Olympic Track Cycling

Merlin5 · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:16

Firestar_3x said:
Cause it's the Keirin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keirin

It's about strategy and finishing pace.

Yeah fair enough. I'm just not seeing the real point of it. Seems like the equivalent of a safety car in F1.

What I mean is, how is there any difference once the pacer has gone from the girls just racing immediately like in the individual sprints.

ps3ud0 · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:17

Not a fan of the Keirin, its quite artificial IMO. Its more the rabbit/carrot than a safety car

ps3ud0

Firestar_3x · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:19

Merlin5 said:
What I mean is, how is there any difference once the pacer has gone from the girls just racing immediately like in the individual sprints.

It's a little pointless i suppose, just brings another dimention to the games, even if the original basis for the event was betting, which clearly doesn't take place in the venue!

Skeeter · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:19

It removes the standing start from the sprint. Its a sprint thats more similar to those at the end of road racing or during points races, rather than the sprints taken from standing starts like the team and individual sprints.

ps3ud0 · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:23

Skeeter said:
It removes the standing start from the sprint. Its a sprint thats more similar to those at the end of road racing or during points races, rather than the sprints taken from standing starts like the team and individual sprints.

If it was just that why have 4.5 laps of the electirc bike? Its just a silly event, that could be made better to represent your idea.

Its no surprise its big in Japan...

ps3ud0 :cool:

Merlin5 · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:23

Skeeter said:
It removes the standing start from the sprint. Its a sprint thats more similar to those at the end of road racing or during points races, rather than the sprints taken from standing starts like the team and individual sprints.

I guess so. I wonder if they ever considered a similar pacer race for track athletic runs.

Russinating · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:23

As above. A spinoff of that is I guess you can run with a higher gear because a quick acceleration off the starting line isn't so important?

Skeeter · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:29

ps3ud0 said:
If it was just that why have 4.5 laps of the electirc bike? Its just a silly event, that could be made better to represent your idea.

Its no surprise its big in Japan...

ps3ud0

How else would you get all the riders up to 30+ mph without giving an advantage to any of them? If you did it quickly then some may be left behind.

Its a slow gradual climb to effectively nullify it so that everyone is even when the pace bike pulls off.

Dont think of it as an 8 lap race, think of it as a 2 lap race with a rolling start.

ps3ud0 · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:33

They could easily get up to that speed within a couple of laps at the level of fitness these riders possess. It could be quietly argued that 4.5laps isnt enough to minimise the effort getting up to pace if you really want to spilt hairs...

As I said its quite an artificial race, where in the past its who you could push off course most would determine the winner. Its only exciting because that generally leads to crashes

ps3ud0 :cool:

Aesir · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:39

Terrible heat for NZ

The_One · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:40

Another world record coming up.....

Firestar_3x · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:40

COME ON LADS!

Guerrilla · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:44

Easy

Bennie-Mac · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:44

Gold in the bag methinks.

Firestar_3x · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:44

We rock so much on bikes.

Russinating · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:45

Does the clock stop when the 3rd man's front wheel touches the line?

Yas786 · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:45

Aussies vs GB for the gold and silver....this time GB didnt crash lol.

craarc · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:46

was only just of WR also brilliant ride

Bennie-Mac · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:47

I predict the world record will be smashed in the final. Im sure I'm the only person ever who thinks this

Skeeter · 3 Aug 2012 at 16:47

ps3ud0 said:
They could easily get up to that speed within a couple of laps at the level of fitness these riders possess. It could be quietly argued that 4.5laps isnt enough to minimise the effort getting up to pace if you really want to spilt hairs...

As I said its quite an artificial race, where in the past its who you could push off course most would determine the winner. Its only exciting because that generally leads to crashes

ps3ud0

At Olympic level, yes, they probably could do it in fewer laps. But the event is also run at much lower levels of cycling. The idea is to get everyone up to speed with the minimal energy possible.

But does it really matter if its 2 laps or 6? The race is all in the final 2 laps anyway.