161–170 of 179 posts
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> sneaking away getting out in front unnoticed They knew she was in the early breakaway, they just assumed she had been caught.
Let's just say, and I know this from experience as amateur runner, when you ride an olympic effort you are probably not the best at counting and remembering things.
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> I’m racking my brain trying to remember who was on Delgado’s team and coming up completely blank. Delgado had Miguel Induráin [1] working for him, hardly an unknown rider. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miguel_Indur%C3%A1in
Oops. Seems I have flipped Delgado and Indurain in my head. Which I should have realized when the wikipedia page seemed to be understating his win history. Who was Indurain's right hand?
His brother ? I think that Jean-François Bernard did that role at the end of Indurain's career.
I recently started watching road cycling with this years Tour de France and now the Olympics and it's pretty interesting. A lot of tactical depth and it's a perfect WFH background noise- it plays out over hours so you don't have to be watching every minute Both mens and womens road race in the Olympics were excellent too, a lot of drama and interesting mind games
Welcome, I am also addicted! http://www.cyclingtorrents.nl
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And women's pro cycling pays very poorly compared to the Men.
Notably, 15% of men riding in the tour de France earn less than 45000 a year. That isn't a low salary, but for a proffesional athlete at the peak event, it isn't a lot either.
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It’s easy to underestimate a break-away rider when you don’t know that there is one. The silver medal winner thought she had won the race. They need a kick for not communicating amongst themselves.
I heard something early on about a communication failure, not sure how much truth there is in that. Nonetheless, it was an incredible performance - right down to her collapsing to the ground victorious in tears at the line. I laughed a little when I saw the Danish competitor come to congratulate her with a big smile while the Dutch team two meters away wouldn’t even acknowledge she was there - no point being bitter a…
FYI, the pros got caught out here a bit. The Olympic road race is probably the last one running that doesn't allow radios.
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Ahhh, no. No! NO! The Olympics as envisioned by Coubertin didn't allow professionals for a very long time, A VERY LONG TIME. For boxers this year is actually the first Olympics that do accept professionals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games#Amateurism_and_p...
This sounds rather idealistic and doesn't represent the reality, particularly for this female cycling race! The top competitors of Anna Kiesenhofer had professional contracts!
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Notably, 15% of men riding in the tour de France earn less than 45000 a year. That isn't a low salary, but for a proffesional athlete at the peak event, it isn't a lot either.
$45k is the very definition of "low salary."
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She won deservedly. And it was very entertaining. But there was luck involved, and in 99% of the cases, it’d be terrible advice and strategy to count on a major communications breakdown within the team of top favorites and (apparently) within the organization of the race themselves? “Strategy” is one of those words that’s used way too much in hindsight.
In any other sport, being ahead of the favourite by a wide margin for much of a race, then crossing the finishing line so far ahead that the second-place athlete isn't even in view, would be called a "resounding victory" rather than "lucky"
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Because I ran distances from 5k to marathon (with 10k being my favourite) and so I know from my own experience. I have no knowledge of how you run a 1000k run.
Ah, 5k running. I was still on topic with cycling. Sorry.
Though I should have noticed, it is not possible to run 1000k in a day. Maybe you could, but you would need to have flat terrain and maybe something like a... bike:)