Paris Olympics SPOILER Thread
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Pidders is A1 in XC MTB, top 3-4 in cyclocross, pretty good in one day road / strade races e.g. spring classics, and in specific stages of grand tours e.g. his win on Alpe d'Huez. Good palmares. But he's not an overall GT leader, his style is what it is. Full respect to what he's achieved, so far.
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Have fun Rick. I used to do kayak racing - sprint and long distance.... in the closed season I played at some slalom for fun.... plus did some whitewater river running. Broke the odd kayak in half and it can get a bit scary..... but fun.
“You may think that; I couldn’t possibly comment!”
Wilier Cento Uno SR/Wilier Mortirolo/Specialized Roubaix Comp/Kona Hei Hei/Calibre Bossnut1 -
Definitely a case of quality over quantity in terms of wins.
Meanwhile L'Équipe confirm what I think everyone knew - there were no official complaints either.
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Surf's Up, btw, and it's a LOT bigger than it's been for the opening rounds.
This is finally what this wave is about
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Judges will be looking at criticality of wave entry, length of time in the tube, depth in the tube, lateness of exit from the tube, size of the wave. Turns and airs irrelevant today, just ride the biggest tube you can as deep as you can and make sure you get ouot of it
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One of the GB swimmers (Katie Shanahan) who's racing in the 400 medley final tonight was asked in an interview recently how long the 400 medley (her best event) had been her favourite event. She replied: "I don't actually like it. I'm just good at it. I'd sooner have been a sprint backstroker".
Can't choose what you're good at!
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How many times had Pidcock definitely lost that race? Two, three maybe?
Can't get over what a crazy win that was.
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Pidcock's parents are cyclists and his first race was a road circuit race at 7... apparently.
I imagine like a lot of talented young riders he did a bit of everything - these days i know the youngsters in my club (well Im not currently a member) pretty much all do cross, track and road but we do have a velodrome in the city so that helps. I know a lad that came through our club currently rides what I'm going to call semi pro on the road - Team U Charente Maritime - is also top at cross - used to win the local youth league when my kids raced - and a good mountain biker - he probably does track too I just haven't been down the velodrome in years. I think it's typical now they do everything.
[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]1 -
I am an eternal optimist but when Koretzky got that last gap just before the mechanics station I thought it was over. Pidcock is a bit like Cavendish in that only winning matters, I don't think a podium place means much to him.
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Keeps getting the winter milage more interesting as well and improves bike handling at your limit
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I suspect a lot of pro mtb riders are happy that Pidcock rides across several disciplines. He seems so far ahead of the rest in XC that if he focussed solely on MTB he would win 80%+ of everything and they would struggle to get a look in.
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"Pidcock is a bit like Cavendish"
That winning move certainly reminded me of Cav.
"There's a gap - it's mine"
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So, Peaty has tested positive………for Covid.
"Science is a tool for cheaters". An anonymous French PE teacher.0 -
My eldest rage quit. I was generous and called them back down when he made contact with Hatherley
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The surf tonight is dropping some absolute bombs, but bad weather has rolled in just as the women were about to show what they could do with it. What a shame.
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This time 4 years ago, he'd never ridden in a MTB World Cup - and had Covid not happened, wouldn't have made the Tokyo Olympics - were a certain MvdP was the favourite.
Since October 2020, when he made his World Cup debut he's won U23 Worlds, Elite Europeans, Elite Worlds, and a double Olympic champion; throw in XCC/XCO World Cup wins. Oh and an e-MTB World title.....
I've no idea if he plans to defend his XCO World title in Andorra - what his plans are for next; and if transfer rumours have any substance.
All Road/ Gravel: tbcWinter: tbcMTB: tbcRoad: tbc"Look at the time...." "he's fallen like an old lady on a cruise ship..."1 -
Yeah, I think had he ridden MTB alone we would be looking at Schurter levels of dominance. Pretty much every rider interviewed pre Olympics seemed to suggest they were all riding for silver and bronze if Pidcock was on form. I really doubt any other rider in the field could have made up a 40 second gap to win.
I suspect as he is now 25 we are going to see him focus on the road and possibly GC ambitions. He has time, so if that doesn't work out he can always return to other disciplines in his late 20's and still be a force.
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The Chianca V Boukhiam heat was incredible.
Given the lack of experience some of the women have in waves of that size and danger it's probably not entirely a bad thing their event got postponed; though I'd have loved to see Vahiné Fierro in particular charging those bombs.
Meanwhile, some photographer managed to catch what must be one of the pics-of-the-games as Medina dismounted after a near ten point ride. It's like he's levitating in the air like Dr Manhattan. So good they gave it an article to itself, with no actual surf report from the evenings competition...
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Personally, I suspect he's a bit of a contrarian, and may choose his path from here in order to prove people wrong. But he's also a lad who loves riding his bike, so I think that's going to be the main part of his decision. I think he'll drop GC and keep doing MTB, cross and classics/stages. I sort of hope that happens as well (that he doesn't drop the off road stuff he clearly loves and excels at)
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I hope he does carry on across disciplines. You could never write him off, but with the top GC riders currently around, I would struggle to see Pidcock win a GT. I know there are rumours about his possibly leaving Ineos as they want to concentrate on winning the Tour again and don't see him as being the solution to that, not sure how much truth there is to that though.
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There was clearly a falling out at Ineos, which looked connected to the Netflix stuff - that may well have been the first time Pidcock saw the footage of Cummings discussing him (pretty negatively). Cummings was removed from this years tour at short notice. Whether it was a major thing or not I've no idea, but it looked like a lack of transparency and alignment of expectations, which would be a serious management issue.
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Anyway, here we are at the artistic toy bikes in a disused swimming pool competition. I do quite like this stuff, though I barely have the spatial awareness and dexterity to execute a 90 degree turn as a pedestrian, let alone flips and spins etc.
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Was very weird. Very low energy, especially that second run where it was obvious she needed to pull an enormous rabbit out of the hat and didn't even produce a hat.
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"How do we shake off this security detail and abscond?"
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They won't walk freely around Paris.
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