The races recently in the midwest have been slim pickens. I haven’t raced for the past two weekends and have trained in the heat for much too long. Today in Topeka, the high is supposed to be 107 degrees, so we decided to drive Southeast 250 miles and do a criterium in Springfield Missouri. It’s only Bill and I, plus Trudi and Bromont, of course. Bromont missed the Tour of Lawrence because of the heat, so he hadn’t been to a race in nearly a month. That is probably the longest time period he hasn’t been to a race his whole life.
The high today in Springfield is supposed to hardly be 100, so it is hardly hot. We’re thinking about maybe racing the Master’s races at 10 and then the Pro 1/2 race again at 2:30. I usually only race Masters races when I am under raced and am playing catch up, which would apply currently.
I’ve been feeling pretty okay riding, but yesterday I was horrible. I felt shitty, plus one of my bearing in my bottom bracket fell apart so I had to limp the 10 miles back with my cranks all wobbly, so my right knee is sore.
Trudi has to fly out to S.F. to get a car and drive back to Utah for the start of the Tour of Utah Monday, so she has a short turn around.
Everyone get a chance to watch the men’s Olympic Road Race? That race looked super hard. I can’t decide if the lack of radios or only 5 rider teams made the race more exciting. I truly don’t understand the tactics of some of the teams. I don’t really understand why some teams didn’t put more riders up at the front of the chase after the top of the last climb with 25 miles to go. And why so many guys ganged up on the British team. Tejay Van Garderen really made a huge difference in that race himself. I can’t believe that he nearly single handily held off the field for the better part of 20 miles, after towing Taylor Phinney back up to the front group over the top of the climb. It sort of surprised me how few riders in the front group were willing to work too.
If Cancellera would not have made a disastrous turning error, I believe the finish would have been much different. But, we’ll never know, will we. I can’t say I’m that stoked about Vino winning the race. Actually the opposite. I don’t think he should have even been in the race, personally, but it isn’t up to guys like me. Adding to my dislike of him is because he really never fessed up or even sort of apologized for his doping issues. It seems wrong to me that he gets to have an Olympic Gold medal, for life, after he has abused his sport so much. But, he did make a very good move to get into the break and in the sprint. I guess that Columbian doesn’t sprint too much, because I have never seen anyone blow a sprint as bad as he did there. But, he is probably stoked to have a silver medal from the Olympic games, so I’d bet he isn’t beating himself up too much about it.
Okay. I hope the women’s road race finishes before I have to leave to head over to the race.
Reattaching my crank after the bearing fell out.
Fabian feeling all down and out after crashing.
Communication had to effect this race, or the lack of it. You wonder if there was a back up system in place, as they knew there were to be no radios. Add to that the criticism of the coverage:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/28/bbc-olympic-broadcasting-services-cycling
Were the team relying of the live coverage?
Now, I was not on your MO ride, I cannot know, but for the Hollowtech II system to have “bearing falling out” means the left crank was coming off, and this implies the 2 pinch bolts were not tight. Again, I am just talking smack, I was not there, but did you find the end cap on that crank?
http://www.cyclinginquisition.com/
Great interview with “the Colombian”
Cycling Inquisition is a blog by a Colombian American. He has addressed a few times American and Euro cycling people’s nasty habit of referring to
Colombians as “the Colombian” rather than by name. You have probably been doing it for 30+ years. Is there another country that you do this with? Probably not.
The olympic race was one of the most exciting races I have watched in a long time. I think the 5 riders per team rule affected the race in a positive direction. Excellent rule:)
As for all the other teams ganging up against the brits – I loved it! Team Sky/GB Cycling has done their best to turn their team into a national pride fest. Cycling is not about promoting your national anthem!!! In addition, people were tried of Team Sky after making Tdf 2012 the most boring race I have ever seen. During the tour you could see that Sanchez wasnt too impressed by Sky. It was payback time in the olympics!
Many things can be said about Vino, however he deserves credit for the racing style he has.
x2 on Vino’s racing style
I thought the race was rather boring until the end with GB controlling at the front for 145 miles. They had announced to the world their intention of doing so for Cavandish, and Millar went so far as to say nobody else had a team as strong. I think they were a little over confident and you really can’t blame the other teams for sitting on their train for the whole race because most of us thought GB would successfully bring anything back. Even with only ten miles to go the break had less than a minute lead and Wiggins and Millar were still on the front, I still thought they, working with the Germans, would bring it back. I was disappointed that Phinney did not attempt to bridge to Vino and Uran. I read, though, where he said he was cramping so I guess it is hard to blame him, but it’s the Olympics. Go for it!
Wouldn’t it be ironic if Amber Neben won the gold?
I am not trying to split hairs but –
“…he really never fessed up or even sort of apologized for his doping issues. It seems wrong to me that he gets to have an Olympic Gold medal, for life, after he has abused his sport so much.”
Had it played out to script and Cav won for GB, one of his four shepherds to the last 400 meters would have included David Millar. How would one reconcile this result against the one we have? A past doper is a past doper. Whether the apology was direct, vague, ambiguous, or even nonexistent, the time was served atmo. At the end of the day, all of these cats are part of the same hypocrisy.
PS even though Millar served his time, it still bothered me when the WMWS (white men with suits…) rearranged the chessboard and overturned the original regulation that would have seen him watching from the sidelines.
Also – racing on instinct and intuition rules. The radios have fukced up the sport.
So a convicted doper wins the Olympic road race. That’s sort of like a convicted felon being elected governor. Or like a convicted child molester teacher being rehired by the school district. This makes me wonder if professional cycling really belongs in the Olympics. I don’t think it does anymore. I wonder if the mainstream media latched onto this story.
My wife and I were having the race radio debate. Her opinion, while not original, is hard to argue with: give everybody a receiver, and have the race officials simply broadcast gaps and safety info in French, Italian, English, and Spanish (that generally covers it). You get the “safety” benefit with no particular strategic advantage . . .
“the Columbian” — Sherwen has been saying “Arashiro, the Japanese rider” for a long time whether he’s in a bunch or whatever. Or “Beppu, the Japanese rider.”
I think he’s blind and the only thing he can see is race.
The race was a disaster — TV coverage was horrible, gaps not known, negative riding, info on break constituents delayed, coverage spotty due to narrow roads and lack of moto cams, blown sprint, GB horsing about for months.
It was still a cool course though.
Yeah, it’s tough seeing a guy with Vino’s past win on the biggest stage.
And tough seeing Uran lose…a Colombian Gold would be incredible.
But read this: http://cozybeehive.blogspot.com/2010/07/quiet-goombah.html
Nobody has given more. VINO 4 EVER!