That was one of the best road races I have ever watched! "No" team mates, no race radios, just pure racing. Are you not entertained?! I love that the olympics don't just have the World Tour teams show up. Its a unique challenge for the riders to face and makes for dynamic racing that fans are constantly whining for when the normal season is going on.
I don’t mind if it falls apart. The ‘84 Olympics was incredible to watch, and it launched some careers in spite of some questionable tactics. It’s ok that one race a year is raced in such a bizarre way.
I’ll also add that the ‘84 Olympics is why I started racing (and why I bought a Pinarello 😂). If that day had been raced like a ‘real’ race, it would have lost a serious amount of its charm. I seriously hope ‘knuckleheadism’ makes tomorrow as great as ‘84.
I so agree and I remember like yesterday watching that tense duel between Steve Bauer and Alexi Grewal and then for Alexi to outsprint Steve, wow, incredible!
@@robbchastain3036 Exactly! I was only 16 at the time, and I didn’t know much about bike racing, and I was completely blown away by that! And EVERYONE picked Bauer to win it. I signed up for my first race right after that. Hollywood couldn’t have made it any better, which is exactly why I don’t care if Evenepoel or WvA or MvdP win yet another race. I’d much rather see someone put it all on the line like that and get rewarded like Grewal did.
Chris totally agree. Cycling is a TEAM SPORT and the Olympics need to represent the same concept as all the pro races. 4 man teams per country, and the TEAM wins the medal. Yes I know the team does not win the Tour de Anything, but the Olympics can. It's time to recognize all the work the other riders put in killing themselves to drag one guy to the line.
I agree, if cycling is a team sport, the olympics would be the best place to actually show this by giving the whole team a gold medal no matter which of their guys crosses the line first.
Imagine Wout Van Aert and Remco actually wanting to work together towards a common gold medal instead of one of them getting all the glory and the other being a footnote.
Some solid takes right here, no radios and team medals would result in something between magnificent knuckleheadery or hella boring but efficient riding, if the big guns can hold it together.
That’s what the TTT was for. They used to have a 100 km TTT in the Olympics. The top guys are all pros. I don’t think their tactics will be dictated by their national team DS’s. What they should do is make the Olympic cycling events only available for amateurs exclusively.
how will an entertaining race be a failure unless you have the mindset that only the favorite riders winning is exciting? Why always have a predictable race?
@@hansfabiankoeger8657who said anything about pure luck? If a break goes down the road and the "strongest riders" sit on their thumbs looking at each other, that is bad tactics, not luck. You make your own luck in the olympics.
@@hansfabiankoeger8657 What other sport has four-man teams competing against solo riders? It certainly isn't about fairness. Odds are already stacked against smaller teams, at least they can get lucky.
@@the_rzhIt's the only reasonable way to do it. Like it or not, some countries have more top class cyclists than others, and it's unfair to the athletes themselves to restrict every country to only selecting one rider. I think this format worked brilliantly, team tactics were certainly present but did not decide the result in of themselves. The winner (no spoilers) had to make a massive individual effort to separate himself from the rest of the field.
@@FreekaPista Not the only way to do it. As a team sport, team medals should be awarded. That would really help team dynamics. Set the team size at whatever the IOC thinks will get acceptable participation. Can have a separate individual event with no more than two competitors per country.
In my opinion, this is a different race, where the top riders have to cope with the absence of their normal team. So, they have to be near the head of the peloton at all times, in order not to miss the escaping group that will make it to the finish. It's almost an individual race for all the riders, except a handful of guys who are clearly in charge of running the supplies for their leaders. Point is: how many second-rate riders will make it to the end of such a grueling race? That's where the top guys come in again, we will see who survives on their won. It has always been like this; in 2004 Paolo Bettini won in Athens staying away in an escape of only two, in an incredible heat of near 40 Celsius, mostly because all the other guys were watching each other, and nobody was willing to sacrifice to get him back. It might just turn out like that again, but hey, it's just one race every 4 years...
It worked out fine. The riders also never complained, not before and not after. The Belgian team had a tactic but it looked more like what they'd say for the last 60K of a classic when their team is already cut in half. Either way, no favorite and no strong guy like Stuyven would attack from K0.
Agreed. Gymnastics events all have four person teams. But the teams have to qualify for the final round. Should all countries get x number of riders, and then they only qualify to race in the olympics based on some scoring criteria?
All the races should be like that. When we don't know who is going to win, it makes the race more exciting. Cycling should always be like that and not be controlled by big team and people in the car. This is going to be the best race of the year. No radio and no team to control.
