onewild is correct - gb are so feared in cycling at the moment that other countries are happy not to contribute to setting up a bunch sprint - even if they know they won't win a medal - strange olympic ideal.

canellara might be out of the TT on weds, wiggins even more of a chance. and there are no tactics in this one, possibly only tony martin to stand in his way

Dont follow Cycling but if the GB guys are so good and feared why do they need 'help' from other countries ??

Because to chase down a breakaway, it takes a huge amount of effort. The person at the front of the group sets the pace, while the others behind them get a rest (believe it is something like 30% by been in the slipsteam) if there are only 4 guys setting that pace, then it is next to impossible for them to keep up a high enough pace to bridge a gap. Now in pro teams, you have 9 cyclists, in the worlds they have 8, so it is possible for a team to do all the work themselves.
However at the Olympics it is only 5. Since our best shot was Cav, they had to ride for that. If the teams were abit bigger than maybe they could have sent Millar down the road or something to mark the breakaway.
Basically the other teams were so scared of allowing Cav to get a shot, they messed it up for themselves espeically the Germans.

I really don't understand what the Germans were thinking, André Greipel is a great sprinter and he has managed to beat Cavendish in the Tour this year. Who knows what would have happened after Cav had gone over Box Hill 9 times. Also the organisers shouldn't have used fair play in the course design, why wasn't it just flat? stupid unselfish ideals.

So why didnt our guys just pedal faster to start with and get everyone to chase us instead of us trying to chase them if there werent enough of us to do it ?

i thought it was just a case of the bloke who rides fastest wins the race.....obviously am way out here ...also why would we expect another team to help us out to win a medal, surely you're racing against the other teams and shouldnt expect help from them ?

the teams that should have helped also had sprinters in their midst who would have challenged for the medals, mainly germany and australia. by not doing so they ruled their men out of medal contention as well as GBs

Mate, i used to think exactly the same until i started working with some serious bike enthusiasts, basically the guy at the front works 34% harder than anyone else, so to be at the front means doing the most work, the guys work in teams to keep the energy reserves up, basically taking it in turns to lead, usually the lead cyclists gives a little throw of the elbow and that's the signal to say "im knackered can someone else have a go". Being in the pelaton puts you in a stronger position as a 1 minute lead is nothing if you have a few km's left.

The trouble is if you let too many riders brake away, and they work together, you have no chance of catching them.
If the Germans had helped the British they would have caught the lead pack easily, the Germans also knew though that if they did that they'd still lose to Cavendish, so they selfishly came to the thought, sod it. What makes it worse is that 'i think' the Germans and Brits had worked out before the race joint tactics to beat the Spanish riders.

Surely they should have changed tactics then fairly quickly when it became apparent that nobody would help them? Which was fairly early on because they were always at the front of the peleton. It was pretty tactically naive if they didn't consider the fact that due to how good they are that others would be reluctant to have to run in with Cavendish.

If you need a team to win it, how was the Khazak guy able to do it?

As not a big cycling fan it was strange to hear the commentary professing how brilliant GB were doing when then never seemed to be able to significantly reduce the gap.

The Khazak guy was part of a "team" just not a national one. The breakaway riders worked together as a "team" far better than the peleton.

It wasnt that obvious early on that the tactics weren't working. At one stage the lead was over 6 mins. That was reduced inititally to 3 mins. They then reduced it from 3mins to 1min fairly quickly. Clearly the commentators didnt appreciate just how much that had taken out of GB or just how little help they were going to get.

Boardman made a very pertinent point from old school cycling tactics. If there's more riders in the lead group than chasers in the peleton, then the catch is very unlikely.

Froome was a bit disappointing, Stannard put in a great shift.

But if this Cav is so good and was a 'cert' for a medal then why didnt he just pedal faster and get to the leaders rather than just staying behind with his team mates?

sorry im not trying to be a pest here i just dont understand how it works, i just presumed it was every man for himself.

Can someone tell me why the score is not displayed during the boxing rounds rather than at the end of each round?
It used to be.

We won anything yet?

Yes, by a female rider who learned from the mistakes of her male counterparts.

Because he is fast in the same way that Bolt is fast but imagine how good Bolt would be if he was asked to run a matheron before the last 100 metres.

In all fairness GB did very well, however the closing tactics didn't work as left too late to make any impact and as others have said with the other 'teams'

They did well as a unit to stay at the front of the peleton for most of the race

i dont really think froome was disappointing. his job was to help cav up the boxhill climbs, a similar yet smaller scale task than he performed for wiggins on the tour. once that was done it was down to wiggins stannard and millar to pace him home. dont really think you can blame any of the british riders, thats the way cycling goes sometimes

yes i noticed that, maybe its to build a bit of suspense for the viewers. good result for josh taylor tonight in the lightweight. got a tough opponent next though

bronze for adlington in the pool in her weaker event

No the commentators (Includinga certain mr Boardman who has a hell of a lot more of a clue than you do) we're rightly expecting recent history to repeat itself.
Team SKY/GB have pulled this trick numerous times to great effect. The problem wasn't team GB it was other teams including Germany by letting GB do all the work.
It's hardly rocket science that 10-20 guys taking it in turns to do the work isn't going to get caught by 4-5 guys taking it in turns to do the work.
Boardman was pretty slating on the Germans tactics in the studio afterwards hinting that they had cut their nose of to spite their face just so that GB couldn't get the gold.

Good to see Armistead get the silver but could she have won if she'd gone for it earlier rather than waiting for the dutch woman to sprint?

I'm on holiday in Devon right now and there are two Devobers in action today. Exeter's Liam Tancock in the 100m backstroke and Plymouth's super diver Tom Daley.

GO GB

I think she rode it exactly right, but up against one of the all-time greats which Vos undoubtedly is, she just didn't have the punch to get to the line first. Vos is faster than Armitstead in those situations - that's just how it goes sometimes.

I watched a lot of the Olympics over the weekend. Highlights were Armitstead's brave ride for silver and the victorious female beach volleyball duo v Canada, one of whom was rather lovely.

But one thing that struck me was the questionable gender of a lot of the Asian athletes. The weighlifters in the female class were particularly suspicous, as were a few of the divers. Are all athletes gender tested as standard or is it just when someone is complained about?

Put those same 3 riders in that position 100 times and the same 1-2-3 will happen time in, time out. Armisteads only chance of Gold would have been to attack and take chances on slippy corners in the hope that Vos would have hit the deck before her.

A very risky strategy which could have left her out of the medals. In the end all 3 of them had a common goal and were all happy with what they got out of the race.

Saw Lineker interview her last night and I was appalled at some of Gary Linekers gaffs. Best one being when he asked Lizzie if she would help Emma Pooley in the TT.......before realising that it is a solo effort.