Olympics All Format Spoiler Thread

Lanterne_Rogue

Just checked the cost of horse riding. For the price of a couple of lessons you can get a reasonable starter board and it won't stand on your foot out of sheer malignance. It's also easier to store in the cupboard under the stairs. You might know ten people who do it, but it's hard to argue it's accessible.

FWIW I learnt to ride as a kid, but as a teenager I saw far more alcohol and drugs at my local yard than I see when taking my kids down the skatepark - the biggest issue there isn't substance abuse but annoying little kids on scooters cutting across people's lines and sticking them in hospital.

above_the_cows

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

While I was watching the MTB race yesterday I was struck by how similar some of the balance skills MTB'ers and event riders will have.

above_the_cows

Pross said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

It's because they don't understand it and have never tried it.

It's blooming hard. And scary.

Lanterne_Rogue

above_the_cows said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

While I was watching the MTB race yesterday I was struck by how similar some of the balance skills MTB'ers and event riders will have.

Possibly a controversial opinion, but I reckon eventing needs a degree of bravery that MTB doesn't. Generally in MTB any mistakes are your own, but in eventing there's a few hundred kilos of cantankerous horseflesh just waiting to add its own opinions to what you're trying to do.

Pross

rick_chasey said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

I'm just overlaying my own class prejudice onto sports chat - not really anything to do with the sport.

Charlotte Dujardin, despite the posh sounding name, went to a state secondary school. The top dressage and eventing riders quite often don't own the horses they ride.

Considering you're a big F1 fan and have competed in rowing I find your views of sports for the 'elite' quite odd.

Pross

above_the_cows said:

Pross said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

It's because they don't understand it and have never tried it.

It's blooming hard. And scary.

I walked the XC course at Greenwich as my daughter was a massive equestrian fan (I got tickets for the wrong day though as the 3 day event was over 4 days so ended up watching dressage).

above_the_cows

Lanterne_Rogue said:

above_the_cows said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

While I was watching the MTB race yesterday I was struck by how similar some of the balance skills MTB'ers and event riders will have.

Possibly a controversial opinion, but I reckon eventing needs a degree of bravery that MTB doesn't. Generally in MTB any mistakes are your own, but in eventing there's a few hundred kilos of cantankerous horseflesh just waiting to add its own opinions to what you're trying to do.

Yeah it's why I stopped riding horses but still ride bikes. Too much dealing with a horse with, however well trained, its own mind.

rick_chasey

It's not either or tbf.

Re tennis - it was £20 per year membership of the local village courts and you could borrow rackets - everyone played it.

I did hockey at state school (hated it, ugh).

I think the cost of dressage etc is an order of magnitude higher than pretty much all else.

I did a fair bit of rowing (coxing) but none of us paid to row, the club paid it all for us out of adult club subs and we were all from state school so I have a slightly skew view on how elitist or not it is.

above_the_cows

Pross said:

rick_chasey said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

I'm just overlaying my own class prejudice onto sports chat - not really anything to do with the sport.

Charlotte Dujardin, despite the posh sounding name, went to a state secondary school. The top dressage and eventing riders quite often don't own the horses they ride.

Considering you're a big F1 fan and have competed in rowing I find your views of sports for the 'elite' quite odd.

I blame Princess Anne and Zara Tindall for the skewed view of event riders. Yes some folks have money/some of the owners have money but not all. My trainer, an Olympic level rider's best ever horse, that competed in two Olympics, was one he bought for about 500 quid from a local farmer and trained up from nothing, it looked liked the below, but had a massive pair of lungs, was super athletic and was very very brave.

kingstongraham

Horse dancing is still silly.

rick_chasey

above_the_cows said:

Pross said:

rick_chasey said:

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

I'm just overlaying my own class prejudice onto sports chat - not really anything to do with the sport.

Charlotte Dujardin, despite the posh sounding name, went to a state secondary school. The top dressage and eventing riders quite often don't own the horses they ride.

Considering you're a big F1 fan and have competed in rowing I find your views of sports for the 'elite' quite odd.

