Road Cycling at the Summer Olympic Games Paris 2024 Road to Paris 2024

[Totallympics 57]

[heywoodu 13,663]

women's team: Demi Vollering, Marianne Vos, Lorena Wiebes and Ellen van Dijk (who will be the time trial rider). Especially Vollering is always a crucial part of the troubles in Dutch women's cycling, leading for example to Anna Kiesenhofer's gold in Tokyo. Wiebes ain't gonna be a team player neither, at least Van Dijk has said her main focus is the time trial and in the road race she's ready to just work.

 

Hopefully it'll go Vos' way, the only one who never ever got involved in all those bullshit shenanigans. Honestly I'd have left Vollering home for Riejanne Markus or Shirin van Anrooij (or leave Van Dijk home as well).

Edited Wednesday at 06:57 PM by heywoodu

[Noorderling29 143]

I believe Vollering will also start in the time trial.

 

i’ve often wondered if the Dutch successes in women’s cycling are because of or in spite of all these histrionics. 

Edited Thursday at 07:47 AM by Noorderling29

[dodge 853]

The flip side of that is that Vollering is by far the best cyclist in the world 

[Noorderling29 143]

She’s a bit like Froome. An excellent rider, with a bland personality. My impression is that she’s not very popular in our country. Unlike for instance both Vos and Van Vleuten. She’s does not seem to have that “gun factor”, which poorly translates as goodwill factor. 

[dodge 853]

As an outsider (who loves cycling), I think some of it is that AVV was so loved that Vollering threatening to disrupt AVV’s status as number one in her final years was seen as a negative on Demi. 
 

And they clearly didn’t get on personally themselves so the public mind set was to back AVV. 

[Noorderling29 143]

Perhaps. But also Annemiek and Marianne are personalities that the public can relate to; their ups and downs, their victories and their defeats. Especially Annemiek is a good speaker, with a huge talent to express what’s important to her. Like Froome, Vollering seems to have little to say.

[heywoodu 13,663]

3 hours ago, dodge said:

The flip side of that is that Vollering is by far the best cyclist in the world 

Depending on the course, to be fair. On courses with long climbs, yeah. On short, punchy stuff: Kopecky. On flatter courses: Wiebes by far.

 

I am hoping for a Vos miracle....I'm just very, very uninterested in seeing a Vollering gold medal  

 

At least looking towards the future it is good Van der Breggen and Van Vleuten have retired and there's some new blood coming with Markus and Van Anrooij, among others. Maybe the whole nonsense can stop with them (especially if Vos remains eternally active to cool things down).

Edited Thursday at 10:30 AM by heywoodu

[heywoodu 13,663]

4 hours ago, Noorderling29 said:

I believe Vollering will also start in the time trial.

 

i’ve often wondered if the Dutch successes in women’s cycling are because of or in spite of all these histrionics. 

 

has two spots in the time trial? I thought every country had only one, good for her then  

 

Well, regular successes don't have much to do with the drama I think, since that's more part of the regular commercial team stuff. Cycling isn't that much a sport where national teams build everything. Quite sure Tokyo would have ended differently if they were 'normal' people though  

[dodge 853]

2 hours ago, Noorderling29 said:

Perhaps. But also Annemiek and Marianne are personalities that the public can relate to; their ups and downs, their victories and their defeats. Especially Annemiek is a good speaker, with a huge talent to express what’s important to her. Like Froome, Vollering seems to have little to say.

I wasn’t suggesting the love for Annmiek was undeserved! I think she’s been an amazing cyclist and ambassador for women’s sport. I was so happy she got to win the first women’s TDF