In reply to puppythedog:
Keep contributing - it the very least it will stop Coel and Toby hijacking the thread to argue about Muslamic tubulars.
Road cycling can seem a bit arcane at first, but all will become clear over the weekend. The women's race is Saturday and the men's sunday.
The team time trial last weekend was run on pro team lines, so is not a national undertaking - that can be confusing. The national competitions are the individual TT and the road races.
The road races are determined by the number of riders who have gained qualifying points in the previous season. In the past GB would have a couple of riders in there who had managed to snaffle enough points from their various pro racing - riders such as Roger Hammond and Charly Wegelius. They would never be in with a shout, and in Wegelius' case, ended up making a "commercial decision" and rode to help Italy, since that was where he lived and plied his trade.
Nowadays, as a resurgent cycling power we can field 9 (8 this year) riders of the quality you see lsited above and be favoured to win it.