You can all wave “goodbye” to your Post GT Depression Syndrome, because the Men’s Olympic Road Race is only three days yonder. I don’t typically give two shits about this particular event; while contested by national teams, unlike the Worlds it appears as just another one-day race on a calendar filled with events that carry much more historical and nostalgic significance. What’s worse, it seems the brilliance has faded from the flame of Olympic Spirit – after all, what is an international sports rivalry without the associated political Boggie Dance of Political Superiority? Merckx, I miss the Cold War.
But this time is different. Contested in London over a route that may or may not favor the squat little speed demon Mark Cavendish, the Cycling world has been abuzz about whether his presence on Team Sky alongside Pippi Longstockings implies his impending doom or his certain success – because everyone knows those are the only two possibilities. Be that as it may, the route boasts to be lumpy enough for breakaways or small field sprints, which makes this particular Velominatus, for once, really excited to see what happens. Oh, and as a special request to the riders, if we could keep everyone off the juice this time round, that would be peaches and creame.
With that, check the start list and pretend like that is going to help you make your predictions. Then look at the route and do the same before making a wild guess and hoping you come up good. One-Day VSP rules apply; get your picks in by the time the countdown timer goes to zero and pray for daylight.
Good luck.
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And Hondo...
America Fuck Yeah!
If one thing is gonna brighten my day its Olympic Gold on the VSP
Way to go T. Phinney.
David Millar- "We rode the race we said we were going to race and to be fair there was a slim chance of us pulling it off and we needed a lot of things for it to happen but when every other team was racing with the sole tactic to thrash our race up it was very hard to do it. We can't complain. Everyone knew what we were going to do, so it was their job to try and derail us, which they did."
Fair enough. The Spanish had a few guys in the break and they got nothing. Oh man, If Fabs hadn't crashed it would have been interesting to see how he would have handled the finish. Did he take out TJ Van Garderen?
well, Cav can thank German cuntwads for not helping. Had they pulled more than after the 'oh my goodness' passed with like 20k to go, then they may have made up the minute or do defecit, but I don't know how much more GB was expected to pull.
Kudos however go to the Belgians, ie Gilbert, who drilled it and IMHO Tim Duggan who was working hard as well. That train was a powerful train and many were in it.
Great race, I knew some would have sour grapes for Vino 'the ex doper' winning, but there is something to be said about pentance being paid for wrongs, and getting over them, riding clean again and being able to join back up again. Millar has, Basso has and many others, and there isn't any reason Vino shouldn't either.
See what happens when i go camping for three days. I miss everything. Vino won? Crazy. Is the Kazakstan national athem better than God Save the Queen?
@Gianni that is a far more even comment than Cavs - who just whined about the "negative racing" of Australia - when they had Stuey in the break?!
@Marcus
Yeah, even with Gossy I think every country had to make sure Cav was not brought to the finish. At least Oz had a few options besides Goss. Jacky Bobby or Gerrans could have won from a break, providing either of them were in it.
Lot's of pressure on Cav, talk about weight of a nation. Like Millar said, the odds were not on their side that they would be able to control a whole race with four guys and a sprinter. This race was no Tour stage, this was a proper one day race.
@Cyclops
Well, last time a Kazakhi won an international event, something went horribly horribly wrong.
Uran made the mistake of not remembering his account number and when he looked for it on the left barriers it was to late and vino was gone.
I have not even seen an amateur make a mistake like that in the last 500m of a race.
@Marcus Damn, for the second time I am forced to agree with you. Totally classless display from Cavcannotclimbdish, and awesome effort frm Stuey.
And what a race! Never thought I would find myself rooting for Veino, but there I was, at 3am, willing the old fella on (once it was clear that Jack Bauer was not going to bridge up and take an even less likely win). Who the hell wants race radios and teams of 9 when you get racing like that without them?!