my head around how bonkers some of the features are on competition xc tracks are nowadays, and the fact people are riding them with no pads, on hardtails.

    The standard is really high and the skills on display considerable, Neff rode the rhythm section faster than anyone in either race from what I saw

    theotherjonv
    Full Member

    she seemed to be making it up the rock wall without a pedalstroke, which was rare for the men for sure.

    import
    Free Member

    Neff and Prevot had a run-in before in a CX race (Hoogerheide?)colliding on a steep embankment and resulting in broken bones for Neff – she’s probably right to be wary of PFP!

    SteveTheBarbarian
    Free Member

    The women seem disproportionately good looking. Neff is a barbie doll, so was the Swedish winner at the last Olympics, and so are so many more of them.

    ajantom
    Full Member

    The women seem disproportionately good looking. Neff is a barbie doll, so was the Swedish winner at the last Olympics, and so are so many more of them.

    Slightly odd thing to say? I’m sure you’re not being sexist, but it comes across a bit like that.

    Do you also comment on the comparative attractiveness of MVDP, Alaphillipe, and Sagan? Ooh, hunky.

    argee
    Full Member

    Thankfully the old days of a blue style fast rolling track are gone, the added skills required now make it way more interesting.

    That jump was interesting to watch as well, was wondering why they were all pushing the bike out rather than naturally just dropping it, then seen how many had rigid seatposts!

    ayjaydoubleyou
    Full Member

    That jump was interesting to watch as well, was wondering why they were all pushing the bike out rather than naturally just dropping it, then seen how many had rigid seatposts!

    While I cant jump for toffee, I love a good drop.

    However I once tried to ride a rigid bike with no dropper off the drops of doom in Swinley (red 8). Literally a 1 foot, if that, drop into a gentle downslope. Nearly crashed, hit my testicles. Fitted a dropper to the rigid bike that day. I do not understand how you do it.

    40mpg
    Full Member

    I do not understand how you do it.

    We wore tighter shorts back in the day.

    richmtb
    Full Member

    That big drop was easily 5 foot, add in the extra drop of the downslope they are landing on and it could be a 7 or 8 foot vertical drop. That’s pretty mental on an XC bike.

    Interesting comments from Neff

    Prevot seemed to have a couple of issues, she seemed to struggle a bit with the drops, I’m sure I spotted her walking the first drop on the opening loop. I was a bit surprised that someone of that pedigree would struggle on technical sections

    weeksy
    Full Member

    [url=https://flic.kr/p/2mdHMsx]613EFB1F-0A20-4F50-8F0B-0D5BE062D058[/url] by Steve Weeks, on Flickr

    ayjaydoubleyou
    Full Member

    I was a bit surprised that someone of that pedigree would struggle on technical sections

    Ask me who the poor descenders/technical riders were last week, based on recent WC performances, and my 3 go to names would be:
    MVDP – crashed
    PFP – crashed
    Cink – trashed his bike off camera and retired

    Was it Les gets where Cink was battling Fluckinger, and loosing 5-10 seconds every descent, and then deserately clawing it back on the climb?

    Obviously its all relative, they’re all better than everyone in this thread, etc.

    tabletop2
    Free Member

    The women seem disproportionately good looking. Neff is a barbie doll, so was the Swedish winner at the last Olympics, and so are so many more of them.

    Pig

    crazy-legs
    Full Member

    Obviously its all relative, they’re all better than everyone in this thread, etc.

    I covered the Olympic Test Event at Hadleigh Farm – photos and an event report – and what was really interesting was reading the vast thread on here at the time which was slagging off the whole thing.

    It should be in Glentress/Afan/ByC
    There’s not enough climbing
    There’s nothing technical
    My kid could ride that, it’s really dull
    etc etc

    Most people meant well but they wanted to see their idea of MTBing, not an Olympic XC course. However the courses are all man-made and they have to have a certain amount of elevation per lap, good views for spectators, a certain number of technical sections, some open bits for overtaking and a number of A/B/C lines where taking the harder A line results in time gains over taking the easier but longer C line.

    As it turned out, the Test Event was very good (helped by some amazing weather) and actually a lot of people suddenly bought into it having seen pictures and videos of how tough the course was. Still pictures of a bloody great field in advance of anything being put there hadn’t helped the image. A lot of riders didn’t clear all sections and I think it became a bit of a wake-up call to some teams that they needed to work on technical riding at least as much as the fitness side of things.

    And yeah – no average MTBer would have cleared everything, especially not at the speeds the XC race was doing it at!

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