Olympic MTB

Specialized-Ed

Specialized-Ed

New Member
Watched the woman on Saturday. Gotta tell ya was a little disapointed in the course. Though it had elevation changes, not so much in the way of rocks, roots, skinnies, or other techy stuff. I guess I just expected more from Olympic caliber athletes. Anyone else watch?
 
I watched the men's and women's races. There were some cool rock obstacles, but overall it wasn't much of a mountain bike course. They tried to make it more spectator friendly, which made it look very CX like at times. It was fun to watch though. The men's race was pretty exciting with several lead changes at the end.
 
Specialized-Ed said:
Watched the woman on Saturday. Gotta tell ya was a little disapointed in the course. Though it had elevation changes, not so much in the way of rocks, roots, skinnies, or other techy stuff. I guess I just expected more from Olympic caliber athletes. Anyone else watch?
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I watched the last half of the women's and all of the men's. I wasn't surprised by the course because it was a typical World Cup-type course. You'll never see skinnies on a World Cup course and the techy areas are usually manufactured and clustered in one area (like the Ollympic course's "leap of faith" section.) They even tamed Windham for the World Cup - you could make a much tougher XC course there than what they rode. Very little singletrack, and I think there's a real reason for that - in Europe, the World Cup is a spectator sport. You can't have long stretches of singletrack when you want spectators to come. They have to be able to access multiple areas of the course easily, so Wrold Cup courses tend to be compact, twisty, and built for viewer enjoyment more than pure challenge to the riders. I agree with that to an extent -- I think when you compar ethe average XC course int he U.S. to a World Cup course, even our beginners would have no problem handling the tech, but when was the last time you saw crowds of people watching a race here? Very rare. The course in London was completely man-made, and they had spectators in mind for much of it.

As for the race, I thought the women's race was pretty good although not that exciting in the end (that French woman just dominated the last half.) The men's race was one of the most exciting races I've ever seen on that level - it had a little of everything. Kulhavy was brilliant in his tactics, which was great to see since he struggled all year, and Fontana's hanging on for bronze without a seatpost was impressive as hell. Not to mention that both Americans finished higher than any American ever has before. I've been following the World Cup all year -- watched every race on extreme.com -- and this was by far the best I've seen. Only one complaint: Jamie Bestwick is terrible as an announcer. Everythign he was saying about the strengths of the individual riders was backward. Everything. And it's odd because he does a lot of the work for the online races. He kept saying that Schurter would beat Kulhavy on the climbs and Kulhavy woudl pass hi on the descents. Schurter is actually known as the best technical descender on the WC circuit, and Kulhavy usually starts slower because he's big and then uses his power on climbs to ride away from others. Bestwick should have done hsi homework or at least paid attention in all the other races he's watched.
 
I watched the women's on NBC and like everything else thought the coverage was horrendous. However my wife got the olympics app for her iPad and I watched the complete unedited men's race on that and it was awesome. Many lead changes and camera angles were great. Plus you didn't have to see any commercials about some garbage when something good was about to happen.

Btw you can go on that and watch any sport coverage uninterrupted even after the event is over. I may go back now and watch some stuff that NBC botched.
 
The course to me was uninspiring. Looked very generic. Dirt bike paths with some rocks strategically placed. I actually liked the switchback climb section. Very little in woods riding. The last lap was great, loved the Italian held onto third with no seat post. The race was pretty good, the course.....not so much.
 
I thought that both the Road Cycling and MTB courses were dismal. I know there are a lot of considerations with the Olympics and the crowds, but it is a shame that the IOC feel like it is necessary to restrict the racing courses to THAT extent to provide the best experience for the fans. In the end, it is a detriment to the athletes who no doubt train in brutal terrain yet have to compete on courses like this.