What this might do is give lesser known riders a chance to shine, which is not necessarily such a bad thing. What do you do if you see a guy you've never raced against from a country you didn't even know exists go up the road?
You sound a bit frustrated and pessimistic about that race. The belgians just said they wanted to get as many riders as possible into the front group to counter MVDP. My bet is still on Evenepoel, he could deliver a legendary performance.
I don’t understand the Olympic cycling system. What determines the number of riders a country can bring? Collective national UCI points in the year preceding the Olympic Games?
Not only should they have real teams for each country, they should give a gold medal to every one on the winning team. It would be nice if it were recognized as a group effort.
@@Flakey101 They could have fewer teams. I'd love to see Bini with a shot, but Eritrea would probably be one of the countries they'd have to cut if they went all in on teams.
Would love to see 4 or 5 strong "teams" band together and control the race for ~200 kms and turn it into a 70km highlight reel. mostly to flip the IOC the bird.
Then it will be the most boring race ever! why would we want to see strong team control everything and only 2 or 3 rider can win? if that's your thing, go watch replay at Giro or tdf!
Agreed. Band together for a bit. And then we see Glassglow all over again amongst the best riders going at each other. Cause last years Worlds was so entertaining. 👊🦋🔥🤞
this is actually a great change of pace! like back in the day without cars or radio communications! fantastic idea because it will not always favor the strongest team, but it will benefit the smartest, strongest one to win
I think the road race would be more exciting in a crit format with a emblematic urban circuit like Paris streets, what a missed opportunity of putting cycling in the spotlight that deserves on the country that the sport it's most known for.
I like the road race being long, no matter how many riders per team are there. It's much worse the TT. Grand tours have shortened their TTs to avoid big differences, but it makes no sense a 30min TT in the Olympics or World championships.
It's wild they reduced the riders in the men's event to match the women but still added 100km to the mens course. You talk about the favorites but most of the other countries don't have teammates at all. It's going to be a s- show and I'm here for it.
Perhaps they should have an olympic event called; “the group ride”. Make the course about 65 miles with a few hard punchy climbs and then finish at the STOP AHEAD sign?
I would like to add that at the end of the race, uhh I mean ride, no medals are handed out, instead all of the riders have a beer together, and share a plate of nachos.
This will provide an interesting kind of race. I feel like the tactics need to take a back seat here, and everyone needs to do their best to stay in the breakaway. A more pure race, in a sense. I think this will be a spicy race from the very start.
Just a note of cheer to see that viewers are clicking on the give button and tossing a few bucks into Chris' guitar case for the big bike race in Oregon! I gave a little bit as a fellow patron of the bike racing arts. 😀
Thanks for the inside perspective. I was wondering how this race would stack up to a typical stage race. It may be interesting if perhaps the smaller teams decide to work together to try to counter the four-man teams. I'm sure we'll find out, looking forward to watching this.
Belgium needs to dedicate one of either van Aert or Evenepoel to marking every break, not just Stuyven or Benoot. That will force other teams to either ride hard in the peloton to pull it back or the break to disintegrate if van Aert/Evenepoel are freeloading off it. This way you have sort of a double chance of winning. Your breakaway guy is freeloading off other guys pulling 200km in a 15-20 man breakaway, or if the break gets reeled back in you have your peloton guy still fresh.
Which basically comes down to covering every move and controlling the race. A four man team won't be enough for that, it's precisely the point, making the race more open.
That won’t work either. Let’s say Remco made the early the break. There is no way the group would allow him to sit on the entire time. Which means Remco would have to ride. And who would chase behind? Surely at least four of the five teams that have for riders to start the race would have a rider in the group also. And who would ride with Remco taking pulls evenly (some would ;), besides France that is, because France literally pulled Remco during the Australia worlds where he won. So it could happen but only if the riders are knuckleheads. Any intelligent team would not ride evenly with Remco for 200k and expect to win. But I did give you many examples in this video of knuckleheads. So……… you could be right. 😂😜🦋👊
@@ChrisHornerCycling Remco has the biggest balls and the biggest engine, he's way above the other riders in this kind of race situation (except Poagacar and maybe Vingegard). He doesn't need people to work with him as soon as things get serious, he showed it once again.
At the Olympic Games all events are ultimately approved, if not dictated, by the International Federation- the UCI in this case. The course length, team size, and all the other rules of the event, are set by the UCI, not the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee nor the IOC. Chris' comments are spot on, but the blame is misplaced.
