You too can ride like an Olympian

walkingbootweather

OK, so few of us can aspire to cruise the streets of London at speeds of 50kmh+ like Bradley Wiggins. Maybe a few of us can track a motorised bike and burst past at the crucial moment like Sir Chris Hoy. But if you don't get away from the lights as quick as you might like you can always throw yourself to the floor like Philip Hindes, or squeeze past other cyclists at the wrong moment like Victoria Pendleton.

iPete

Hoys face during the interview was priceless.

Got to love the honesty but it was within the rules, where as Vickys was not.

peat

How is it any different to those ladies in the Badminton? Hardly 'in the spirit of the rules' is it?
(For the record, i am vexed that they were disqualified)

The IOC officials are being a bit inconsistent. But hey, i guess that's what hosting the 'Games' buys you.

daviesee

Funny how Hindes pretty much admitted to cheating, Hoy's face says it all, and it is being whitewashed.
I know it is within the rules but is it in the spirit?
Gabby had a good go at deflecting the issue last night by saying that it could be due to his German upbringing :shock:

Is it ignored cos he is one of ours, or just not an issue?

TommyEss

It's not cheating though is it, it's within the rules. It's massive gamesmanship, definitely, but fair play to him for having the wherewithal to do something about a duff start.

Vicky jumped up too soon, she tried to apportion some of it onto Jess, but that's a bit disingenuous, she was behind, she could see the wheel and the line.

The line is further along on this track compared to others on the global circuit, but then she knew that too - they've been training on it long enough. Also, to say they hadn't really looked at it (as an issue) in training sounds strange, given the men's squad were DQ'd for the exact same thing last time out - they've all got the same coaches.

It's a mistake - it's sport, and it happens sometimes.

Not quite sure what happened to the Commissaires' view that they'd exercise discretion at this meeting though - there's no advantage to the second rider coming out of the slipstream and taking the full force of the wind earlier than they perhaps should...

peat

TommyEss wrote:

It's not cheating though is it, it's within the rules. It's massive gamesmanship, definitely, but fair play to him for having the wherewithal to do something about a duff start.

Vicky jumped up too soon.......

Not quite sure what happened to the Commissaires' view that they'd exercise discretion at this meeting though - there's no advantage to the second rider coming out of the slipstream and taking the full force of the wind earlier than they perhaps should...

Your absolutely right. So why were the Chinese, Indonesian and Korean ladies sent home for doing, essentially, the same thing?

Thing with Pendleton is, there is a clear-cut rule. You could argue that they gained no advantage, but 'rules is rules' and i applaud them for enforcing them. I would be doubly outraged if they had granted them a special dispensation.

iPete

Peat wrote:

TommyEss wrote:

It's not cheating though is it, it's within the rules. It's massive gamesmanship, definitely, but fair play to him for having the wherewithal to do something about a duff start.

Vicky jumped up too soon.......

Not quite sure what happened to the Commissaires' view that they'd exercise discretion at this meeting though - there's no advantage to the second rider coming out of the slipstream and taking the full force of the wind earlier than they perhaps should...

Your absolutely right. So why were the Chinese, Indonesian and Korean ladies sent home for doing, essentially, the same thing?

Thing with Pendleton is, there is a clear-cut rule. You could argue that they gained no advantage, but 'rules is rules' and i applaud them for enforcing them. I would be doubly outraged if they had granted them a special dispensation.

Different sports, different rules but I'm not sure if it was IOC rules or Badminton that disqualified them?

One was intentionally trying to lose a match, the other forcing a restart to try and win. Great Gamesmanship, they did what they had to do to win with none of this British 'oh well it was the taking part that counts'.

Actually quite refreshing for the honesty, watch too many sports where they interview like politicians, we all know they had an affair with sectary they just won't bloody say it.

graeme_s-2

iPete wrote:

Different sports, different rules but I'm not sure if it was IOC rules or Badminton that disqualified them?

The Badminton folk were excluded by the Badminton governing body, not the IOC. So it would be the UCI for the cycling.

TommyEss

Yeah, I think the difference is exactly that - one's trying to lose a game, one's realising you've made a duff start and wanting to go again harder - it's pretty much the opposite to be honest.

The Pendleton thing - completely agree - she's been around a long time now, and she won the Rainbow Jersey on a Commissaire's decision to DQ Meares, so she knows the drill. I think Cav summed it up best - it's like offside in football - there's a line, you know the line, sometimes it gets flagged up and you give away a free kick, sometimes the flag stays down and you score. This time it didn't go our way.

