Pro-cycling thread

Thanks
Not in the uk but will give it a go

Repost the crash vid from the o'gympic thread.

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/13144781/

Just seen a replay of the crash on the BBC. Clip posted above doesn't show it but her line into the corner was absolutely terrible, on completely the wrong side of the road. I know not all professional cyclists are great descenders but find I amazing that someone can get a corner that wrong, particularly cos I can't see any reason why she approached it like that.

Really good to hear she wasn't more seriously injured, it looked dreadful.

Yeah I initially tried to defend her but that was just awful bike handling

She's in hospital with three spinal fractures, have some class.

Seems to me that crashes decided both the mens and the womens road race. Which is a bit shit. Add to that the fact that riders have been seriously hurt, and it Points to a shite course selection for me.

I don't know about the course, don't think it's to blame. And there's a lot on the line so riders, male and female will want to use every inch of it to extend any possible advantage. One chance in four years, they might overestimate their own abilities in the heat of the moment. And the surface is not what they are used to I read, add a little rain and things become tricky very fast. But you'd expect them to have done a proper reconnaissance to minimise the risks.

What a team though! Van Dijk controlling the first half of the race, Vos carrying water bottles and Van Vleuten riding the race of a lifetime, looking set to keep ahead of Abbott, until her cornering mistake and then Van der Breggen finishing it which was brilliant. A real rollercoaster; I wasn't really able to enjoy the medal until I heard Van Vleuten was OK. Relatively speaking, that is. Hope she'll be fit to race again.

If you design a golf course where most of the favourites end up stuck in near impossible bunkers. Because the only way to win is to risk it. People would complain. Add to that the fact there is a little more than a lost ball at stake physically. And I think theyve made a mistake.

It would be harsh to blame injuries on the course designers. But to my mind it wasnt a sensible course.

I dont want to take anything away from the winners. And again, I dont blame the designers for the crashes directly. I just dont like course that introduce such a lottery factor.

This isn't just a single corner or a slightly twisty descent on a club run in the surrey hills though. This is relentless set of corners being done at race pace with no race radio on unfamiliar freshly tarmaced roads with very little forward line of sight.

Could easily have mistaken it for a different corner from the recce, been spat out of the previous corner onto a bad line by a poor or slippy bit of road surface or just had a momentary lapse of concentration from the mental drain of having to do all the one before it.

It's all well and good being an armchair pundit but almost all of us wouldn't get down that hill as quickly as Mara Abbot, the allegedly bad descender in the race.

It's not really awful bike handling but mildly bad handling on a section of course where the consequences of a mistake are severe at race speed.

Just before she enters the corner she's to the left of the centre line and leaning left following the curve of the road but then straightens up as she hits the painted speedbump which puts her over to the right of the road and it all goes wrong.

I'm really not sure, having seen Froome stack it on a wide one on the tour, and pelotons opt for carnage on pure straights, that a series of hairpins can be solely to blame. Considering the curb/guttering style, more could have been done to prevent injury during inevitable crashes, however.

Boardman recc'ed the course and was saying right from the off that descent would cause carnage and it did. I'm not saying there shouldn't be risk, but we had both races' outcomes majorly affected by crashed. On top of that you have riders that not only lost their chance of a medal but also were seriously injured, double collarbone fracture for His Nibs, and triple back fracture for Van Vleuten. Her crash for me is the most brutal I have seen in pro-racing, at least on descents rather some of those early pile-ups in the Tour. I simply stopped enjoying or caring about the race after that, really thought I may have watched someone die. While racing must carry some risk, organisers have a duty of care to minimise that as much as possible to protect the riders. That descent was too narrow, too twisting and physically unsafe with the nature of the curbs and guttering for a high-stakes road race. Just an IMO of course, I just don't want to see crashes like that, was truly shocking.

I simply stopped enjoying or caring about the race after that, really thought I may have watched someone die

this. I suffered some Weylandt/Casartelli flashbacks until the word came that she was conscious and speaking.

The injuries she did get, severe head trauma and back injuries, could have been so much worse, she was very lucky to survive and I suppose the question remains whether she will ever ride again professionally, just hope she can recover.

Whatever the course, the riders will push it to the point that a few come off. But in my mind the course shouldnt be upping the stakes to that extent.

My recent crash started much the same. Enter bend, tyres skid out on something (gravel in my case), totally lose line, try to prevent over shooting bend, stack it. I actually went over on my right, while going around a left hand bend. I remember a split second where I'd striaghtened my bike, only to realise it was facing the barrier, and thinking. Fuck! I should have just gone Down With the original Wash out.

At least I think it was similar. I dont really fancy watching it again to check.

Injury update: Porte broke his scapular, and Henao fratcured his pelvis and had trauma to his thorax. Oof

Is there any other Olympic event With so many serious injuries?*

(*not including the nasty gymnastics incident. Brrrrrr)

Winter Olympics maybe

The Jump had a pretty high attrition rate for Olympic athletes ...

Dwars door Het Hageland from last Friday looks like a brilliant race on Eurosport highlights; parcours is a cross between Roubaix and Tro Bro Leon. On a cinder towpath right now

I caught that, looked amazing, racing down what looked like farmer's mud road, looked really tough.

And a 1km cobbled climb to the finish line. 10/10 would Hageland again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BosoKajLw_I

Full race on Youtube. Questionably legal?

Step 3. Entourage intimidates journalists

They are from Yorkshire. Of course they'd have a pop.