Thanks Chris! Top 20. Seems like the Olympics are confused as to whether this is a team event or an individual event. If a team event, every country should have the same size team. And an individual event should still only allow an equal number of participants from each country, unless the country elects not to supply a participant.
Should give a gold medal to all members of the team that wins, not just the person crossing the line first. All teams should be of the same size though.
@@scottsheppard3753 That would be a start list of 220 riders, based on 4 riders per team. Would you then say limit it to 2 per nation then to get 110 riders?
New Olympic formula for team size: first letter of country A=1 B=2 multiply by UCI points from 1842 divided by last time that country win a medal 🥇 host country gets +1. Last host country -2. If your country has never hosted games +4.
You’re trying to make a joke out of it but it’s the same as in worlds. Based on riders ranking, + some slots to enable countries without top cyclists to at least have someone representing.
I've see bigger fields in amateur master's crit races (plug here for the Cascade Cycling Classic Criterium, remember when it was a stage race?)...270+kms that's a LONG race for four man teams.
In 2000 olympic road race three guys from Team Telekom won the medals Ulrich, Winokurov, Kloeden. The were from Germany and Kasachstan. For the first 130k annother german, Jens Voigt who did not ride for Team Telekom, covered every break! That's how it could work out today!!
Ahh the blue. He gets to say for the rest of his life. I was the blue guy at the opening Paris Olympics. Loved by some, hated by some, and misunderstood by some. But not forgotten so quickly by any. 😂🦋👊🤔
I’ve always been a fan of the less regulated format of the Olympics, it’s more man v. man old school classic style compared to the team tactics of today.
It's cutthroat. 1) IF it was a "Team Competition," then they would award Gold Medals to The Team that wins. 2) Numerous countries have multiple entrants qualifying in Individual sports...they can cooperate or not. 3) Cyclists from different teams cooperate all the time (in the break, to pull people back).
We get enough world tour style racing. People should get to see a race where well-financed teams can't control the variables. Four man teams should work just as hard as solo riders if they want gold.
It still puzzles me how guys who probably hate each other (just a guess) end up having to be teammates for a day (just like at worlds). It seems like Visma riders Wout, Jorgenson, Van Barle, LaPorte could all join forces and help one of their own win the gold. Instead, Wout and Remco are on the same team, and MVDP has got no Alpecin riders. I enjoy watching these races, but I'm curious about their mindset when they all switch alliances for a day. And then next week get back on the team bus again.
In the Olypics, it's an effort to help both your country man, plus regular team mate....& due to this sometimes, tough decisions have to be made during the race.
It is an individual competition not a team competition. If they go with Chris's format, riders from weak countries would have very little chance. It is good to see Carapaz win last game.
@@jonathanzappala 1) IF it was a "Team Competition," then they would award Gold Medals to The Team that wins. 2) Numerous countries have multiple entrants qualifying in Individual sports...they can cooperate or not. 3) Cyclists from different teams cooperate all the time (in the break, to pull people back).
its kind of exiting that the olympic race has different configuration as the pro races. gives a chance for riders to win for being strong and not winning because they have help-
actually limit each country to 4 max is good. and no radio also. otherwise if the country is allow to bring in 8 riders, its just become just another classic race which MdVP most probably will win again. this make the race more unpredictable.
IMO, a great cyclist is one who can adapt to whatever weird tactical situation they find themselves in, and if that means having to come up with an unconventional plan for an unconventional race for Olympic glory, then that's what they have to do. The absence of support riders and team radios in this race means that in order to win, you have to either make the breakaway, or have enough verbal coordination with other teams to form an alliance to shut down the breakaway. The riders that adapt the best will contest the medals.
The worlds in Doha (?) where a small bunch rode away never to be seen again was not a bad spectacle to watch versus the Kopenhagen worlds. Big teams can make a race very boring if the parcours isn’t selective enough.
@@buffalobilly6046 i dont agree. the olympic marathon from Maratona to Athen through Termopili pass has been the most fascinating ever. It was more unique then a total eclipse
I keep thinking about the UCI Road Race World Championships and how Peter Sagan managed a three-peat with a small team of Slovakians. He seemed not to need his team for any of his victories. Are you saying that this race should be revamped to meet your more structured view of road racing? And who, other than you and the big teams, does that benefit?
It's not just cycling the organizers have screwed up look at the officiating and judging in swimming, diving, gymnastics, rugby etc. Are these games in Russia?
He was a definite medal contender in the TT and has won plenty of classics with worthless domestiques in the past. Totally understandable that he's tired though
Dirty truth might shine brighter than a medal! * Always wondered whom would be so narcissistic as to cheat at armature races for a t-shirt… then I read your comments.
