How hard is the Olimpics route?

victorponf

Are profiles of the Olimpics ITT and Route?

andyp

The ITT course is almost completely flat, with only a short drag up to Sandown Park racecourse and then a few rollers on the old A3 back into Esher to contend with.

The road race course is slightly harder, with 9 ascents of Box Hill:

http://www.climbbybike.com/climb.asp?Co ... inID=10457

There are then 30 downhill/flat miles from the top of there back to the finish in central London.

rick_chasey

Box hill was reasonably selective in the surrey classic, even with one climb.

With 9 ascents, you can expect the group that gets to the finish to be reasonably select.

bigmat

I think 9 ascents of Box Hill will be reasonably selective. Its not the hardest climb in the world, but it will certainly give opportunities to anybody who wants to put the likes of Cav under pressure. The last 30 mile run in could be pretty exciting if it involves the British lead out train chasing down an elite attack group.

rick_chasey

BigMat wrote:

I think 9 ascents of Box Hill will be reasonably selective. Its not the hardest climb in the world, but it will certainly give opportunities to anybody who wants to put the likes of Cav under pressure. The last 30 mile run in could be pretty exciting if it involves the British lead out train chasing down an elite attack group.

A 4 man leadout, after all that has gone before, will be difficult.

I can't see Cavendish making the selection after 9 ascents.

But he's proven me wrong plenty of times before.

rick_chasey

BigMat wrote:

I think 9 ascents of Box Hill will be reasonably selective. Its not the hardest climb in the world, but it will certainly give opportunities to anybody who wants to put the likes of Cav under pressure. The last 30 mile run in could be pretty exciting if it involves the British lead out train chasing down an elite attack group.

A 4 man leadout, after all that has gone before, will be difficult.

I can't see Cavendish making the selection after 9 ascents.

But he's proven me wrong plenty of times before.

cougie

I'd still put some money on him, but anything can happen in a one day race. Who would have said he'd win Milan San Remo ?

victorponf

the key is how far is Box Hill of the finish line

rick_chasey

victorponf wrote:

the key is how far is Box Hill of the finish

I'm not so sure.

All that means is that there will be a group at the finish.

Box seemed surprisingly selective in the Surrey Classic - I may be wrong but I think Cavendish actually got dropped on that ascent.

Do that 9 times, and there will be plenty of riders come ascent #6 and #7 who will fall off and never get back.

rick_chasey

It's not worth forgetting the 'heavy' UK roads and the large amount of road furniture too.

It'll be a proper classics rider for sure.

andyp

Cavendish wasn't dropped, but the French team reckon he'd gone into the red to stay with the group on the final ascent.

FJS

Boonen compared the Box Hill loop with Ardennes terrain (although I guess he didn't mean the very hardest like La Redoute or Mur de Huy), so could be pretty selective. But then there's that long flat run in. Still, it's fairly technical, and at the Olympics teams are small, so harder to bring/keep it all together, even on the flat

jibberjim

andyp wrote:

Cavendish wasn't dropped, but the French team reckon he'd gone into the red to stay with the group on the final ascent.

That seems unlikely, at least one rider made it up there in a time which doesn't put you at the top of the Box Hill challenge here on Bikeradar - despite there being many local riders who can go up faster than the times on there. Now of course he could've surfed the entire bunch, as it's just one data point, but he said the climb itself was pretty easy so that doesn't seem likely (This was from the wattage list - canadian IIRC who didn't make later selections)

Of course that doesn't mean I don't think with the small fields, small teams, heavy roads that he's likely to be there for sure at the end, just that in the surrey classic he wasn't really tested.

SLX01

http://app.strava.com/segments/652480

TT course