UKC

It's looking like an exciting end to the mens road race. Can Froome cross the gap to the lead group I wonder?

In reply to Gone for good:

Don't think so... think G is our best hope, but that seems to be fading unless it comes back together after the descent. It's a great course

In reply to Gone for good:

big crash in the lead group!

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Disaster on the descent!

In reply to Gone for good:

Really exciting. Disappointing crowds.

In reply to coachio:

Rafals cooked his goose!......maybe

In reply to Gone for good:

Yikes this is tense!

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Thomas would have had it if he stayed up.

In reply to Gone for good:
Great race. Rafal settled for bronze. he looked dead on his bike

G showing his metal as usual

In reply to coachio:

Great race!

In reply to coachio:

Still lead brit which is something

In reply to Gone for good:

Brilliant race. I was gutted for Porte. Thought he might have had a chance.

In reply to coachio:

Mayhem on the descent, a tough course.

In reply to Gone for good:
Are the women doing the same course tomorrow?
(presumably less laps)

In reply to balmybaldwin:



http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/olympics/rio-2016-olympic-games-...

In reply to Gone for good:

One of the most exciting races I've seen for a while. Good to see GVA and Fuglsang have a go rather than settle for 2nd/3rd and that attack to pay off.

Looking forward to seeing some shocking reporting about a British failure too.

In reply to Gone for good:

Ok, so they only go up the moutain once... if it was a mens stage race profile I'd expect a breakaway to have good chance. Think the women will probably keep a big peleton together and then blow it apart on the climb.

I don't think Lizzie stands a chance with recent controversy messing up her build up. I'm guessing Vos is the one to beat

In reply to Gone for good:

Strong group off the front now for the women with no Brits in it

In reply to Gone for good:

It's very disappointing that while BC have filled all their mens road team places for Rio they've put a lot less effort in to the women's team and sent the token couple mountain bike and BMX riders although we're very strong in both disciplines.

In reply to Gone for good:

Ouch!

In reply to Gone for good:

We've got the maximum 5 in the road team?

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Bad looking crash!!

In reply to abr1966:


No sign of movement when the following motorbike went past. Hope she's OK.

In reply to elsewhere:

Wish I hadn't seen that

In reply to birdie num num:

That was terrible, no mention of her since so no news yet?

In reply to Wainers44:

How tiny is that lass at the front!!

In reply to Gone for good:
Worst crash I've seen in road cycling. Very nasty hope she's not too bad but I expect broken bones

Think I heard Boardman say nibbles did both his collarbones yesterday
Edit he has 2 breaks in one collarbone. Porte broke his scapula

In reply to balmybaldwin:

Nibbles did a collar bone and Porte his shoulder I think....
Boardman saying he was angry about the safety of the route, fast technical downhills with deep guttering straight off the side looks very risky to me..

In reply to Gone for good:

Apparently conscious and on the way to hospital.

It was a horrible accident to watch, no wonder Chris Boardman is upset.

In reply to Mal Grey:

Good news

In reply to balmybaldwin:
Photo in hospital but smiling & looking ok despite being bruised and battered.

http://www.wielerupdate.nl/wielernieuws/37280/

In reply to elsewhere:

I am really glad she is not badly injured. It looked a most horrendous crash and the fact that she lay motionless afterwards made me fear that things were much worse.

Hats off to all the competitors for tackling such an unsafe course, and serious questions need to be asked of those who chose the course.

In reply to Trangia:

It was the ditches and kerbs that looked so dangerous.

In reply to Phil1919:

Agreed

In reply to elsewhere:

Good news!

In reply to Gone for good:

Unfortunately I don't think that picture is from today. BBC are still using terms like conscious and stable in the update they just gave

In reply to balmybaldwin:
I think you are right, an old photo in hospital.

The International Cycling Union (UCI) £ cycling£s governing body £ said in a statement: £Ms. van Vleuten is conscious, able to communicate. Further medical checks currently being made at the hospital.£

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/dutch-cyclist-annemiek-van-vleuten-stable-afte...

Fingers crossed she's OK.

In reply to balmybaldwin:




why do they risk their season cycling just for the olympics. unless im in the wrong,the olympics to me would not be a priority

In reply to mark s:

It's part of cycling. You can get injured in any race.

In reply to Gone for good:

3 fractures in her back, in intensive care with concussion. Poor Van Vleuten.

In reply to balmybaldwin:

She did well to tweet with those injuries. Not much worse than coming off fast on concrete, especially when you've time to think about the impending impact.

In reply to mark s:


For the women, the only other race that gets anything like this coverage is the World Champs, which this year is on a flat course in Qatar, so will favour a very different sort of rider. This was an opportunity for by far the biggest win of her career, so worth the risk. Even with the men, Nibali wouldn't be doing the vuelta, wouldn't be a contender in Qatar and won't be upset about not riding for Astana again with all that dirty money from Bahrain coming his way.