It's the Olympics, of course there's gonna be a huge spread of ability. It's not fair to knock it like it's an event like the rest of the year. It'll be a very interesting race in its own right. But you go ahead, Chris, and knock it for a video headline if you want.
Back to the roots. Olympics used to be amateur competition anyway. Since men are allowed to box women the whole thing is off the charts anyways. Road cycling as a team sport with individual winner is not olympia compatible.
If he’s going to post some insights then at least know the mechanics behind the reasons for smaller road race teams at the Olympics. The reason is that the IOC has to limit the number of athletes coming to the Village, therefore all sports have restrictions. So if you qualify for the Time Trial that rider has to double up and do the road race. Same for track cycling with the Team Sprint and Individual Sprint. You cannot have 8 man teams per nation as he suggests because they don’t have room.
You had a video a while ago about your experience in the Olympics and you basically said that it's run by amateurs. Why don't the national teams get a DS from a World Tour team to "run" the race? I don't know if you said who the U.S. DS was but I would think that you could get Tejay VanGarderan to be the DS.
He was talking about the people organizing the race (the olympics). They dont have experience with bike races. Probably they should be hiring the right people. Organizing and managing a long bike race is complicated and difficult
Let's see wild and crazy guys in Paris, crazy efforts, crazy tactics, crazy finish! And if five guys get away, well, free burgers and French fries for them, woohoo! Just let 'em all line up, drop the gate, and zing-zing-zing like two-strokes to the finish! Pro racing is exciting, to be sure, but it sure can get boring, too, the super teams stomping out all the fun so everyone can see the same ol' same ol' jersey at the finish. Enough of that, we get it, let's see some fun tomorrow, maybe we'll get a surprise winner like four years ago in the women's race, the Austrian who basically rode it all alone in front because the superstar ladies couldn't get their act together. 😀.
Does Chris think big teams have no say who gets into the breakaway? I say they won't let good riders go and it's going to be the likes of Chaiyasombat in there. Tim Declerq made a career of controlling breakaways on his own.
There are no big teams. There are only four riders on a team and only 5 teams with four. 2012 Olympics had team GB with six of the best (5 plus one;) riders. And they still could not control the peloton. If no team helps Belgium on the front controlling the race, then no way they can control 66 riders on their own. 🤔🦋
@@ChrisHornerCycling relative big teams obviously. And that's what riders say in interviews too, controlling who's in the breakaway is the first job. You can look at it in reverse too. If you have a tiny team of 2 riders , are you going to throw half your team into a desperate 270 km breakaway ? There will be more riders with instruction to make sure nothing dangerous gets away in the early breakaway then those with instructions to do so.
I’m going to pick Matteo Jorgensen! It’s been 40 years since I watched Alexi Grewal win the gold in LA so it’s time for another American! Great job has usual breaking things down Chris!
It is going to make for some amazing racing. Hard to control and who knows what will happen. This is a good thing. Why don't some important races have full pro-tour-level team control? I think it will make things extra exciting. It is good to have different dynamics than the Classics of World Tour races.
2012 and 2016 had approximately 145 riders and that number decreased to 135 in 2020 (2021) and now it's 90 riders. On the longest course in Olympic history if I read correctly. Were TIIC (the idiots in charge) of deciding these things hoping for a more interesting race? I know there is a process by which riders qualify, and maybe that and personal priorities shortened the peloton this year, but it's hard to believe 45 fewer riders qualified for this year's Olympics than for 2020 (2021). It just seems a SNAFU in a long line of them for this Paris Olympics.
If I'm team USA, I'd definitely making a deal with Ecuador's Narváez. And possibly the riders form Denmark and/or France. I'd also be looking at making a deal with strong riders that have weak teams. All in order to go fast up the road and force Belgium and the Netherlands to blow up trying to chase the others down. Let's call it the tier twos joining up to force the tier ones to go to work.
The whole thing makes no sense. There needs to be some way to narrow this down in advance in terms of countries and then there needs to be equal sized teams.
There should be no regional represention in cycling, all team sports such as basketball and football don't have it. Just give the top 25 nations 6 spots each. The medals should be given to the whole team.
As a Belgian I can say that it will be Belgium against the Netherlands if everything goes normal, if we get some help, perfect. If not, so be it, might be a bit boring if nobody races. Mathieu gets a lot of love here, also from the Belgian riders but the end phase will be a battle of the titans.