I blame Princess Anne and Zara Tindall for the skewed view of event riders. Yes some folks have money/some of the owners have money but not all. My trainer, an Olympic level rider's best ever horse, that competed in two Olympics, was one he bought for about 500 quid from a local farmer and trained up from nothing, it looked liked the below, but had a massive pair of lungs, was super athletic and was very very brave.

One of the few Olympians I have met outside of rowing was this guy. I definitely got "this is a sport for rich guys" vibe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/José_Maria_Larocca

The wiki doesn't mention his job but he was the boss of the guys who dumped the toxic waste off the west coast of Africa and he's currently being investigated for bribery charges in Brazil.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10735255

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-corruption-trafig-idUSKBN28P1K3

He's got a few $100m or so, at least.

above_the_cows

rick_chasey said:

It's not either or tbf.

Re tennis - it was £20 per year membership of the local village courts and you could borrow rackets - everyone played it.

I did hockey at state school (hated it, ugh).

I think the cost of dressage etc is an order of magnitude higher than pretty much all else.

I did a fair bit of rowing (coxing) but none of us paid to row, the club paid it all for us out of adult club subs and we were all from state school so I have a slightly skew view on how elitist or not it is.

You assume those that ride own their horses. It's quite funny when I'm sure you wouldn't bat and eyelid at someone spending 5000 quid on a bike.

pblakeney

Pross said:

yorkshireraw said:

ddraver said:

Also...people were complaining about skateboarding and surfing - would ya look at the fuckin' horse nonsense on now? 🤔🤨🤔

Is it horsey dancing? One of those things where you wonder how many people world-wide actually do this? If they're introducing skateboarding to encourage more accessible participation, they need to do the opposite and get rid of equestrian (I know they won't.....)

I know at least 10 people who regularly compete in dressage. I think I'd rather my kids grow up with the discipline of looking after a horse than hanging around the local skatepark drinking and smoking weed.

Thing is that those kids would likely be doing worse if not at the skatepark. A lot of my teenage peers went down the wrong path while going down the skateboarding route probably saved me from doing the same. Bloody good exercise too. I used to lose 1/2 stone at the weekend in summer.

kingstongraham

I see there are still two sports that are single sex. I thought that kind of discrimination had been driven out of the Olympics.

RichN95.

I did a little bit of eventing when I was a teenager. My mother was a keen rider from her youth and rented a horse called Charlie. Neither me nor Charlie could be bothered with the dressage, but we were both very keen on cross country. It's surprisingly tiring.

rick_chasey

above_the_cows said:

rick_chasey said:

It's not either or tbf.

Re tennis - it was £20 per year membership of the local village courts and you could borrow rackets - everyone played it.

I did hockey at state school (hated it, ugh).

I think the cost of dressage etc is an order of magnitude higher than pretty much all else.

I did a fair bit of rowing (coxing) but none of us paid to row, the club paid it all for us out of adult club subs and we were all from state school so I have a slightly skew view on how elitist or not it is.

You assume those that ride own their horses. It's quite funny when I'm sure you wouldn't bat and eyelid at someone spending 5000 quid on a bike.

Ah I wouldn't assume. I rode a £200 bike I got from my parents everywhere including 1000km in 5 days in the Pyrenees until I was working and could afford a bit more.

Lanterne_Rogue

above_the_cows said:

rick_chasey said:

It's not either or tbf.

Re tennis - it was £20 per year membership of the local village courts and you could borrow rackets - everyone played it.

I did hockey at state school (hated it, ugh).

I think the cost of dressage etc is an order of magnitude higher than pretty much all else.

I did a fair bit of rowing (coxing) but none of us paid to row, the club paid it all for us out of adult club subs and we were all from state school so I have a slightly skew view on how elitist or not it is.

You assume those that ride own their horses. It's quite funny when I'm sure you wouldn't bat and eyelid at someone spending 5000 quid on a bike.

I think it depends what we mean by accessible. As an adult with a decent job it's not prohibitive to own a horse, if that's what you're into, nor is it to drop a load on a fancy bike. Similarly I've done the sums on owning a sailing boat and reckon I could do it - though I know I wouldn't do enough of it to justify the outlay, and, er, I've never actually sailed. I just get this urge when I see nice boats, or even bad ones...

