Terrible sportsmanship from Team GB road race team

[touch]

I was thinking they should have had Simon Gerrans, given he won the milan-san remo this year!

Yes, Gerrans is also a good sprinter, but it doesnt really work like that. You dont get to chose who gets in the break, everybody in the race wants to get in.
You usually only get 1 chance at it as well, you dont chase down your own teammate in a break to try and get the win for one of your other teammates, it's just a waste of energy.

 

[rubberduck]

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!

 

[Russinating]

I don't think I'd go out of my way to congratulate an unrepentant ex-doper either to be fair

As said, Aus and Ger basically ignored the fact that there wasn't just a gold to win it seems. They should have all been aiming for a bunch sprint as well as a couple of other teams who might've got lucky from a mistake or a particularly strong leadout. Sagan has shown he doesn't even need one and could've easily got silver by just using Team GB.

 

[#Chri5#]

I don't think I'd go out of my way to congratulate an unrepentant ex-doper either to be fair

As said, Aus and Ger basically ignored the fact that there wasn't just a gold to win it seems. They should have all been aiming for a bunch sprint as well as a couple of other teams who might've got lucky from a mistake or a particularly strong leadout. Sagan has shown he doesn't even need one and could've easily got silver by just using Team GB.

Perhaps I don't understand the mindset of professional sportsman but I would expect Andre Greipel and Matt Goss to back themselves to be able to beat Cavendish in a sprint, even if it's only 1 time out 10. Therefore it's worth working for a bunch sprint.

Imagine the other 7 runners in a 100m final deciding it wasn't worth trying because Usain Bolt was the 8th runner and thus they will just jog down the track. If you don't believe in your own ability, then who else will?

 

[oli collett]

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!

Good grief

 

[HangTime]

As a layman I thought it was a question the public would expect to be asked, especially as it isn't an offensive question (compared to say, I dunno, "Do you think that the perceived attitude of the GB team caused other riders to treat you differently?"). Nor was it simply a mundane question with no purpose "You must feel disappointed after that?"

In the majority of sports, tiredness due to previous exertions is often cited as consideration, if the question hadn't been asked then joe public (many of whom probably know very little about the sport) would have been thinking it.

 

[Russinating]

Perhaps I don't understand the mindset of professional sportsman but I would expect Andre Greipel and Matt Goss to back themselves to be able to beat Cavendish in a sprint, even if it's only 1 time out 10. Therefore it's worth working for a bunch sprint.

Imagine the other 7 runners in a 100m final deciding it wasn't worth trying because Usain Bolt was the 8th runner and thus they will just jog down the track. If you don't believe in your own ability, then who else will?

That's what I mean though. The other 7 runners run for Bolt to screw up (as in the World Champs) OR they're racing for silver and bronze. AUS and GER seemed to forget all of that. Even winning silver and bronze is a miss achievement even if you take Cav out of the consideration completely.

 

[Alpherah]

The other riders basically said "i don't believe i can win a medal, so I'm going to ensure you don't either" - equally bad sportsmanship.

 

[touch]

The other riders basically said "i don't believe i can win a medal, so I'm going to ensure you don't either" - equally bad sportsmanship.

No they didnt.

As a layman I thought it was a question the public would expect to be asked, especially as it isn't an offensive question

On it's own, it's not an offensive question. When you look at it in the context of the whole interview, you can see why he was offended.
One of the previous questions, he was asked about the performance of his team. He said they were great and he "couldnt have asked for more". He said they did everything they could and he was very proud of them.

Then he was asked if tiredness from the TdF played a part. To me, that could be re-phrased as "Do you think your team could have done better for you if they had more time since the TdF". He's just said that they did everything and he couldnt ask for more. Interviewer is just mindlessly reading through a set list of questions and not listening to the responses.

 

[Vonhelmet]

For example, do you think Murray really wanted to answer all the stupid questions after losing out in the Wimbledon final?

Murray's not really the best example of someone who remains calm in the face of idiocy in interviews.

 

[Owenb]

What I found strange is view that it was Cavendish's gold, and it was taken off him by bitter foes. The problem is that it's a 250KM race, not a 500m sprint, and there were better riders over the first 245.5km than Cavendish. Cavendish wanted to sit on someones wheel for 245.5km and be carried and then take all the glory at the end- it's hardly surprising that the other teams didn't go along with that idea.