Olympic Road Race - 6th August 2016 Rio

godtabh

Beasty wrote: »

The other thing is we've actually had cycling pretty much back-to-back throughout. They want to spread things around a bit (so there's limited overlap between Swimming and Athletics, the 2 most popular sports, for example). You also need to run an equivalent women's event.

Currently we have 2 days of RRs, 1 day of TTs, 6 days of track, 3 days of BMX and a couple of days of MTB.

We've already seen the track programme squeezed in terms of medals to accomodate BMX (meaning many popular track disciplines no longer feature at the Olympics) and most sports now use the Olympics as a showcase to try and attract more participation and coverage of their other events

So in summary, certainly at present, its a complete non-starter....

Its also not needed. A good one day event can show case exciting cycling. A stage event like the Tour wont

Hungrycol

godtabh wrote: »

Its also not needed. A good one day event can show case exciting cycling. A stage event like the Tour wont

I was just thinking the road riders have one day to be on top form and have a bit a luck. Track cyclists have a week and various disciplines to get a medal and lots of other sports have heats. A stage race seems like an opportunity for the best to shine, like a decathlon. Every one of the Team GB track cycling walked away with a medal. Well done them but said a certain way sounds like a preschool sports day.

Beasty

There were well over a hundred track cyclists who walked away with nothing ....

Also this is the absolute pinnacle for trackies (and BMX/MTB'ers) - there are arguably bigger road events to target every year

dastardly00

A stage race would be too advantageous for the bigger countries, Italy, GB, Spain etc.

Imagine Dan & Nico racing for a few days, trying to keep out of the wind, going back for bottles etc. They wouldn't have a hope.

Beasty

Yeah, but if it meant 2 more GBR Golds .....


:pac:

D9Male

Why would you scrap the ITT? It is one of the purest races out there in terms of man v bike/clock/man. The race of truth.

Beasty

It the one road event where team strength does not matter. Everyone has an equal chance (subject of course to conditions on the day)

Hungrycol

dastardly00 wrote: »

A stage race would be too advantageous for the bigger countries, Italy, GB, Spain etc.

Imagine Dan & Nico racing for a few days, trying to keep out of the wind, going back for bottles etc. They wouldn't have a hope.

Clearly the team numbers rules would have to change.

Beasty wrote: »

Also this is the absolute pinnacle for trackies (and BMX/MTB'ers) - there are arguably bigger road events to target every year

Like Golf? I think Olympics is a big enough draw for a pro roadie (except Sagan:pac:)

D9Male

So team member rules would have to change.

63 nations had a rider in the road race at the Olympics. Only 3 riders per team would be feasible.

You would be denying riders as strong as GVA, Barguil, Izaguirre, etc. a ride in the race at the expense of guys like Deignan (for instance). I don't know if those three would have made the Belgian, French and Spanish squads.

And would you be handing out medals for each stage? Because if not, the flat stages would be pretty boring. And if you are, it would be a bit of a farce.

Hungrycol

D9Male wrote: »

Why would you scrap the ITT? It is one of the purest races out there in terms of man v bike/clock/man. The race of truth.

OK I'll keep it as one of the stages in my Olympic Games Road Stage Race*. ITT alone doesn't convey the best all round road bike racer.

*Copyright

Hungrycol

D9Male wrote: »

And would you be handing out medals for each stage? Because if not, the flat stages would be pretty boring. And if you are, it would be a bit of a farce.

Points based scoring like the Decathlon.

Seriously I only had a brief epiphany! It's not a fully thought out plan but I'm of the philosophy of “why not” then straight off “won’t work”.

godtabh

Hungrycol wrote: »

Clearly the team numbers rules would have to change.



Like Golf? I think Olympics is a big enough draw for a pro roadie (except Sagan:pac:)

Sagan is having his Olympics the way he wants it

D9Male

Hungrycol wrote: »

OK I'll keep it as one of the stages in my Olympic Games Road Stage Race*. ITT alone doesn't convey the best all round road bike racer.

*Copyright

Very few races convey the best all-round road bike racer.

Look at the last WCRR winners. Sagan, Kwiatkowski, Costa, Gilbert, Cavendish, Hushovd. I think only Sagan could claim at the time of their win to be the best "all-round".

Look at recent Tour winners. Froome, Nibali, Wiggins, Evans, Schleck, Contador, Sastre.

I would say that only Nibali (arguably Evans) could claim to be the best all-round rider in the year they won the Tour.

Froome and Wiggins haven't got enough pedigree in one-day racing to be in the conversation, in my opinion. They are great GT riders. Great ITT in the case of Wiggo. Great climber in the case of Froome.

D9Male

For me, the concept of best all-round rider doesn't make any sense. In the Tour, it is arguably the green jersey that decides that contest. Over the calendar year, it is the UCI world rankings. Nobody gives a sh1t about the latter, as they would rather win Paris Roubaix!

Beasty

Why not have something for the endurance hill climbers - say 250km on the roads. Something for those who can go solo - maybe an hour+ TT. Then for the fast guys you could think about maybe a short track in front of loads of spectators - maybe the sprinters would flourish there. You could even throw in a short Team TT - wouldn't need to be much more than say 4km ......

D9Male

I like your style but you are completely ignoring the ability to go full pelt for 700m after a pacer gradually ramps up the speed before peeling off and letting the competitors at it.

ednwireland

BBAR ftw

Lusk_Doyle

Olympic crit ftw!