To be fair to the organisers, both races were very exciting, gutted for Mara Abbot as well, to miss out on a medal completely after looking set for gold.

That course made for some exceptional racing in both the women's and men's but that descent was far too dangerous. If the descent was improved and made safer I'd love to see that as a regular race each year. The flat section at the end was the perfect length to setup some great racing. Mara Abbott getting caught at the end was brutal, but great racing. Same with Rafal Majka getting caught at the end but it was good to see him get a medal at least.

Really great course, but too dangerous on the final descent.

In reply to balmybaldwin:


While that's obviously true, the safety of that course was rubbish, and I would say the organisers have a duty of care to make any course reasonably safe.

That descent looked awful, nasty gutters and high kerbs, very steep, off camber, near continuous corners. Clearly you cant eliminate all risks, but they could have put some netting or barriers in on the outside of the worst corners, or just chosen a better route.

Whoever planned it should be ashamed.

In reply to Phil79:

The route was fine and they did have netting up in place where there was a big drop - held up by big wooden stakes and it looks like Porte hit one of those.

Netting or barriers wouldn't have helped AVV, though possibly some sort of padding of the gutters would have. Thing is she didn't crash because she hit something, she crashed because she braked too hard, went over the bars and then landed in or on the gutter. Hay bales in the gutter would have helped, but would also have reduced the road width.

The problems comes down to risk compensation - if you make the riders think it is safe to descend quickly, they will go even quicker. Suppose someone hit a hay bale and then went over and hit a tree ? The men did that descent 3 times, but most of the crashes were on the third lap, so they knew the difficulties and were pushing at the margins. Admittedly the women only did it once, but would still have been aware of the dangers from seeing the men's race.

In reply to Chris the Tall:


So it would be OK to have a descent lined with big rusty metal spikes, burning vats of oil and minefields, on the grounds that they would cause no harm whatsoever, as long as you don't crash into them?

Also, I don't think the +/- bales in the gutter is the crux - the issue is the choice of a road which would excessively punish even the slightest overshoot/wide line. The road was inherently dangerous, rather than poorly padded/barriered.

In reply to Chris Harris:

Pretty hard to find roads on which there is no danger of crashing on a descent. I remember there was a bad one on this years TDF - a 90 degree left hander onto a narrow low sided bridge, over a ravine - that looked terrible from the helicopter shots but passed without incident. I'm amazed that no-one overcooked it at the bottom of Deliverance on Stage 2 in Yorkshire in 2014 - always puts the fear of god into me does that corner.

They weren't going to finish with a climb, which means to keep the race relatively open and not simply a big bunch they would have to have a climb then a descent close to the finish. Which makes it inevitable that someone would push their luck on the descent

In reply to Gone for good:

I think the route was fine but just needed 5m of ski type crash padding on the line (corner/edge) of breeze blocks/concrete on that corner and any other where a mis-judgement would lead to ending up on them. This is no different to them padding the odd lampost in the TDF and I think the poor girl might have avoided 3 broken vertebrae.

Cheers

Toby

In reply to Chris the Tall:


Indeed, but on the Olympic course I think it's more about the total lack of margin for error and the consequences of crashing - no grass verges, nothing but a concrete gully.

You describe some bad corners - this road was bad all the way down.

In reply to Toby_W:

I'm not sure any padding/netting would have helped. She seemed to go over and come directly down on the kerb. Boardman was clearly upset and angered by it, I guess not least by the fact the organisers had hindsight. I really winced when she went over. Hope recovery goes well.
Chris

In reply to Toby_W:


Ski-type crash netting might have helped prevent Richie Porte from breaking his shoulder hitting the pole; i.e. netting designed with poles set back from the netting, so there's just continuous netting, rather than solid poles to hit...

More complicated to erect, and more expensive.

In reply to cwarby:

It took him about 10 mins before he could coherently commentate he was so angry.

I think I'm right in saying it's the same corner that claimed G. He seemed to low-side and slide into the ditch on his arse - far less likely to cause injury.

Whilst they did have the hind sight of the mens race the day, I don't think I've ever seen a rider high side like that, and I can only assume it was a desperate attempt to go heavily onto the front brake trying to avoid running wide into the ditch. if the concrete was covered in foam it may have been better - but then what would they have done if it had rained and the drainage was blocked?

I think the same accident on a similar bend but without the ditch and just a normal curb would have caused similar injuries - the difference is that the rider may well have reacted differently without such a nasty looking hazard (may have tried to make it rather than panic braking)

In reply to balmybaldwin:

I think initially he was just shaken and upset at having seen the accident. I think the anger came in later.