Terrible sportsmanship from Team GB road race team

rubberduck · 28 Jul 2012 at 20:02

Really poor show to be honest, they got beat fair and square... Not congratulating the winner and making out the whole field was against them was almost pathetic... I know with road racing the way the race shapes out can either play in to your hands or not... That's sports unfortunately, it happens... Take it on the chin and be humble! Don't make out everyone was out to screw you over!

rubberduck · 28 Jul 2012 at 20:19

Shimmyhill said:
The other teams made sure GB were not a threat, bad sportsmanship on their part.

No, the teams that didn't want a sprint tried to make sure that a sprint didn't happen.... The fact that a sprint would have favoured team GB is neither here nor there.

rubberduck · 28 Jul 2012 at 22:59

Vonhelmet said:
Road cycling seems a curious exercise in game theory. If everyone takes their share of the load, then everyone has a better chance of winning. If everyone lets one team bear the load, for whatever reason, then none of them will win. The peloton left the hard work to team GB and so none of them won, because they were beaten by the breakaway group. If the peloton had shared the work then they might have had a better chance of catching the breakaway group.

Reminds me of governing dynamics... I don't really understand what that is but I remember the film 'a beautiful mind' where Russell Crowe is in the bar with his university spods and goes on about if they all ignore the fit blonde girl they have a better chance of success with the other girls

Anyway... Team GB lost the race... its that simple... There is not a conspiracy amongst the other teams to make sure they don't win...Each team had their own strategy and did what they thought was best to maximise their chances of winning... It didn't work out for team GB... that's road racing and that is competitive sport. Deal with it!

rubberduck · 28 Jul 2012 at 23:02

dante6491 said:
Why compete if you aren't going for the win?

Plenty of athletes are going to the olympics with essentially zero chance of winning... Surely they are still proud to represent their country and give 100%?

rubberduck · 29 Jul 2012 at 01:39

Have just seen the interview with Cavendish where he was asked if the efforts of the team during the tour de France had an influence on the road race. His reply; "Do you know even anything about cycling? stop asking stupid questions."

Again, what a terrible attitude and such a bad loser! Based on this its a farce he won SPOTY last year despite his achievements

rubberduck · 31 Jul 2012 at 16:11

Shimmyhill said:
It was a stupid question and about as relevant as asking the swimmer who missed out on a medal if that bath she had the day before affected her swimming.

Commentators are expected to ask stupid questions, it's what they do... For example, do you think Murray really wanted to answer all the stupid questions after losing out in the Wimbledon final? Of course he didn't but he tried to be professional and while he was clearly upset at losing didn't come across as a bad loser at all.

Cav on the other hand just went in to sulk mode? Didn't hear him (or any of the team) even congratulate the winner... If this is 'par for the course' road racing must be the least respectful sport on the the planet. Gotta take the rough with the smooth in sport, he lapped it up when he was getting plaudits last year, a bit of humility goes a long way!