Added my 2c, need to support the god of race update posts :D

Wilchemy seems to have him nailed, but he seems to be an ok guy though. He's even stumbled in the aussie thread and posted once or twice!

IMO you blokes are over-analysing sprints and reading far to much into the split second decisions those riders make during a sprint. There are people on this forum who decide what a riders WHOLE PERSONALITY IS LIKE based on what a particular rider does in making those split second decisions, or based on stupid comments they make 60 seconds after they jump off the bike all full of adreneline and aggro.

Fact is good sprinters get to be good because they are desperate and hungry and even 'nice guys' like Zabel have DSQ's to their names because they like to win.

I've posted some of the pics I took at the Mens TT over in the Comm Games thread in RR forum if anyone is interested.

Was it a good day out? On TV there looked to be plenty of people out and about, particularly for a weekday.

Yep, very enjoyable. I only saw the mens race as I only took a few hours off work and rode down to take advantage of the weather. Some GREAT scenery amongst the spectators!
Huge contrast between the real contenders and the other 'participant' nations. Good to see thm out there havng a crack, but I'm guessing there wasn't too many Pro-Tour talent scouts in the crowd. :rolleyes:

But did you follow it up with a stop at Krispy Kreme? Only in America can you find a drive-thru donut shop open on Sunday...

Did you see the 'Girls of Krispy Kreme' mock calendar that was going around? That was funny.

*eats on sale cinnamon doughnut from Safeway*

+1

yesterday was the best day of the week so far weather-wise. Was warm enough to wear shorts :) Got out to see a bit of the Men's TT before flying home. Best night was at the track, Keiren and Points race Golds !!!

Classic, agreed. If you read what all of what I wrote, I was saying sprinting is inherently dangerous, and the best sprinters don't think about the holes and line available to them, even if they are crossing wheels with someone behind. Since when did a sprinter look behind before they jumped for a hole. You look or think and it is almost race over.

I never judged personalities ofcourse, but one can judge weaknesses re Cooke and Mcewen's ability to keep it upright and get through small holes. That maybe why they get themselves into trouble also. You need to judge the individual sprints on their mertis and there were three good examples, Davis, Mcewen, and Boonen. Two dq's and one not even referred to race jury. Davis and Boonen should have been dq'ed, Mcewen I don't think so after seeing the footage.

Just like Mcewn should not have been dq'ed for the headbutt on O'Grady when he was trying to get freckle's arm of his handlebars. That should have been let go. I think O'Grady instigated it with his line and was strongarming Mcewen. But it looked bad visually and going over to the few hundred million viewers provided motive for a dq. Just like Breschel going off in an ambulance. The race jury is partial to influence and expediency, and so the decision is not a simple one, other factors besides the sprint are weighed into the decision.

Mcewen gets a hard rap. So does Cooke. Walter Godefroot thought it was Cooke's fault he went down last year after Bettini rode him into the barrier. I don't claim pure objectivity, but my analysis is fundamentally better than his ;)

I think that is a furphy on nice guys like Ete (Zabel) and, wait for it... the Gentleman sprinter "Petacchi"

See Zabel's last tour win in 2002 and immediately after the sprint he shoved a tv cameraman quite aggressively. Albeit one can understand sprinters needing space and nbeing caught up in the moment. Compare that to Dennis Rodman the NBA player who was fined and suspended for kicking out at a Tv camerman, or MCewe who was lambasted by the media for telling of a youngster who grabbed a bidon out of his tt bike bidon bracket which broke the carbon fibre bracket.

My point is, some people get a bad rap for things and others slide scot free. Mcewen also gave the bidon away to another youth who was in the area. No one mentioned that.

PEtacchi punched Issaac Galvez Lopez in one stage in the Giro in 2003, well before a sprint. This gets Belli dq'ed for the race for punching a Simoni tifosi, and also Casagrande for punching a Spanish Colombian mountain rate for stealing a mtn prime or hindering his climb. They get dq'ed, Petacchi escaped, *I don't even think he was fined, he may have been though.

Ask, Matthias Kesler what he thinks of Ete Zable. Zabel was not the popular figure inside T-Mob outside Rolf Aldag, infact there was little or no respect there. He would never work for others, this is different to his situation now. So, they are the ones who would know better, but Zable has an aromour that smells like roses, whereas Mcewen is like the regional sewerage treatment facility.

So climbo, should kersten have been relegated in the kieren final? Did kelly hurl his bike onto the infield in disgust afterwards. Was there and collar-grabbing or finger pointing?

Finally a truly useful invention

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/06...isplay_device/

[edit]OK so it was 5 years ago, but sometimes really useful ideas just don't take off like they should

Dont forget the drive thru KK at Penrith :D

Sydney is always clambering to be first to suck US corporate co--

:)

Gentlemen, your daily does of bike pron. Sorry it's not a road bike, buuuuut.....who cares! :)

http://www.thylacinecycles.com/album...ct01.sized.jpg

of course not :) Hard to tell, it happens so fast, never saw a replay of it. No fisticuffs in the infield.

Kelly could have kept going and got a medal though, he slowed right up and protested instead of riding it out.

+1

neatly encapsulates the fundamental difference between someone who actually understands bike racing and someone who's "knowledge" comes from watching racing on TV

Been up at the hospital chatting with Tanya. Looks excellent given what she's been through. Room totally occupied by flowers and stuffed toys, nurses complaining that there's no room for instruments.

Leg in some sort of bending machine for four hours a day. Up to 50deg bend today, needs 90 before she's allowed out of hospital. No pain (that the stioc little bugger would let on to!!) and healing well. Bit bored with hospital life, but enjoyed watching the TT yesterday. :)

Hospital #101: if you don't scream and cry you must'nt be too bad.
Apparently Tanya sat in emergency waiting for treatment for 7 hours because she wasn't showing signs of agony and despair. By the time they finally Xrayed her leg and said "OMFG!!" it was too late to organise a surgeon, so she lost a whole day's worth of healing time.

So if your knee, leg, pelvis, etc it mutilated in a collision with 2 tonnes of metal, be sure to grab the nearest nurse by the lapel and be sure that she understands that her pretty little head may come clean orf unless you get some attention real soon! (Don't really do that BTW, it's assault and you may end up worse off)

Sarah Jamieson. fair stomach?

Kiwi's are on crack again... :)

New Zealand cycling officials are examining a tape of last Friday's Commonwealth Games points race after suggestions that Hayden Roulston may have missed out on a gold medal due to a scoring error, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald.

BikeNZ endurance coach Terry Gyde received a video of Friday's race yesterday after television commentator Phil Liggett raised fears that Australian winner Sean Finning was wrongly awarded a 20-point bonus that should have gone to teammate Peter Dawson, meaning that Finning's total of 137 points would be 117 - two less than silver medallist Roulston.

"We're checking to see if there was a mistake but at this stage we're not too excited about it," said BikeNZ media officer Ted Jones, who is currently looking at possible courses of action if an error has been made.

It was Cooke's fault that he crashed.

As you'd expect, there was plenty of debate here about that when it happened, so I watched the tape of the crash about 20 times on slow-mo. Bettini obviously impeded Cooke's progress, slowed him right up, and veered him toward the barrier, but there was no contact when the crash occurred. What happened was Cooke went to whip his hand off the bar to do old "protest wave", and he lost control of his bike.

Shes a man, baby.

LOL

I haven't knocked anyone off in a sprint for 5 years. Mind you, I havent race in four years. ;)

Very sweet Wokka. :D

Love the emblem on the headtube - perfect. Does it leave an imprint (ala 'The Phantom' rings) when you run down errant pedestrians?