Olympic Track Cycling

dante6491 said:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/19147279

Seems Wendy Houvenaghel is a bit upset at being left out. If it is true that she rode in the three that got an even quicker WR in training it is a little odd.
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proper sour grapes, it was her last olympics. when a team is winning why change it

the mens sprint was the same. you always have a spare rider and can swop from round to round
 
Shes 37, she isnt the future of Womens Track Cycling. Surely its the coaches decision who the 3 are, them winning gold vindicated that irrelevant if the time wasnt as fast as training (like thats never happened :p)

Sorry love, but move on, you should have ensured in the 4years upto the Olympics that were a shoe-in rather than an alternate. All shes done is tainted her career rather than the Olympic gold...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
dante6491 said:
Well Cavendish wants to go back on the track in Rio. Only makes the team stronger I think. There are still three? more cycling medals left for Hoy, Victoria and Trott. 3 Golds :D
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I'm not sure he would get into the team tbh?

No way he'd get into the individual sprint, he's just not that type of sprinter. If Hoy can't get in, i cant see cav doing any better.
He was good at the bunch sprints, like the madison, points race, scratch race, etc but none of those are included as individual events in the olympics. Maybe he could do them as part of the omnium and hope that he can make up enough points in those races to compensate for not being so good at the pursuits and time trials.
The other option would be the team sprint, which he might have a chance at, but it wouldnt be easy, they are the best in the world - as we saw a few days ago.
 
touch said:
I'm not sure he would get into the team tbh?

No way he'd get into the individual sprint, he's just not that type of sprinter. If Hoy can't get in, i cant see cav doing any better.
He was good at the bunch sprints, like the madison, points race, scratch race, etc but none of those are included as individual events in the olympics. Maybe he could do them as part of the omnium and hope that he can make up enough points in those races to compensate for not being so good at the pursuits and time trials.
The other option would be the team sprint, which he might have a chance at, but it wouldnt be easy, they are the best in the world - as we saw a few days ago.
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They're looking at putting him in the team pursuit - he's a pretty similar rider to Clancy so I don't see why not:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/clancy-backs-cavendish-for-olympic-track-in-2016
 
You can tell he wants a medal so badly and the road race is just too many eggs and too few baskets.

He's proved himself on the road and he can't really better himself there other than generally winning more stages, although he's already the most successful sprinter when it comes to TdF stage wins.

He'll have some massive choices to make over the coming months what with Team Sky as well.
 
Fantastic performance by Jason Kenny there to win the mens sprint final, I thought he'd have rather more trouble than he appeared to in defeating Bauge. Still mildly disappointed that I didn't get to see Sir Chris defend his title but it was still amazing.

Victoria Pendleton just made it look easy, it seemed as if she was on another level completely to her opponent.

Finally Laura Trott did very well in getting to joint lead of the womens Omnium after the first three events, squeaked in with the velodrome record in the flying lap. If she could have got on a breakaway in the 20km points race then that would have been even better but she did pretty well in the normal sprints there, I was a little bit surprised at how slow many of the peloton were to react when Trott tried to encourage them to chase down the breakaways and prevent them all getting lapped - most of them didn't seem willing to do a bit of leading and drafting to haul themselves back into it. The eliminator was some performance from her, flirted a little with danger on a couple of the laps but did precisely what she needed to.

My hands were stinging from clapping, my throat is feeling a bit hoarse, I was stuck right up in the gods and on the wrong side of the track for the start/finish line, it's ridiculously hot and sticky in there, my phone started dying on me and reset itself every couple of minutes and it took me almost two hours to get home yet I can't stop smiling - utterly, utterly brilliant, I'd go again tomorrow if I could.

I might try and put up pictures but they won't amount to much, my phone camera is rubbish at the best of times and right now I can't seem to get connected to upload the pictures anyway.
 
I don't think the points race is as important as it might seem at first. I mean, you'd think losing 20 points to someone trying to lap you might be crucial, but all those points get you is the classification in the event, which are where the points for the overall Omnium are found. If the rider that finishes ahead of you in the standings has 1 point or 100 points more, they still only gain a single overall point on you. So is it really worth putting all that effort in to gaining a lap in the points race when it may leave you tired for the elimination (as the Polish girl proved)?

With the TT being the last event too, you want to be as close to your peak as possible for that.
 
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