What a thriller, enough margin for a bike change (he didn't like the color I guess) almost couldn't go better. Well done for the Frenchies with silver and bronze.
I think its okay, Belgium will still have multiple avenues of winning and losing given their team composition. Personally, if the other teams light it up without a break I think it will just lead to an 80km Remco/WVA solo which would be amazing in its own right but I don't see that happening. Heck, even WVA can fail to win a reduced bunch sprint for the win for all we know. And not all races will be exciting, that it just an inevitability that we will get races that are more of in hindsight thoughts.
That was one of the best road races I have ever watched! "No" team mates, no race radios, just pure racing. Are you not entertained?!
I love that the olympics don't just have the World Tour teams show up. Its a unique challenge for the riders to face and makes for dynamic racing that fans are constantly whining for when the normal season is going on.
Same for me, will remeber this race long time, what a great show ❤🎉
I don’t mind if it falls apart. The ‘84 Olympics was incredible to watch, and it launched some careers in spite of some questionable tactics. It’s ok that one race a year is raced in such a bizarre way.
I’ll also add that the ‘84 Olympics is why I started racing (and why I bought a Pinarello 😂). If that day had been raced like a ‘real’ race, it would have lost a serious amount of its charm. I seriously hope ‘knuckleheadism’ makes tomorrow as great as ‘84.
Tactics huh, not necessarily the word I’d use for what was going on 😂
I so agree and I remember like yesterday watching that tense duel between Steve Bauer and Alexi Grewal and then for Alexi to outsprint Steve, wow, incredible!
@@robbchastain3036 Exactly! I was only 16 at the time, and I didn’t know much about bike racing, and I was completely blown away by that! And EVERYONE picked Bauer to win it. I signed up for my first race right after that. Hollywood couldn’t have made it any better, which is exactly why I don’t care if Evenepoel or WvA or MvdP win yet another race. I’d much rather see someone put it all on the line like that and get rewarded like Grewal did.
Officially it was an amateur race in ‘84, correct. 😜😂🦋👊🥇🥈🥉
Chris totally agree. Cycling is a TEAM SPORT and the Olympics need to represent the same concept as all the pro races. 4 man teams per country, and the TEAM wins the medal. Yes I know the team does not win the Tour de Anything, but the Olympics can. It's time to recognize all the work the other riders put in killing themselves to drag one guy to the line.
I agree, if cycling is a team sport, the olympics would be the best place to actually show this by giving the whole team a gold medal no matter which of their guys crosses the line first.
Imagine Wout Van Aert and Remco actually wanting to work together towards a common gold medal instead of one of them getting all the glory and the other being a footnote.
Some solid takes right here, no radios and team medals would result in something between magnificent knuckleheadery or hella boring but efficient riding, if the big guns can hold it together.
The Olympics recognizes the best athletes, not the rider with the best helpers.
That’s what the TTT was for. They used to have a 100 km TTT in the Olympics.
The top guys are all pros. I don’t think their tactics will be dictated by their national team DS’s.
What they should do is make the Olympic cycling events only available for amateurs exclusively.
how will an entertaining race be a failure unless you have the mindset that only the favorite riders winning is exciting? Why always have a predictable race?
The idea of sport is for luck and skill to decide a winner. Not pure luck.
@@hansfabiankoeger8657who said anything about pure luck? If a break goes down the road and the "strongest riders" sit on their thumbs looking at each other, that is bad tactics, not luck. You make your own luck in the olympics.
@@hansfabiankoeger8657 What other sport has four-man teams competing against solo riders? It certainly isn't about fairness. Odds are already stacked against smaller teams, at least they can get lucky.
@@the_rzhIt's the only reasonable way to do it. Like it or not, some countries have more top class cyclists than others, and it's unfair to the athletes themselves to restrict every country to only selecting one rider. I think this format worked brilliantly, team tactics were certainly present but did not decide the result in of themselves. The winner (no spoilers) had to make a massive individual effort to separate himself from the rest of the field.
@@FreekaPista Not the only way to do it. As a team sport, team medals should be awarded. That would really help team dynamics. Set the team size at whatever the IOC thinks will get acceptable participation. Can have a separate individual event with no more than two competitors per country.
Horner yelling out all the knucklehead moves, while chuckling, is the funniest thing I've seen all day!
This sounds like a gravel race to me. Pure attrition with a break away win. 👍
I can see that. 🤔🦋👍
It's almost like competing in something like Milano-San Remo by yourself.
