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4 minutes ago, 'Dale said:Persistence. Resilience. Dogged belief.
Anna Kiesenhoffer have lost her WorldTour contract a few seasons ago, kept on rolling and have likely reignited her career, if she chooses to say yes to new professional offers for 2022.
PhD in Mathematics apparently. Obviously chrunced a few numbers in advance.
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Sometimes the break stays away ,...
Annemiek not looking chuffed. Looks like she thought she got Gold. Apparently trained in a sauna.
Here's a freshly minted one:
"Athletes complained about exhausting conditions given the combination of high temperatures and humidity, with several tennis players asking for matches to be moved to start later in the day.
Cyclists in the men's road race in particular felt the strain, but Ecuador's Richard Carapaz managed to defy the conditions, convincingly winning his nation's second ever gold medal"
7 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:I checked the weather for the course and it was pretty temperate. 20 degrees at 60%humidity. It spiked at 26degrees and 65%humidity. That's not an alarming wet bulb temp by any stretch
Maybe the numbers are misleading, although higher up in the mountains it probably was a bit more mild.
According to what I am reading and seeing (vlogs, news reports etc) the heat/conditions in Tokyo are debilitating.
Should I paste a few links FYI?
The Event Commentary was Rochelle Gilmore and other guy (Kiwi?) I don't know, Eurosport feed somehow had them on the last 10 mins, some cock-up with the audio comms, it was terrible. We had the sound from a tennis match earlier. At Rio it was Michelle and the Saffa Gerald, I think they were quite a good team. He told me 18 months ago he had the Tokyo gig but maybe Covid travel restrictions put an end to that.
It was Matt Stephens and Bri Smith on GCN / Europsort. The latter talks to much in my opinion.
On BBC it was/is Chris Boardman and Simon Brotherton (?) - not too bad at all. They did the outdoor cycling events for London, including mtb, which was quite poor.
What a brilliant result - I have been rooting for Richie since he ever showed himself as a bike racer. Its just so amazing what cycling can do for a person who comes from such humble and hard working origins.
Very clever riding and did so well to keep the chasers at bay, although if they had rode with Wout he might have been caught. Whatever ... I am very happy with the podium.
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19 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:Ryan and Nic =DNF
Pretty high attrition rate that includes many notable Pro tour riders
Something to do with the heat and humidity I mentioned?
Its largely the same - maybe some tweaks.
The mtb course is so intense, if anything like it was at the test event. Short punchy ups and downs. lots of technical bits. Opens up now and again for space to overtake. We will see lots of drama.
1 hour ago, FondTF2 said:Lost for words. You would of thought that they would have learnt a lesson from the Fark up at the 2016 Rio Games.
Results / Outcomes / Deliverables don't matter here, Sweat-heart "empowering' tenders & contracts do.
15 hours ago, eala said:He is good but there are some serious talent that he has to get behind him to medal and i don,t see that happening
Could get lucky .... he was riding fiercely at Les Gets.
Going to be interesting to see what happens with Team Slovenia, with Rodg and Podg, guess the latter will be the chosen rider but Rodg must have ambitions surely. Will we see what happens on the road? Will the whipper snapper wilt?
Excited to see the Hungarian Kata Blanka Vas riding on Tuesday. really been featuring in CX, done quote well the last few U23 UCI XCO's
3 hours ago, Jewbacca said:Yeah, I agree with Shebeen.
Alan is not expected to medal, he has not placed top 3 in Elites yet. It would be unexpected. I suppose when one considers 'medal hopefuls' one would include him as, well, there IS hope, but he wouldn't fall under the 'likely medalist' list.
He is close though....
1 hour ago, TheoG said:I beg to differ, try Richardsbay in summer (Nov - Feb), 30-40C with 80% plus humidity on a regular basis, you literally live from aircon to aircon, work-car-home ????. Yes, its not easy to exercise in such conditions.
Yup kinda the same but not quite, my experience anyway.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/57904094
LIke who can pace themselves better, the whipper-snappers are likely to burn their matches boxes one time.
The spanner in the works is really the weather, its hard to describe that type of heat / humidity, nothing like we see in ZA. I've experienced the same quiet a lot in the Philippines, once I made the mistake of taking a bike there on a trip, the only times I could ride was early in the mornings or early evenings, the rest of the day spent sheltering in an air con room.
So if the same conditions exits for the racing its going to be a matter of who can cope best, I think it will probably be outside most athletes comfort zones, perhaps the older and wiser will do better, like Mathias and Pendrel
Yes seems inconceivable but.... the Covid poop is hitting the fan there.
Although some doubt in the air 
Olympics: Tokyo chief refuses to rule out last-minute cancellation
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/olympics-tokyo-chief-refuses-to-rule-out-last-minute-cancellation/
MTB:
I don't think Nino is up to it, its the new kids on the block,. MvdP, Tomo P et al and Flückiger is in great shape, .... I sincerely hope Alan can medal, but he will have to get lucky.
Ladies: hard to see past Loana: what incredible results this year, but who knows, other factors could come into play. And I'm going to for PfP and Sparkle Watts on the podium.
41 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:I dig seeing the kids on the podium with their dads.
It shows a very human side to the athletes. If I was a sponsor and my athlete was on the podium beaming proudly while his kids looked on proudly I would be so stoked.
Family, love and solidity is so important. Sponsors, organisers and fans should embrace the human element of the riders. All too often we as fans are so hyper critical of their performances as athletes we forget they are just vulnerable humans who are just exceptional at cycling.
The racist and just plain nasty comments coming out of the Euros proves that fans get so caught up in the game and the performances they forget these guys actually have feelings, families and their own issues.
I'd also like to add that 3 weeks in a team/race bubble, with how long before the race? Some of these guys probably haven't seen or held their kids for a long time. I start getting anxious after 3 days away from my boy. I'd never be able to live in a world that judges me so hard so openly. I'm glad I don't have fans who tell me my family detracts from getting on the podium of a sport event
Ditto and and with Wout having to gap it to CDG to fly to Tokyo 4 hours later, time with family was very precious for him, I think it was great to see. Also Richard's kids, they must have come a long way.
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Tokyo Olympics 2020 - Cycling
in Pro Cycling
Posted
Would the team car know what's happening via race radio or TV?