Road Bike Racing - Women's Olympic Road Race... WTF??

Australia's Carrigan takes road gold


1. Sara Carrigan (Australia) 3:24:24 (34.873kph)
2. Judith Arndt (Germany), at 0:07
3. Olga Slyusareva (Russia), at 0:39
4. Oenone Wood (Australia)
5. Nicole Cooke (Great Britain)
6. Mirjam Melchers (Netherlands), at 0:42
7. Joane Somarriba Arrola (Spain)
8. Kristin Armstrong (USA)


IS that Lance Armstrong's Ex-Wife Kristin Armstrong??? And she raced in the Olympics???

No, no relation.

What happened to Arndt? With the track background I thought she was well placed for the sprint but didn't respond at all when Carrigan jumped.

Mechanical?

Gassed?

:beer:

Damn you! You spoiled it for me! Now I can't go home and enjoy it. Thanks for nothing!





















































































;) :D Just kidding! Anyways, I am just glad to see someone from the USA in a top 10 finishing, though I didn't expect Armstrong to be the one to do it. Not like she doesn't have the talent, but I really thought of the Americans, it would have been Dede Demet. It's all good in my book either way, though.

Koffee

Damn you! You spoiled it for me! Now I can't go home and enjoy it. Thanks for nothing!


Boy, I thought you were serious.

I was actually rooting for Nicole Cooke. I don't follow women's racing much and she's the only racer I'm familiar with.

You know, I really did think that Nicole Cooke would take it all. I haven't seen it yet, because I really DID tape it this morning and planned on watching it this afternoon when I get off work. I'll have to see where it all went bad. When I left, the peloton was pretty much riding together as a big group, a couple of small mechanical problems here and there, but nothing big, and they still had 8 1/2 laps to go. We'll see what happened.

Koffee

Judith Arndt did a ton of pulling in the break. And just did not have the energy left, understandable in the high temps and the entire race accordianed for the entire time. Well from when I started watching an hour in.

phil and whats-his-name kept talking about Arndt and Carrigan "working together" and not once did they mention that Carrigan didn't pull at all in the final lap. to my eye Arndt just wasted herself dragging Carrigan to the line - they didn't take a turn with Carrigan in the front once in the last 10k that I could see. i thought that was weak and i couldn't see why Arndt didn't assert herself - there was enough space between them and the field that they could have fought for position. instead it was like Arndt was like "oh well, i'm in front - guess I'll only get the silver".

the picture tells the story:
http://bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=61890

go you aussies :D . great result, esp after a dissapointing outing from the aussie guys.

i thought that was weak and i couldn't see why Arndt didn't assert herself

I am assuming you meant that you thought Arndt was the "weak" one? Carrigan rode a really smart race*. If Arndt goes out after her then Arndt has got to expect no breaks. She also has to know that if she slows down to force Carrigan up front then the peloton will grab them and she is possibly out of the medals altogether. So I don't think Arndt was being "weak", she bravely pitted her legs against Carrigan's and the only place you find out how that goes is 200m from the line.

* I'm not just being patriotic here, I've seen Lance Armstrong do the same thing and thought the same thing.

Aussie bike chickies rule :)

One thing that struck me, is that they all rode bikes with 700c wheels. Stupid UCI. Most of the bikes the girls were riding were struggling to fit the damn 700c wheels in! They looked HUGE!

*cough* and being 6ft 3ins the wheels on my bike look, well, silly too.

if the ladies want to use smaller wheels, i.e., 650, then they can. the UCI rule is that both wheels must be the same size.

ric

No, no relation.

What happened to Arndt? With the track background I thought she was well placed for the sprint but didn't respond at all when Carrigan jumped.

Mechanical?

Gassed?

:beer:

just because you have a track background doesn't mean to say that you can sprint. Prolific track record holder and (ex) world champion Chris Boardman is one such example

ric

Leontien van Moorsel fell a couple km´s before the finish, she had took the gold if she didn´t fell...

She won 3 gold and 1 silver medal in Sydney

Aussie bike chickies rule :)

One thing that struck me, is that they all rode bikes with 700c wheels. Stupid UCI. Most of the bikes the girls were riding were struggling to fit the damn 700c wheels in! They looked HUGE!

*cough* and being 6ft 3ins the wheels on my bike look, well, silly too.

Do you really think wheel size is that important? I mean, I'm 5' 1 1/2", and I definitely like my 700c wheels. I don't struggle at all with my stumpy little legs! ;) :D

Koffee

i wasn't implying that either rider was weak - i just thought it was obtuse that Arndt would let herself get played like that and pull Carrigan all the way to the line.

granted i'm very new to watching races, but in the tdf there were plenty of ppl who would hold up and bicker while the group caught up with them.

maybe arndt new that a guaranteed silver was just way better than she could manage if it came down to a dozen sprinters at the line.

still though - i thought it was 'weak' in the hiphop sense of the word. paul sherwin talking about them "working together" when it's 100% Arndt working for Carrigan.

i understand the basic tactic, but Arndt seemed to accept the short end of the stick a bit too readily imo.

TiVo messed up! I didn't get it recorded, so thanks to all of you for filling in the race for those of us that missed it. Keep talking about it - a play by play would be nice! Anything about it is good!

What happened to Arndt? With the track background I thought she was well placed for the sprint but didn't respond at all when Carrigan jumped.

Arndt seemed to be doing most of the work. Carrigan had a teammate who is a good sprinter in the small following group (Oenone Wood) so she was less concerned about staying away.

Arndt was also very unhappy about the fact that Petra Rossner was not named to the team - kind of makes me wonder if she purposely played the sacrifical lamb as a way of telling the German Federation "I told you so" ... uh, in a manner of speaking : :rolleyes:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2004/olympics04/index.php?id=women_rr/OLY70

Leontien van Moorsel fell a couple km´s before the finish, she had took the gold if she didn´t fell...


...and if my auntie had balls....she'd be my uncle!........sorry, thats racing....I can just as easily say that Onene Wood would have won easily, but couldn't chase because her team mate was in the lead break...

Hitchy

Van Moorsel fell off a lap or two from the finish. Looked to me like she was making an abrupt switch on some slippy paint, no other rider directly involved............

Great ride by Carrigan and Wood. Cooke and Melchers overcooked a corner on the last lap and had to chase back to the break- perhaps the decisive incident in deciding the success of the break?- although there was no coherent work amongst them once the gap had formed.

Not sure the race was long enough, or the hill hard enough for the likes of Somarriba, Cooke and the Italians.

Loved Carrigan's solo bridge up to the initial selection, on the penultimate lap, with the race winning move soon after. Classic tactics and execution; she deserved her success.