Yep. Pretty much. 😱🦋👊
Knucklehead Friday! Booya! 😂👍👍🦋🎉
In my opinion, this is a different race, where the top riders have to cope with the absence of their normal team. So, they have to be near the head of the peloton at all times, in order not to miss the escaping group that will make it to the finish. It's almost an individual race for all the riders, except a handful of guys who are clearly in charge of running the supplies for their leaders. Point is: how many second-rate riders will make it to the end of such a grueling race? That's where the top guys come in again, we will see who survives on their won. It has always been like this; in 2004 Paolo Bettini won in Athens staying away in an escape of only two, in an incredible heat of near 40 Celsius, mostly because all the other guys were watching each other, and nobody was willing to sacrifice to get him back. It might just turn out like that again, but hey, it's just one race every 4 years...
It worked out fine. The riders also never complained, not before and not after. The Belgian team had a tactic but it looked more like what they'd say for the last 60K of a classic when their team is already cut in half. Either way, no favorite and no strong guy like Stuyven would attack from K0.
What I dont undestand, when road cycling is called team sport, why some teams have 4 and other only 1 cyclist. Thats not set up for fair race.
Agreed. Gymnastics events all have four person teams. But the teams have to qualify for the final round. Should all countries get x number of riders, and then they only qualify to race in the olympics based on some scoring criteria?
It’s the Olympics, nothing is really fair. Look at all the other unfair events in the last few days.
It’s the Olympics where they let the clowns run the show.
@@pureno1zin gymnastics those four compete together for a team medal. In cycling the medals are individual, not exactly a direct comparison.
It's not called a team sport. There is only 1 gold medalist.
All the races should be like that. When we don't know who is going to win, it makes the race more exciting. Cycling should always be like that and not be controlled by big team and people in the car. This is going to be the best race of the year. No radio and no team to control.
No chance I get up at 2am. IOC is in it to make dollars not sense. Looking forward to the highlights and beyond the coverage🙌🚲🦋
I’m more upset about teams of ONE rider… ie. Ecuador, effectively forcing out the defending gold medalist.
Exactly. Me too. 🦋😱
What this might do is give lesser known riders a chance to shine, which is not necessarily such a bad thing. What do you do if you see a guy you've never raced against from a country you didn't even know exists go up the road?
You sound a bit frustrated and pessimistic about that race.
The belgians just said they wanted to get as many riders as possible into the front group to counter MVDP. My bet is still on Evenepoel, he could deliver a legendary performance.
I don’t understand the Olympic cycling system. What determines the number of riders a country can bring? Collective national UCI points in the year preceding the Olympic Games?
Yes. Exactly that.
World rankings.
Yes. But not really. It’s how much it would cost the Olympic committee to bring twice the number of riders. 😱🦋💵
Not only should they have real teams for each country, they should give a gold medal to every one on the winning team. It would be nice if it were recognized as a group effort.
You would have 220 riders with just 4 per nation, when Chris went that is not enough riders for the teams.
@@Flakey101 They could have fewer teams. I'd love to see Bini with a shot, but Eritrea would probably be one of the countries they'd have to cut if they went all in on teams.
Would love to see 4 or 5 strong "teams" band together and control the race for ~200 kms and turn it into a 70km highlight reel. mostly to flip the IOC the bird.
Then it will be the most boring race ever! why would we want to see strong team control everything and only 2 or 3 rider can win? if that's your thing, go watch replay at Giro or tdf!
Just admit you like to nap for the first 200km of bike races
Agreed. Band together for a bit. And then we see Glassglow all over again amongst the best riders going at each other. Cause last years Worlds was so entertaining. 👊🦋🔥🤞
@@ChrisHornerCycling Glassglow?? where is that located. 🤙🦋🐌🍔🍭🚦🌈🎯🔔📣📢📉↙➡⬆🚳⛔
Whoa Chris-pretty sure the Jamaican Bobsled Team have been cross training for this race all along.
Don’t count them out just yet.
this is actually a great change of pace! like back in the day without cars or radio communications! fantastic idea because it will not always favor the strongest team, but it will benefit the smartest, strongest one to win
I think the road race would be more exciting in a crit format with a emblematic urban circuit like Paris streets, what a missed opportunity of putting cycling in the spotlight that deserves on the country that the sport it's most known for.
I like the road race being long, no matter how many riders per team are there.
It's much worse the TT.
Grand tours have shortened their TTs to avoid big differences, but it makes no sense a 30min TT in the Olympics or World championships.
I guess I'll have to bed down on the Chesterfield in front of the TV and set and alarm.
After the TDF, your internal alarm clock should be ready to go.
Me too 👊🦋⏰
Sounds like a typical day in women’s cycling except for the super long distance.