It's a step away from being open to loads of kids though. A reasonably light bike for a kid costs a couple of hundred quid (10 riding lessons). A skateboard costs £40 to get them started (2 riding lessons). If they get into rowing through school it's cheap enough, though subs for my local club are around £200, which I guess is reasonable value at a cost of one riding lesson per month...

TheBigBean

rick_chasey said:

It's not either or tbf.

Re tennis - it was £20 per year membership of the local village courts and you could borrow rackets - everyone played it.

I did hockey at state school (hated it, ugh).

I think the cost of dressage etc is an order of magnitude higher than pretty much all else.

I did a fair bit of rowing (coxing) but none of us paid to row, the club paid it all for us out of adult club subs and we were all from state school so I have a slightly skew view on how elitist or not it is.

You just seem to judge everything through a narrow perspective. You rowed by borrowing a boat. Some people ride by borrowing a horse. For example, plenty of people with the money to own horses don't have time to take them out, so they get someone else to do it.

I'm not saying riding is cheap, but it is possible without vast resources.

Pross

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Just checked the cost of horse riding. For the price of a couple of lessons you can get a reasonable starter board and it won't stand on your foot out of sheer malignance. It's also easier to store in the cupboard under the stairs. You might know ten people who do it, but it's hard to argue it's accessible.

FWIW I learnt to ride as a kid, but as a teenager I saw far more alcohol and drugs at my local yard than I see when taking my kids down the skatepark - the biggest issue there isn't substance abuse but annoying little kids on scooters cutting across people's lines and sticking them in hospital.

I had over a decade of it with my daughter. Sure, it's not easily accessible but it isn't as elite as some people think. One of the people I know who competed in dressage for Wales was a social worker, another who competed regularly was a supermarket worker. They all give up all the luxuries in life that many think of as necessities such as one or more foreign holidays a year or a flash car. A reasonable horse for minor competition will cost less than the bikes a lot of people on here ride (although the running costs are high - I was certainly glad when my daughter went to Uni and we sold up).

People think of yachting as elitist as well but when I looked into it for my non-sports younger daughter (she tried it and loved it when on Ellen McCarthur Trust trips) family membership at our local club was less than £100 per year including entry to weekly club races and use of boats whenever you wanted.

Pross

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

yorkshireraw said:

ddraver said:

Also...people were complaining about skateboarding and surfing - would ya look at the fuckin' horse nonsense on now? 🤔🤨🤔

Is it horsey dancing? One of those things where you wonder how many people world-wide actually do this? If they're introducing skateboarding to encourage more accessible participation, they need to do the opposite and get rid of equestrian (I know they won't.....)

I know at least 10 people who regularly compete in dressage. I think I'd rather my kids grow up with the discipline of looking after a horse than hanging around the local skatepark drinking and smoking weed.

Thing is that those kids would likely be doing worse if not at the skatepark. A lot of my teenage peers went down the wrong path while going down the skateboarding route probably saved me from doing the same. Bloody good exercise too. I used to lose 1/2 stone at the weekend in summer.

I was just joking with my own prejudiced stereotypes as it seems de rigueur to do with "posh" sports

Pross

rick_chasey said:

It's not either or tbf.

Re tennis - it was £20 per year membership of the local village courts and you could borrow rackets - everyone played it.

I did hockey at state school (hated it, ugh).

I think the cost of dressage etc is an order of magnitude higher than pretty much all else.

I did a fair bit of rowing (coxing) but none of us paid to row, the club paid it all for us out of adult club subs and we were all from state school so I have a slightly skew view on how elitist or not it is.

That's the issue though isn't it? Others have the same view of rowing as you do of other "elite" sports. They see everyone doing it at the top level as Oxbridge educated former public school kids.

I think where I live a lot of people with land to have horses are farmers (or travellers!) and the majority of kids at the local Pony Club were from pretty normal state school families.

rick_chasey

Sure - I thought it was fairly obvious when I said I was overlaying my own prejudices that they were indeed my own prejudices.

pblakeney

Pross said:

pblakeney said:

Pross said:

yorkshireraw said:

ddraver said:

Also...people were complaining about skateboarding and surfing - would ya look at the fuckin' horse nonsense on now? 🤔🤨🤔

Is it horsey dancing? One of those things where you wonder how many people world-wide actually do this? If they're introducing skateboarding to encourage more accessible participation, they need to do the opposite and get rid of equestrian (I know they won't.....)

