mpjmcevoy

GBR needed to net Denmark by just over 100 points - in the event, I think they've taken them for about 250 - certainly tom and Charlie netted about 300 odd over the danes in the senior races, and I don't think the U23 Danes got anything super back.. The GB women hardly scored this weekend, but had a rather handy 4-500 point lead over Brazil and Germany.

A fifth and probably final Grand Tour podium, three of them in the last two years after his 36th birthday. In his time he won the tour over Doumoulin and Froome, was runner up to Bernal and Roglic, and third behind Pogi twice, Vingegaard and Danny Martinez.....two olympic gold, and he won most of the big 1 week races - Suisse, Romandie, Dauphine and Paris-Nice (though never Adriatico), as well as Rundfahrts, the Alps and the Algarve. Not a bad palmares for a cranky deisel from South Wales... As often happens in cycling, periods of dominance are intersperced with interregna as the new generation sorts its order out - and in the short chaotic period, a strong willing rider can really make his mark, albeit briefly - Think Roche and Delgado between the Lemond/Fignon/Hinault years and the reign of Indurain, or Sastre. cadel Evans and Wiggo between Contador and Froome (happens in tennis too - note some of the big winners between Sampras and Federer eras). I think Thomas belongs in that category, doing his work in the interregnum between Froome and Pogi/Rog/Vingegaard. His time is now done, but he's put together a rather lovely palmares in those years. And he'll always have Paris.

Can't deny it, GBR having an absolute mare - looking increasingly like a major step backwards for GBR this cycle - would only say Rowing suffered this moment three years ago, and they've come roaring back. But there's gonna have to be a review of what's been happening.

Big result for GBR at the Mountain Bike World Cup in Novo Maesto, hugely impressive win for Pidcock who looks like a hard favourite for Paris, and a brilliant 4th for 2023 U23 World Champ Charlie Aldridge. Those results, I think, will pretty much guarantee GBR a second men's MTB slot, and Aldridge his seat on the Paris train. combined with a key withdrawal of a Dane, I think they've got the points.

In the 800m, it looked like Keely's team had finally figured out the code for Moraa - that she will sprint to the front, lead out a fast 300, then start mucking up her rivals momentum with stop/starts to create a 300m final race. Today, Kellet showed how to beat that - stay well away from Moraa, and don't challenge her - you keep your momentum and avoid the damage to the kick of all the stop/starting - then pile it on with 5-600 to go from a distance behind Moraa. Now the question is how will that play with Mu The 1500 was epic, and psychologically important between Josh and Jakob; it will disuade Jakob somewhat from the assumption that his own race plan suits him uniquely.

Wasn't aware until today that Stapley is in the odd position of being eligible for GBR right now - but NOT for these Olympics because he started the Paris process in Australian colours. however both Stapely and Milner look solid candidates for the future. Given Yee also has at least 1 if not two more cycles in him, the men's cupboard is not as bare as I feared a few months ago. Waugh and Fullager, I suspect, will step up post Paris on the distaff side. Personally, I'd take Dickinson, a competent super sprint relay lead and he proved his credentials as a pilot today

Si vous pensez que c'est mauvais, vous devriez voir mon allemand !

Pardonez moi, je suis desolé mais mon francais est tres pauvre!

I think Waugh has more in her locker than Coldwell, but she's not at peak form. Moreover, Coldwell is particularly good at supersprint relay; she might be a better 'sub' in that context than waugh right now. Hard to see past France, GBR fighting for silver in the relay.

Fascinating finale, in its own right and for Paris. Beaugrande finally wins an Olympic length race. Tertsch has a fantastic result, notwithstanding being one of the most awkward looking runners i've seen in a while - certainly has the power but no finesse, and looks like a clash/fall risk to anyone within 4 foot of her. Potter will be happy enough, had a lot less on the line than Beaugrande. Of the other Brits, Coldwell ran herself into near coma to keep out Waugh, Waugh may need to wait for LA now. GTB will be, I think, very happy with that comeback race - she's certainly close to where she needs to be than Duffy, though I never rule out the Bermudan, ever. Interesting that the winner of the last race, Pierrault, had an absolute mare. As the depth increases, perhaps its getting harder and harder to string races together.

I think KJT even suggested she was going. Dina, too.

The key thing is addressing why any race in GBR is vastly more expensive to organise and run than a bigger event on the continent. As I understand it, on the european mainland, police/security costs are covered by the localities as a way of getting the event to happen, while in GB they are always covered by organisers, and that is the major problem. Is that correct?

I'd argue the poor performances from the French and italians is worse for Llewellin than his own dodgy form - you'd take the current GBR position in a swap, as the two 'top Brits'have clearly come into some form just at the right moment, but the complete absence of France and Italy is almost more damaging to Llewllin. One suspects GBR now have a puncher's chance, but Llewllin perosnally looks screwed.