And it turned out to be the best one day race of the year and we all lived happily ever after. Especially the Belgians.
It's wild they reduced the riders in the men's event to match the women but still added 100km to the mens course. You talk about the favorites but most of the other countries don't have teammates at all. It's going to be a s- show and I'm here for it.
Perhaps they should have an olympic event called; “the group ride”. Make the course about 65 miles with a few hard punchy climbs and then finish at the STOP AHEAD sign?
I would like to add that at the end of the race, uhh I mean ride, no medals are handed out, instead all of the riders have a beer together, and share a plate of nachos.
This will provide an interesting kind of race. I feel like the tactics need to take a back seat here, and everyone needs to do their best to stay in the breakaway. A more pure race, in a sense. I think this will be a spicy race from the very start.
Thanks appreciate having some insight on watching/understanding tactics when the teams are so small.
1:26 AM west coast time. No joke I’m going for an ebike ride to GeoCache and watch the race from my handlebars! 100 degrees today in Temecula , CA!!!
Just a note of cheer to see that viewers are clicking on the give button and tossing a few bucks into Chris' guitar case for the big bike race in Oregon! I gave a little bit as a fellow patron of the bike racing arts. 😀
Thanks for the inside perspective. I was wondering how this race would stack up to a typical stage race. It may be interesting if perhaps the smaller teams decide to work together to try to counter the four-man teams. I'm sure we'll find out, looking forward to watching this.
Most races are destroyed by control creamery in large powerful teams plus radios.
Boring and predictable. Small teams equals chaos and romance.
The OC might be knuckleheads, but they're not necessarily wrong with the cycling format. It's not a team event.
Belgium needs to dedicate one of either van Aert or Evenepoel to marking every break, not just Stuyven or Benoot. That will force other teams to either ride hard in the peloton to pull it back or the break to disintegrate if van Aert/Evenepoel are freeloading off it.
This way you have sort of a double chance of winning. Your breakaway guy is freeloading off other guys pulling 200km in a 15-20 man breakaway, or if the break gets reeled back in you have your peloton guy still fresh.
Which basically comes down to covering every move and controlling the race.
A four man team won't be enough for that, it's precisely the point, making the race more open.
Not sure if breakaway will let WvA or Remco freeload. Just attacking each other.
That won’t work either. Let’s say Remco made the early the break. There is no way the group would allow him to sit on the entire time. Which means Remco would have to ride. And who would chase behind? Surely at least four of the five teams that have for riders to start the race would have a rider in the group also. And who would ride with Remco taking pulls evenly (some would ;), besides France that is, because France literally pulled Remco during the Australia worlds where he won. So it could happen but only if the riders are knuckleheads. Any intelligent team would not ride evenly with Remco for 200k and expect to win. But I did give you many examples in this video of knuckleheads. So……… you could be right. 😂😜🦋👊
@@ChrisHornerCycling Remco has the biggest balls and the biggest engine, he's way above the other riders in this kind of race situation (except Poagacar and maybe Vingegard). He doesn't need people to work with him as soon as things get serious, he showed it once again.
Wait... has there been someone else in this room all along?
At the Olympic Games all events are ultimately approved, if not dictated, by the International Federation- the UCI in this case. The course length, team size, and all the other rules of the event, are set by the UCI, not the Paris Olympic Organizing Committee nor the IOC. Chris' comments are spot on, but the blame is misplaced.
Thanks Chris! Top 20.
Seems like the Olympics are confused as to whether this is a team event or an individual event. If a team event, every country should have the same size team. And an individual event should still only allow an equal number of participants from each country, unless the country elects not to supply a participant.
Team event. We know.
Should give a gold medal to all members of the team that wins, not just the person crossing the line first. All teams should be of the same size though.
@@scottsheppard3753 That would be a start list of 220 riders, based on 4 riders per team. Would you then say limit it to 2 per nation then to get 110 riders?
@@Flakey101 No, I would say limit the number of nations. Most of the team sports limit the number of nations involved to 12 or 16 or so.
Agreed. At least the top ten or fifteen best countries. 👊🦋🤔
This world is so full of knuckleheads, Ive came round to thinkin I'm a knucklehead.
😂
KNUCKELHEADS in the title? Instant like 😁
Thank you, Chris.
Hope you enjoyed the video Jason. 🥉👊🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
New Olympic formula for team size: first letter of country A=1 B=2 multiply by UCI points from 1842 divided by last time that country win a medal 🥇 host country gets +1. Last host country -2. If your country has never hosted games +4.
