All or nothing for Cav and the Brits - and thus they choose nothing

Well it was certainly an interesting race. No radios, small teams, narrow roads and tactics as plain as the nose on Postman Pat's face (my kids like to think Wiggo looks like Postman Pat. Not sure who's the black and white cat, though). Unsurprisingly it all went exactly as expected - everyone attacked the Brits, yet the Brits stuck resolutely, doggedly, determinedly to Plan A. Get Cavendish to the line, first.

So what went wrong? Well David Millar reckons it was Cav's fault, basically, although he didn't say that exactly:  

Millar Left With No Complaints Despite Cavendish Missing Olympic Gold | Cyclingnews.com

With 50 kilometres to race and just one ascent of Box Hill remaining, the British seemed in control. A break had gone clear but after over five hours of racing, the gap was less than one minute as legs began to tire. However new impetus was added when a second contingent of riders attacked on the climb to create a 33-man group.

"We were always working at Mark's pace, so we couldn't react to those things and that was never our plan," said Cavendish's teammate David Millar.

The British team had been clear over its race strategy, telegraphing its tactics in a press conference last week. It was all for Cavendish, with David Brailsford saying, the sprinter was "plan A and all the rest of the letters of the alphabet," too.

My emphasis there, but I would deduce from that quote that Cav's pace wasn't ideal, then?

So what did Cav think went wrong?

Cavendish Misses Olympic Glory In Men's Road Race | Cyclingnews.com

"We did everything we could. The crowd was tremendous the whole way around, but the Aussies just raced negatively. The team were incredible. They left everything out on the road. I am so proud of them. We didn't expect any help. We rode the race we wanted to ride. We couldn't pull the group back on Box Hill. Other teams were content that if they didn't win, we wouldn't win. We expected it. If you want to win, you've to take it to them."

My emphasis, again. It wasn't Cav's fault, nor his one-idea Team of champions. It was the Aussies. Having O'Grady orchestrating the first break and coming, umm, 6th, plus Rogers trying his own attack was clearly not a positive in Mark's eyes, who came, umm, 29th.

And the truth? Well there is more than a little truth in the other teams wanting to negate the Manxman's sprint and thus being prepared to leave their own sprinters stranded, waiting for the Brits to close the gap. But they all wanted a medal, too. Trouble was, no-one wanted to tow Cav (and Greipel) up to the front so they can fight it out for 1st and 2nd, either. It was a stalemate.

And good on Vino for attacking and closing his checkered yet always interesting career with Olympic gold.      

A different sort of on-bike video (Felt F75 in motion)

This is what happens when I manage to shoot some simple video on the bike and then edit it to death in AVS Video Editor. It's a Felt F75, it's me, I'm fat and slow and way past my prime but there you go. All visuals and audio by me, sound produced and mixed in Mixcraft.

Aussie track titles - Thuaux report

Phil Thuaux is doing well after getting in those miles at the Tour of Siam...

Men 4000m Individual Pursuit - Final

Gold & Silver Medals
1 Phillip Thuaux 4.24.955
2 Zakkari Dempster 4.30.070

Bronze Medal
3 Cameron Meyer 4.29.691
4 Michael Ford 4.30.686

Phil set a PB of 4.23.555 (54.64 km/h) in qualifying.

Another cycling website

I guess you can't have enough, can you?? Cyclesportnews.com. Hmmm, bit similar to another site's name, but anyway, worth a look. The product reviews are a bit scant on critique.

Tour of Siam - Aussies 1st and 3rd

Tour of Siam - win overall for Jai Crawford, team win by the Giant ART team. Will Ford was 3rd; Phil Thuaux finished 24th overall, by the way. CN report here.

Tour Down Under result

Just finished watching the TDU on TV. It was McEwen, Renshaw (against the barriers, protesting - but why go there??) and Davis in the final stage. Martin Elmiger from AG2R takes the overall win in the 9th Tour Down Under by just three seconds, his sprinting making the diff.

Neil Stephens on an Aussie Pro team

Cyclingnews has another good interview with Neil Stephens, Aussie bike legend. I don't know Neil personally although I've ridden with him a couple of times - in a large bunch! I do know a man who claims to have helped the Stephens brothers off to their start in bike racing back in Canberra (and yes I believe him); and I also know about the Rookwood cemetery training loop, so there's scope for scandal there surely?

Maybe not. Point is that someone got Neil on a bike, riding, then racing, then winning. You and I know that winning - or at least having a sniff - is enough motivation to train and train some more. Neil's never shirked training. For me it was gentle persistence by the then Randwick Botany club president (thanks Col) that finally got me racing. Sometimes it takes some nudging. Neil surely had a host of other, different factors that got him going and kept him going. And now he's 'putting back' into the sport. I'm not a great fan of nationalism, indeed it's high on my list of the cheap tricks and bread and circuses used by politicians and power brokers to distract us from thinking straight, but I can see the excitement that will surround any 'national' team entering the pro peleton, be it Kazahk or Aussie. Anything that gets what amounts to an alternative sport (an alternative to footy and cricket!)'out there' in public view is good. If not great.

Catchup on some news

Where do I start? CN has reported that Tyler Hamilton has signed (maybe at Tinkoff?) and expects to race in 2007. CN also reports that Riis has laid down the law on doing at CSC. And it's been widely reported that Aussie rider and stair-climber Paul Crake has broken some vertebrae in NZ. And the FRF boys are racing in Hainan with Josh Marden taking a stage. Did I mention Basso went to Discovery?