"Palestinian refugees are going to claim that they are refugees from their own state because they don't like that Hamas and the PLO are running it?" I'm fairly certain the Palestinian refugees are not going to blame Hamas or the PLO; just as I doubt Ukrainian refugees blame Zelensky. I'm really not sure why you are convinced recognition of statehood statehood provides such a gotcha, though I've noticed a few others annoyed at the actions of the three countries try and push the idea. It's almost as if you don't actually understand what a refugee is....

Not quite sure how that works. Are you suggesting you can't be a refugee from your own country, because there's a shitload of Ukrainians might want a word.

I think it confirms the relay because two of the strokes are now qualified individually.

There's always one in every sport, world class but just couldn't pull it together at that one moment. Paula Radcliffe springs to mind, arguably Eamonn Coughlan - both clearly utterly world class, both never got Olympic reward. Perhaps you could currently add Novak Djokovic to that group, although he has a bronze or two i think. Sanita, sadly, now joins that admittedly illustrious company.

One wonders if the IOC give enough thinking to the fact that when they pick and choose disciplines, they could be creating a death sentence for the ones they throw out. Racewalking, equestrian modern pentathlon, lightweight rowing, C2 canoe slalom, individual pursuit, double trap...

Universality. The Olympics is not a World elite championship or a major, it's essentially an exhibition event to allow golf to sell itself outside its strongholds, a commercial for casual sports viewers - which is true of very many sports at the Games. The Games are the one time many casual fans watch untraditional sports; the balance is getting enough quality to give the event Kudos, while reaching out beyond the normal footprint. IF you just want to watch the top players, there are no shortage of tournaments to do so.

It's the only justification the IOC need. Their party, their rules.

IOC like mixed team events. It is what it is. Foursomes/alternative shot are simply synonyms - the opposite being fourballs/better ball. Fourball better ball wouldn't work with a mixed sex pair.

Is the Para cycling now settled?

The only problem I see with that is that the Olympic cross country is historically a pretty weak test because of the need for universality; if it is the same difficulty as a standard elite event, it will put more limited riders in danger - indeed, it's apparently been a bug bear for years that Olympic 3Day is far too soft on XC (and jumping), and therefore gives far too muuh importance to dressage element, which means Germans have overachieved,

That's almost the point. Tennis has really got into the Olympic way of things - helped enormously that the Men's Big 3/4 of the Golden Era and te Williams sisters were heavily personally invested in it., but Golf relally hasn't had that moment - Tiger Woods was pretty much done before it even began, and Rory McIlroy was, like many others, pretty lukewarm. That attitude seems to be slowly changing, but the feeling remains gold at the Olympics needs a little gimmickry, something to make it different from just another tournament, but the powers that be are adamant the individual event should be a standard 72 hole strokeplay. The team event allows much more format fiddling, and importantly a) can being the men and women together, which matters to the IOC and b) can show off the other major format, a very popular one - Matchplay. My suggestion, with the goal to keep the event within 72 holes total, and simple enough for non golf people to get. 16 teams of 4 (2 men, 2 women) 4 groups of 4 Playing short round-robin 9 holes matchplay in the format : men's singles x 1 women's singles x 1 , mixed foursome/alternate shot x 1 2 points a hole, 1 each for a tied hole, first to 10 pts(in effect 5 holes) wins - just a more causal viewer friendly way of describing the existing system (so 2 and 1 = 2 up with 1 hole left = 2 up after 8 = 5 holes to 3 (or 4 and 2 halves to 2 and 2 halves, etc) If its 9-9 after 9, tie break is ruthless, one stroke 'nearest the pin' on 10th hole. to win single bonus point to win 10-9 Scores also act like goal difference to break ties, matches are best of three rubbers (obviously) So thats 9+9+9, 27 holes to get to knockouts first round where 3rds play 2nds, again 9 holes ->36 holes Day three the group winners meet the winners of 3rds v 2nds, again over 9 holes, then 4 QF winners play 9-hole semis That's 54 holes The medal matches are over 18 holes on the final day, but same rules except the winning mark is now 19 not 10. Otherwise, same format. Bronze medal match (consisting of 3 rubbers) goes ahead of gold medal match (consisting of three rubbers) That's 72 holes - no longer than a standard tournament - if you want to make it even shorter ditch the group games, simply add scores from individual to create a team score, and top 8 teams go straight to QF round (wee bit like archery), whereafter system is same, that's just 36 holes over two days - Day 1 QF, SF both over 9 holes, day two medal matches over 18...

I think there's a good argument that given both jumping and dressage have individual events, cross-country deserves the exposure from the team event. I can imagine pressure will come from IOC to increase the 'time trial' element of the XC.