I know at least 10 people who regularly compete in dressage. I think I'd rather my kids grow up with the discipline of looking after a horse than hanging around the local skatepark drinking and smoking weed.

Thing is that those kids would likely be doing worse if not at the skatepark. A lot of my teenage peers went down the wrong path while going down the skateboarding route probably saved me from doing the same. Bloody good exercise too. I used to lose 1/2 stone at the weekend in summer.

I was just joking with my own prejudiced stereotypes as it seems de rigueur to do with "posh" sports

No problem. Just pointing out that a stereotype "bad" activity could actually be an improvement on the alternative.

tailwindhome

kingstongraham said:

I see there are still two sports that are single sex. I thought that kind of discrimination had been driven out of the Olympics.

Guessing, synchronised swimming and rhythmic gymnastics?

mididoctors

TheBigBean said:

Never understand sports fans bashing other sports. Eventing is fine, a good day out and can even be entertaining. Sure I would skip the dressage, but I don't find TTs riveting either.

I prefer the weird horse walking over tkd thou

ddraver

r0bh said:

Bit of beef between Neff and PFP

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/jolanda-neff-criticises-rivals-riding-after-tokyo-2020-olympic-mountain-bike-incident

They've always had a "competitive" relationship...





(In the best way though)

But Pauline, this was a bit... 🤨

https://twitter.com/Pflax1/status/1420087967742263296?s=20

jimmyjams

ddraver said:

jimmyjams said:

andyrac said:

dabber said:

r0bh said:

ddraver said:

No_Ta_Doctor said:

From a different angle, you can see Pidcock's handling in swerving MvdP

https://twitter.com/BasTietema/status/1419590795049451523?s=19

Flippin' big drop for XCO when you've got a saddle up your censored ...

I wonder if the ramp will be there for the girls..?

That would be sexist

There's a bit of video of Evie Richards practicing on that jump with the ramp in place but she is taking off from the top and totally clearing the ramp like it isn't there...so I would hope it won't be there for the race.

She's been getting 'Jumps' training from Katy Curd in the Forest of Dean in preparation for the jumps on the course.....It won't be there.

What's the feeling about Richards' chances?
At the moment Lecomte looks unbeatable, and Rissveds good for a medal too.

It's not gonna happen but there's a chance for a medal and wouldn't it be just lovely if it was gold.

Given her Instagram feed is basically what The Walton's feed would be if Instagram had existed (plus some minor MTB content), it would just be so warm and cuddly and wholesome! Think early Laura Trott era...

Couldn't get back here until this evening, but if Evie Richards is another version of Laura Trott, as you imply, while not wishing ill for Richards, I'm not unhappy that she didn't make the medals – I couldn't stand Trott or the media coverage about her, and I wouldn't enjoy a similar repeat.

jimmyjams

alan_a said:

RichN95. said:

Those triathlon outfits look cold. I realise it's probably 30 degrees despite the rain

I know they don't have team cars, but are there any neutral service facilities.

Just like CX there is a wheel pit every lap. But that is it. You are responsible for your own mechanicals. No team cars or service bikes. Puncture and you are out.

Since at the Olympics, the RRs and the TTs are one-offs (unlike in a GT or other tour), I'm inclined to think the same rule ('Puncture and you are out') should apply. Maybe at WCs too.
But I'm not sure that it does – if the other day Carapaz had punctured, could he have been given a replacement wheel by his team car?

DeVlaeminck

I expect so - Thomas got a spare bike.

jimmyjams

davidof said:

Ladies having trouble in the wet mud but the mtb ramp is back.

The organisers said it was installed because of the wet weather but a wet wooden ramp can bring its own problems.

gsk82 said:

Why did he even want to use the ramp? Is he a scaredy cat?

I can only think VdP thought to use the ramp because it was the first circuit, and he decided to take fewer risks first time round.

TheBigBean said:

ddraver said:

There are recent world champions that wouldn't have dealt with the drop with no ramp.

That really surprises me. I wouldn't want to do it on a bike, but I don't think it would faze me on skis, so I would expect a pro mountain biker to be comfortable.

I agree with BB.