Grassmarket

Just catching up - it has been a comedy of errors with falls, mechanicals & shocking loss of form. No horses on the road, though.

Comfortably beating , for the first time since….Moscow 1980. Also finished as the top Slov* nation.

Yeah, but quite a few medals, even golds, won by other nations as well so people were travelling to do it.

Let’s just have a peep at the Official Medals Table, shall we? Seems the Gran Fondo is an innovation which must continue. https://www.uci.org/event-hub/2023-uci-cycling-world-championships/6WHHqfuGeCiM5MZXd8a6sZ?tab=medals3

Bit surprised that Were so passive there

Once again, shows simplest is best when it comes to anti-Vampire precautions. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12381177/Vampire-child-corpse-discovered-Polish-cemetery-triangular-padlock-attached-ankles-prevent-returning-dead.html

Was looking back at the history of the Olympic Road Race on Wikipedia - had an idea that pre 1992 it was usually won by the "amateur" riders of Communist Europe, in the way that football etc usually was. Turns out this wasn't true, and that actually some fairly well-known people won, presumably then going onto pro careers. However, here's what happened at Munich 1972 "Irish protesters Seven members of the National Cycling Association (NCA) were arrested for disrupting the event. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised separate national federations on either side of the Irish political border. The NCA was an Irish Republican all-Ireland body not affiliated to the ICU. Three NCA members delayed the start by distributing leaflets,[4] and the other four joined mid-race to ambush Irish competitor Noel Teggart, causing a minor pile-up.[5]" So there's previous for idiot protestors from Celtic nations!

Yeah, there was a big revision during the last 10 laps, Portuguese guy went from 220+ to 180 or so.

But they must have generous funding behind them. The last Winter Games were supposed to be in Lucerne, but they got them rearranged to Lake Placid at short notice, which doesn’t come cheap.

It’s a bit of a mystery, but they seem to have lots of money from somewhere.

Looks like he got away with it!

Sagan retires & retires.

Right, official first lap now….. We have the statue of the Duke of Wellington instead of Joan of Arc, just to keep French morale up.

Just coming into Glasgow now, onto the circuit.

Out injured.

Amazing win by sixteen year old Albert Philipsen. Going to win a few more!

Issue was that Bego was the French №2, but every time the others brought her back the French №1 just stuck to them, so they lost confidence & settled for silver.

Think she was looking for one of the other nations to contribute, not the French girl Guaranteed fourth place for .

Onto the last lap - Bego with a lead, 13 chasers from Etc. Glasgow rain!

I used to have to climb that every day when I was a student!

Glasgow city centre course is viciously cruel - mostly flat but four incredibly steep short climbs. Junior race broke up from literally km 1 & there’s no way you get back once you’re off. Down, oof.

BBC has everything. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/cycling/65813705

Incidentally, does everyone know that Tobago was once part of ? Strange but true.

Another Gold for Para Tandem theory. RoW: Put two big fit guys on. ; Put one huge sighted ex-Olympian as pilot, one tiny blind guy on the back.

Dunno if this gets its own thread, but the European U-20s from Jerusalem start on Monday. All live here. https://allathletics.tv/championships/ea-u20-jerusalem-2023