For the road races it wasn't quite so bad; I would have much rather seen them start way out in Wales or the midlands and work their way to a heart-of-London finish instead of 9 laps of the same mole hill...a point-to-point course would give ever changing terrain for the riders to adapt their strategies to, whereas the Box Hill loop let everyone easily feel each other out and plan for the next 5, 6, 7 laps around it.

The MTB race, though. Yeesh. I look at it this way; who is the 'better' bike rider... the guy tearing up the stopwatch at 6 Mile, or the guy keeping cadence up Anrothar's Alley or climbing Devil's Staircase at Mahlon? Given that road cycling is based on speed and energy conservation, I am inclined to say that the MTB discipline should reward the guy who can navigate absurd climbs and sketchy descents the best. Not saying that I don't applaud and envy you 6MR TT folks, but when the biggest stage in the world gives you a wide dirt path, it puts the Anrothar's climbers at a severe disadvantage.

I always wished that DH would someday be considered for an Olympic event, but in the fear that it would be a high speed run down a fire road, it may be better off in the hands of the UCI alone...
 
The only good thing I can say about the course is there is no poison Ivy, If you come off on this trail its just going to hurt your pride
 
I'm not sure why anyone is surprised, or what they expected... XC race courses are rarely "that" technical.

I thought the course was the perfect mix of tech, flow, and wide open doubletrack. Plus they kept it really fan friendly. I cant imagine how cool it is to ride a course where the spectators are lining up and cheering 90% of the track. The adrenaline from that must be awesome.

Did anybody see any 26inch bikes out there? It seems like last year that 29ers were unheard of in the world cup level events.

And how about that poor Italian's seatpost? Was that a cannondale Save post?
 
Doubt there were many 26er due to how fast the course was. The wolrd cup course are suited more towards 26" and much more technical.
 
stb222 said:
Doubt there were many 26er due to how fast the course was. The wolrd cup course are suited more towards 26" and much more technical.
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I don't think they are at all. I watched all the World Cup races this year and very, very few of them have anything as technical as even our local courses in the Mid-Atlantic. The only one with any real tech was Mount St. Anne. They neutered Windham completely for the race, Houffalize had only one section of tech (very steep climbs, but only one rock garden), Pietermaritzburg was like a road course, and Novo Mesto had a few roots but, again, nothing I'd say would challenge anyone good enough to compete at that level. Granted, the Olympic course was probably the easiest of all of them, but I wouldn't call anythign they've ridden all year that technical (again, except for Mt. St. Anne -- that course is a legitimate MTB course.)

I hope that they bring back Dalby Forest next year. That was a pretty cool course last year.
 
i just watched about 20 minutes of the race. is it super-techy? nope. but damn, is that cool. that'd be a really fun course to ride. i'm just happy they actually have MTB in the olympics.

you want to talk about riveting...i loves me some speed walking. 😀
 
bonefishjake said:
i just watched about 20 minutes of the race. is it super-techy? nope. but damn, is that cool. that'd be a really fun course to ride. i'm just happy they actually have MTB in the olympics.

you want to talk about riveting...i loves me some speed walking. 😀
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Speed walking always makes me cringe. I always convinced we're about a step away from someone's hip snapping off with an audible cracking sound.
 
I watched some of the women's race and thought the course looked rather tame. Tried watching the men this morning on the DVR, but ended up stopping it and going to On-Demand just to watch the 4 minute overview and the finish.

Did anyone catch the rider on the first lap that OTB'd after the turn towards the start/finish line? I hit rewind to watch it several times, but couldn't figure out WTF he did.
 
I liked the course... of course it was totally fake in places. My boys were cracking up comparing that to Kresson Woods or Ceres Park. But I looked at this way, I dont want to see Tiger Woods play golf on the courses I go to, I want to see him at Augusta National or a TPC course.
This was somewhat like a TPC, very groomed, over designed and slightly challenging. Built for spectators. I did not hate it or love it. I wish it had retained a more British look and feel. I bet a little rain would have add some flavor to the course.
For some reason that yellow sand did annoy me.
 
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