The Olympic track racing fires off tomorrow and it’s time to remember an event discarded to the bin of noble sports.
The Olympic roster of events is constantly evolving and devolving which is why we are now watching synchronized diving as an Olympic sport. What a world, what a world. Maybe it’s a sign of me getting too old but it makes me sick. Who does this sport? Who says let’s go down to the public pool and work on our synchronized diving? No one, that’s who. Did the IOC get bribed by Big Diving? Diving is barely watchable, adding another diver who does the exact same thing adds little. Yes, I’m biased, yes, I don’t understand it. Send your hate mail to Condoleezza Rice, c/o Stanford University, I don’t want it.
Years ago Olympic road cycling cancelled the 100km four-man team time trial and I’m still bitter about that! The four-man TT was a killer event. The time was on the third rider to cross the finish line. A four person team could barely afford to lose one rider. One flat, a bonk, do we wait, do we go? This had to be decided on the road by the team while riding on the razor’s edge of anaerobic doom.
Olympic track lost the tandem match sprint. Track is also losing the individual pursuit events this year for reasons I can’t imagine. Thank you, UCI. The tandem sprint was no flash in the pan event, introduced into the Olympics in 1908. It was finally terminated after the 1972 games. God damn it, what’s not to love? We keep thinking Cav is the fastest cyclist but track sprinters are faster. Imagine two super fast riders on one bike racing another matched pair. One pair of legs does the driving, one pair just to stoke. The stoker could also be the second pair of eyes for the driver but really his mission was to plant his face against the small of the driver’s back and spin that bike up to over 85 kph! The tactics were the same as the regular match sprint. There were track stands, jumps and bumps: it was just faster and more awesome.
I don’t know the reasoning behind the decision in 1972 but I’m here to say things were a little weird back then, many bad decisions went down in the early ’70s. The Bee Gees made it to number sixteen in the American music charts and they were not terminated with extreme prejudice right then, before it was too late.
Here is some footage of a past World Championship just to demonstrate the awesome.
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@minion
Can you at least change it to this?
@ChrisO
You mean the Aussie Men's Pursuit Team?
@Chris
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZING!
Speaking of Olympic athletes that kick ass:
@Mikael Liddy
Thanks for the photo and story. When I first saw the photo I thought it was a stunt picture of two giants on a giant tandem. I guess it's just a small guy holding the bike for regular sized dutch monkeys. Great story and your interaction with a nice woman on a tour bus and the bike brought it together. Beauty.
@Xyverz
Went to Surrey yesterday to watch the ladies and men's time trials. An excellent day, in part due to the fact that it was free and I didn't have to remortgage the house and/or perform sexual services for Seb Coe for tickets but mainly due to the incredible atmosphere all around the course.
Here's a shot of Wiggo causing a vacuum sucking in most of the surrounding oxygen whilst an impartial official looks on.
And here's one of Taylor "Captain America" Phinney... who clearly forgot his tissues.
@Mark1
Nice photos. It looked like a nice sunny day in Surrey. I think Phinney was at his limit to do well in a TT that was longer than 4000 meters.
Hmmm, I thought it was David Zabriski for a micro-second. I wonder when someone is going to address that 600 kg gorilla issue...why the US national TT champ didn't qualify for the Olympics? Some ugly backroom dealings there.
@Gianni
@minion Thanks for the lesson, Captain Obvious.
I was agreeing with you while pointing out that he wasn't just part of the endurance programme but a proven world-class winner in the field.
@Gianni He qualified but stood himself down from selection for "personal reasons"...