Very gutted for Varnish though - but she's at least young enough to have another chance - very promising!

peat

Deliberately losing to increase chances of winning Gold.

Deliberately crashing to increase chances of winning Gold.

I have no problem with either. They are there to win Gold, are they not?

TheStone

It wasn't just a bad start. His wheel slipped or something. Probably didn't need to fall off, but that seems to be the recognised sign that there was a problem and they need to restart. Well with the rules and the spirit of the rules.

SimonAH

Re Vicky's rainbow jersey win - she was candid-filmed at the time saying how she hadn't wanted to win like that..... was shown in the documentary.

What ticked me off though was when the Beeb were interviewing her straight after yesterday's DQ and, although she held it together VERY well and gave a straight, honest and open explanation you could tell that the interviewer was needling her trying to make her cry for good telly.

Vicky lost cred with me over the documentary, but gained it all back in spades when she held that reporter at bay even though she must have been busted up inside after the DQ.

SimonAH

Hindes fall? Looking at the way that front wheel was flapping around I reckon that (although he did lay it down) he was half an inch from splatting out anyway - he laid it down for a safe crash rather than a faceplant on the wrong side of the Cote d'azure I figure. The fact that it was bloody good tactics as well is almost an aside.

Gamesmanship? Yes, but compared to the blatant flicking into the net at the badminton it was nothing IMO.

rick_chasey

S'not the same as badminton.

They did it so the race would be restarted.

Not so that they'd lose the race.

daviesee

SimonAH wrote:

Hindes fall? Looking at the way that front wheel was flapping around I reckon that (although he did lay it down) he was half an inch from splatting out anyway - he laid it down for a safe crash rather than a faceplant on the wrong side of the Cote d'azure I figure. The fact that it was bloody good tactics as well is almost an aside.

Gamesmanship? Yes, but compared to the blatant flicking into the net at the badminton it was nothing IMO.

That was how I saw it until he was interviewed. He should have just kept quiet.
Maybe he needs a course in media management? :twisted:

Getting a restart to be quicker, or losing a match to get a favourable draw is all against the Olympian spirit.
Bloody good ways to win though. Your view will depend on your ethics in winning.
I am not saying one is right or wrong, just different.

peat

...Which is why the knock-out system works in cycling.

If there was a group system like Badminton had adopted for this Games, i'm sure we would have seen tactical losing too.

chilling

FYI

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and world cycling's governing body the International Cycling Union (UCI) both say Britain's gold medal in Thursday's men's team sprint will stand despite Team GB's lead-off man Philip Hindes admitting he deliberately crashed to force a restart after making a slow start to their heat.

British Cycling later claimed German-born Hindes' comments were "lost in translation".

Asked if the IOC would be looking at the result, its spokesman Mark Adams said: "At present there are no plans to do so. Our view is that people were not deprived of a contest." A spokesperson for the UCI added: "We do not have any reason to question the result of the race."

I blame Wiggins

Sharkyssurfers

if the track team could restart why couldnt poor Luis Leon Sanchez in the TT

rick_chasey

Sharkyssurfers wrote:

if the track team could restart why couldnt poor Luis Leon Sanchez in the TT

Roadies are harder . There's a culture that you just take chance and luck on the chin in the road.

Sharkyssurfers

or chain in the knee with Luis's case :P

Gizmo_

SimonAH wrote:

Re Vicky's rainbow jersey win - she was candid-filmed at the time saying how she hadn't wanted to win like that..... was shown in the documentary.

That's because she doesn't want the title, she just wants to beat people and show them she's better.

She's mental, but she's our mental.

mouth

Peat wrote:

How is it any different to those ladies in the Badminton? Hardly 'in the spirit of the rules' is it?
(For the record, i am vexed that they were disqualified)

The IOC officials are being a bit inconsistent. But hey, i guess that's what hosting the 'Games' buys you.

As I understand it the sports are individually controlled by their regular governing bodies for cycling the UCI, for ice hockey the IIHF etc) and they just run under the banner if the IOC. Inconsistency just comes from the different governing bodies and rules set within.

peat

Yeah, i have since learnt that.

I still don't think it sends out a particually helpful message.

The squirmy backtracking isn't either. Stick to your guns chaps, you didn't do anything wrong!