Men's Road Cycling UCI World Tour 2024 (Tour de France)

[heywoodu 14,913]

31 minutes ago, justony said:

 

 

The problem is only that our national coach selected other two, Pintar mainly because she brought more points in last season Bujak of course as good time trialist. As for Žigart, he said, that she never was any good in one day races, but neither was Pintar. To be even more tragic president of our national federation and many others also had some concern about that decision. But in the end national coach has the final word.

 

There also aren't really any worthy races to compare them. A national championships race and a lower-level stage race in  where one was better one day and the other in the other day. It honestly is 50/50 between Zigart and Pintar, so if Pintar is the one who brought more points towards getting a second quota, it's not entirely unfair to choose her if there isn't really a distinction to make otherwise.

 

If that is the actual reason for Pogacar not going: oh well, Pogacar's loss mostly  

[NMQ 243]

Or just do the political choice and pick the girlfriend of your best athlete so he is happier 😋 Baring some miracle, neither of the women was going to medal, anyway.

[mpjmcevoy 362]

On 7/22/2024 at 9:52 AM, hckošice said:

+ the Olympic race is without radios, riders do not have clue who is ahead, if every breakaway was caught, if a teammate captaon had a crash, puncture or any other issue etc...

 

Ask van Vleuten about Kiessenhofer in Tokyo

 

So, really anything can happen

Kiessenhofer remains one of my favourite ever Olympic stories, and a great demonstration why the odd radio-less race is to be welcomed - it just shakes up the dynamic. She literally attacked at the gun, and somehow Keyser Soze'd the entire peloton, convincing the hugely strong dutch in particular that she didn't exist!

 

that may stick in some minds this time around and make the stronger teams jumpy and over excited; by the time we get to the business end the peloton could be in chaos.

[mpjmcevoy 362]

55 minutes ago, heywoodu said:

There also aren't really any worthy races to compare them. A national championships race and a lower-level stage race in  where one was better one day and the other in the other day. It honestly is 50/50 between Zigart and Pintar, so if Pintar is the one who brought more points towards getting a second quota, it's not entirely unfair to choose her if there isn't really a distinction to make otherwise.

 

If that is the actual reason for Pogacar not going: oh well, Pogacar's loss mostly  

Pogacar had the chance to go for a Golden Triple Crown, something even Mercks and Roche could never claim - the Pink, the Yellow, The Gold, the Rainbows (and the Doyenne of course) it would have stamped it as the greatest season of the greatest rider in history. To let that extremely rare, most likely only, chance pass out of spite and a huff....

 

Note how Steffi Grafs 'Golden Slam' pretty much sealed her fame, even if she didn't realise at the time it would. You don't pass up these chances.

[heywoodu 14,913]

6 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Pogacar had the chance to go for a Golden Triple Crown, something even Mercks and Roche could never claim - the Pink, the Yellow, The Gold, the Rainbows (and the Doyenne of course) it would have stamped it as the greatest season of the greatest rider in history. To let that extremely rare, most likely only, chance pass out of spite and a huff....

 

Note how Steffi Grafs 'Golden Slam' pretty much sealed her fame, even if she didn't realise at the time it would. You don't pass up these chances.

I feel like that's more of an Americanized thing. Cycling is big in the Netherlands in terms of media attention, always has been, yet there has never really been any serious talk about a Golden Triple Crown or some Dutch-named equivalent for it

 

Plus he is highly unlikely to do the Vuelta anyway (and he still has a bigger chance of not winning the rainbow jersey than winning it), so the Monumental Golden Grand Rainbow Tour Crown wouldn't have happened anyway  

 

Spoiler

Although I agree on letting the Olympics in general go out of spite....ugh. Oh well. I hope it's really mostly because of being tired, also because that'd be the first sign of humanity and I guess believability (for lack of a better word?) he'd have shown this entire year.

 

Edited July 23 by heywoodu

[heywoodu 14,913]

11 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Kiessenhofer remains one of my favourite ever Olympic stories, and a great demonstration why the odd radio-less race is to be welcomed - it just shakes up the dynamic. She literally attacked at the gun, and somehow Keyser Soze'd the entire peloton, convincing the hugely strong dutch in particular that she didn't exist!

 

While Kiessenhofer was really only in Tokyo for the time trial, for which she had prepared with scientific accuracy for a long time, all her coins were on that one. No idea really why, because out of the two road events, the time trial is obviously the least likely to spring a massive surprise (since everyone is going as fast as they can and there isn't really any team tactics or other shenanigans involved), but the time trial was her thing.

 

I think she did not leave Tokyo disappointed by not winning a time trial medal  

[heywoodu 14,913]

25 minutes ago, NMQ said:

Or just do the political choice and pick the girlfriend of your best athlete so he is happier 😋

No....leaving someone out of the Olympics simply because of a political choice for someone else, which of course happens often enough in the world of sports, is already bad enough by itself.

[Faramir 360]

1 hour ago, justony said:

Pintar mainly because she brought more points in last season

which points are they talking about? 

[NMQ 243]

1 minute ago, heywoodu said:

No....leaving someone out of the Olympics simply because of a political choice for someone else, which of course happens often enough in the world of sports, is already bad enough by itself.

No one would know, as both are kinda even and Zigart has just won the national championships and out of a great result in the Giro. There's always some discrepancy in these choices, but it seems to me it was the most logical decision. Now you have an avoidable turmoil out of nothing. 

[De_Gambassi 1,223]

11 minutes ago, mpjmcevoy said:

Pogacar had the chance to go for a Golden Triple Crown, something even Mercks and Roche could never claim - the Pink, the Yellow, The Gold, the Rainbows (and the Doyenne of course) it would have stamped it as the greatest season of the greatest rider in history. To let that extremely rare, most likely only, chance pass out of spite and a huff....

 

Note how Steffi Grafs 'Golden Slam' pretty much sealed her fame, even if she didn't realise at the time it would. You don't pass up these chances.

Heum... please stop ? There is nos such a thing and never was, mostly because for the longest time people didn't care enough about the Vuelta and the Vuelta and the Giro were rode within a week of difference.

 

Quote

Mercks and Roche

Lol...