Rio BMX and MTB **spoilers**

TheBigBean

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Why do they even have what basically amounts to a child's sport in the Olympics. They should ditch it in favour of more track events.

You're going to LOVE skateboarding in the Tokyo Games then

Give me skate boarding, surfing and BMXing over football, golf and tennis any day. They could at least make the football 5 side.

salsiccia1

TheBigBean wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Why do they even have what basically amounts to a child's sport in the Olympics. They should ditch it in favour of more track events.

You're going to LOVE skateboarding in the Tokyo Games then

Give me skate boarding, surfing and BMXing over football, golf and tennis any day. They could at least make the football 5 side.

Like it - bin Football, bring in Futsal

bobmcstuff

Pross wrote:

I'd rather see Downhill in than BMX but I guess it's just personal choice. To me BMX always seems to have an over-reliance on luck, it's a bit like short track speed skating in that there's a high likelihood of the favourites taking each other out and someone who was lagging miles behind winning.

Problem with having DH in would be when the Olympics is in places like London it would be a ridiculously short track unless they wanted to put a lot of travel in...

I think enduro would be good as you can still put together decent courses with shorter descents and it is fairly popular as a participation format (when I look back at a lot of the MTB me and my friends used to do it was basically enduro)

lostboysaint

Erm, you just relocate it. Sailing wasn't in London, MTB XC wasn't in London, rowing wasn't in London...........

bobmcstuff

Salsiccia1 wrote:

TheBigBean wrote:

Richmond Racer 2 wrote:

Garry H wrote:

Why do they even have what basically amounts to a child's sport in the Olympics. They should ditch it in favour of more track events.

You're going to LOVE skateboarding in the Tokyo Games then

Give me skate boarding, surfing and BMXing over football, golf and tennis any day. They could at least make the football 5 side.

Like it - bin Football, bring in Futsal

The Rugby 7s has been great this time round. I don't think having 5 a side would be that bad - least it could be a proper Olympic sport rather than a half arsed version of the World Cup where they deliberately hobble the competition.

bobmcstuff

lostboysaint wrote:

Erm, you just relocate it. Sailing wasn't in London, MTB XC wasn't in London, rowing wasn't in London...........

Weymouth is the only one which was actually any distance from London. Essex and Windsor are basically London as far as I'm concerned.

For the DH you'd have to put it in Scotland or possibly Wales to get a real world class track.

DeVlaeminck

Oh no Futsal is dire as a spectator sport - I wouldn't mind binning mens football because the Olympics is an irrelevance but the womens game should be in there because it is a big participation sport that deserves more coverage and has huge potential to get females involved in actually playing sport all over the world.

BMX is largely a kids sport but then so is gymnastics - the strength of BMX is it has a wide appeal to kids who might not take part in other sports. There are kids who do BMX who just would not fit in with the atmosphere of a GoRide track session plus it's a good entry sport to other cycling disciplines like DH, MTB and even track and road. That said I would prefer to see DH in than BMX but I can't see why it should be either or when we have crap (in terms of who actually does them other than to get a cheap GB vest) like modern pentathlon or race walking in the Olympics.

lostboysaint

Yes, and.......

And Windsor and Hadleigh most definitely aren't London.

TheBigBean

Here's a basic test: if the sport is on Eurosport then it should be in the Olympics, if it is on Sky then it shouldn't.

Eurosport's coverage of tennis is the exception that proves the law.

bobmcstuff

lostboysaint wrote:

Yes, and.......

And Windsor and Hadleigh most definitely aren't London.

They're both just outside the M25 (Hadleigh slightly further).

To me they're in that vague nebulous Home Counties cloud where all I know is that it's near London.

Slightly different scale compared to putting the DH at Fort William isn't it.

Daz555

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

I see BMX and think "we lost the Kilo for THIS?"

All that aside - best wishes to all Team GB riders. BMX is a complete lottery at times (makes Keirin look like the TP) but with Phillips we have a genuine BMX heavyweight.

As for Sagan. I wish him well but it would be a complete humiliation for the field if he gets a medal.

FocusZing

Daz555 wrote:

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

I see BMX and think "we lost the Kilo for THIS?"

All that aside - best wishes to all Team GB riders. BMX is a complete lottery at times (makes Keirin look like the TP) but with Phillips we have a genuine BMX heavyweight.

As for Sagan. I wish him well but it would be a complete humiliation for the field if he gets a medal.

I don't see how? He was a junior world champ and is known for his skills. If anything it would help the crossover in interest.

Daz555

FocusZing wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

I see BMX and think "we lost the Kilo for THIS?"

All that aside - best wishes to all Team GB riders. BMX is a complete lottery at times (makes Keirin look like the TP) but with Phillips we have a genuine BMX heavyweight.

As for Sagan. I wish him well but it would be a complete humiliation for the field if he gets a medal.

I don't see how? He was a junior world champ and is known for his skills. If anything it would help the crossover in interest.

Former junior world champ but now a pro road racer with entire road season in his legs rocks up with little to no top level racing experience for almost seven years and wins a medal amongst a world class XC MTB field.

Yep. I'll stick with "humiliating" if it happens to them.

It might be good for the sport in terms of exposure but I made no comment in relation to that.

Pross

My big issue is that cycling has to drop one discipline to make room for another whilst swimming appears to have a virtually limitless programme. If one athlete can win 6 or 7 medals in a single Olympics then the sport has too many similar events. I know we always have this discussion but no event should be there if the Olympics is not the pinnacle of that sport (I would include the cycling road race in that), it should also be a sport with global participation. However, I try to avoid saying a sport should be removed because I don't like or understand it.

TheBigBean

Like squash?

Pross

I really can't understand why squash isn't an Olympic sport, it ticks all the boxes.

I actually enjoyed the golf more than I thought I would and it was good that the winner was passionate about it being an Olympic sport again but how it got in ahead of squash is a mystery. Given the attitude taken to it by many of the top players I'm not sure how long it will survive.

TheBigBean

Even baseball got in ahead of squash.

Daz555

Pross wrote:

My big issue is that cycling has to drop one discipline to make room for another whilst swimming appears to have a virtually limitless programme. If one athlete can win 6 or 7 medals in a single Olympics then the sport has too many similar events. I know we always have this discussion but no event should be there if the Olympics is not the pinnacle of that sport (I would include the cycling road race in that), it should also be a sport with global participation. However, I try to avoid saying a sport should be removed because I don't like or understand it.

This x 10.

Makes no sense for the track programme which is, like swimming, contained in one building with relatively small numbers of attending fans to be so constrained with its events. As a minimum I'd add the IP and the fabulous Kilo back into the programme:

Individual Sprint
Team Sprint
Individual Pursuit
Team Pursuit
Kilo
Keirin
Omnium

Would be great to have the full WC programme (adding Points and Scratch as well) but I doubt that will ever happen but can we PLEASE have Kilo and IP back PLEASE!!!!!

andyrac

Daz555 wrote:

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

Is there any sensible reason why DH isn't in the Olympic cycling programme? I understand XC being in, even if it can be slightly uninteresting; and is the poor relation compared to DH - Which is quite often spectacular!

I'd love to see CX in the Winters, but do enough countries participate? Probably not.....

Crampeur

Daz555 wrote:

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

The problem lies more with the Olympic XC courses. Hadleigh and Rio look pretty crap compared to some of the more technical courses on the World Cup circuit this year, which aren't really that far off Enduro-level technicality.

TheBigBean

What's the difference between enduro and cross country?

ddraver

AndyRAC wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

Is there any sensible reason why DH isn't in the Olympic cycling programme? I understand XC being in, even if it can be slightly uninteresting; and is the poor relation compared to DH

Because if you look outside of the very narrow world of British Mountain Biking, XC is very popular

ddraver

Good Question Bean!

Enduro is timed sections, mostly downhill with an overall time limit on completing the course so although the uphills are not raced, you can't dilly dally either. Imagine a race at a trail centre basically and you re there.

It's complicated becasue it can also be Enduro DH which is essentially a long DH race (1hr or so), such as the Megavalanche.

It has been complicated yet further by bike manufacturers calling anything between a full on XC race bike and a full on DH race bike an "Enduro Bike"

TheBigBean

Thanks and cross country? Is that uphill and downhill and not a TT?

Richmond Racer 2

AndyRAC wrote:

Daz555 wrote:

I see XC MTB and think "why was this picked over downhill?"

Is there any sensible reason why DH isn't in the Olympic cycling programme? I understand XC being in, even if it can be slightly uninteresting; and is the poor relation compared to DH - Which is quite often spectacular!

I'd love to see CX in the Winters, but do enough countries participate? Probably not.....

CX is a no-go for the Winter Lympix cos the criteria for a sport to be eligible is that it's played on snow or ice

TheBigBean

I used to mountain bike on snow...

TheBigBean

All this talk is making me quite sad that my mountain bike sits in a cupboard at work and never sees the light of day.

lostboysaint

Take it out and ride it then!

TheBigBean

lostboysaint wrote:

Take it out and ride it then!

If only it was that easy!

Edit - Basically I should - you are right. The hills of central London (e.g. Southwark bridge) don't really cut it though, and I'm slightly concerned I'm no longer fit enough or courageous enough (i.e. too old) to play in my old stomping ground even if I had time to go there.

TheBigBean

BMX has started