You’re trying to make a joke out of it but it’s the same as in worlds. Based on riders ranking, + some slots to enable countries without top cyclists to at least have someone representing.
So many failures of the Olympic cycling RR. Thanks for listing some of them. It is a “team” race without even teams (1 to 5?!) or team medals.
You teach us so much about racing bikes. I love it, Chris. Thanks.
👊🦋
I've see bigger fields in amateur master's crit races (plug here for the Cascade Cycling Classic Criterium, remember when it was a stage race?)...270+kms that's a LONG race for four man teams.
In 2000 olympic road race three guys from Team Telekom won the medals Ulrich, Winokurov, Kloeden.
The were from Germany and Kasachstan. For the first 130k annother german, Jens Voigt who did not ride for Team Telekom, covered every break!
That's how it could work out today!!
272km + 90riders + No radios = Chaos
Or a total snoozer
@@aglees2byou know they'll be cutting to commercials or scenic shots right when something interesting happens.
its great, isnt it!
Sounds good to me.
70 riders at best. 20 won’t make it past half way. 😱🦋
Pretty interesting analysis. Designers of the race are probably the same guys who came up with the naked blue guy in the opening ceremonies.
Still thinking about that, eh? I wonder why.
@@Frostbiker Pretty childish innuendo for the twenty first century there frosty. What’s it to you if I’m into geriatric Smurf sex?
Ahh the blue. He gets to say for the rest of his life. I was the blue guy at the opening Paris Olympics. Loved by some, hated by some, and misunderstood by some. But not forgotten so quickly by any. 😂🦋👊🤔
What’s wrong with the race design?
I’ve always been a fan of the less regulated format of the Olympics, it’s more man v. man old school classic style compared to the team tactics of today.
It's cutthroat. 1) IF it was a "Team Competition," then they would award Gold Medals to The Team that wins. 2) Numerous countries have multiple entrants qualifying in Individual sports...they can cooperate or not. 3) Cyclists from different teams cooperate all the time (in the break, to pull people back).
We get enough world tour style racing. People should get to see a race where well-financed teams can't control the variables. Four man teams should work just as hard as solo riders if they want gold.
It still puzzles me how guys who probably hate each other (just a guess) end up having to be teammates for a day (just like at worlds). It seems like Visma riders Wout, Jorgenson, Van Barle, LaPorte could all join forces and help one of their own win the gold. Instead, Wout and Remco are on the same team, and MVDP has got no Alpecin riders. I enjoy watching these races, but I'm curious about their mindset when they all switch alliances for a day. And then next week get back on the team bus again.
Sure looked to me Kwiatkoski was riding for Carapaz up that hill bridging to the front in Tokyo.
In the Olypics, it's an effort to help both your country man, plus regular team mate....& due to this sometimes, tough decisions have to be made during the race.
The Olympics is meant to be an exhibition. They don't really care who wins.
@@johndoiron9615
From the Olympic Committee, I'm sure you're right.
Same in the world champs races. Usually the country teams do actually work together pretty well though
Loved those smirk laugh, man!😅
It is an individual competition not a team competition. If they go with Chris's format, riders from weak countries would have very little chance. It is good to see Carapaz win last game.
Cycling is a team sport. If you want individual competition you’d have to have one rider per nation. Or make it a time trial which they already have.
@@jonathanzappala 1) IF it was a "Team Competition," then they would award Gold Medals to The Team that wins. 2) Numerous countries have multiple entrants qualifying in Individual sports...they can cooperate or not. 3) Cyclists from different teams cooperate all the time (in the break, to pull people back).
@@georgehugh3455 Pogacar won the Tour de France, but tell me he could do it without the 7 other riders on his team, then I’ll change my mind.
its kind of exiting that the olympic race has different configuration as the pro races. gives a chance for riders to win for being strong and not winning because they have help-
All hell to break loose 😂
actually limit each country to 4 max is good. and no radio also. otherwise if the country is allow to bring in 8 riders, its just become just another classic race which MdVP most probably will win again. this make the race more unpredictable.
Thank you!
If anything I want to see more classics with smaller teams
Lottery races are always interesting
IMO, a great cyclist is one who can adapt to whatever weird tactical situation they find themselves in, and if that means having to come up with an unconventional plan for an unconventional race for Olympic glory, then that's what they have to do.
The absence of support riders and team radios in this race means that in order to win, you have to either make the breakaway, or have enough verbal coordination with other teams to form an alliance to shut down the breakaway. The riders that adapt the best will contest the medals.
The worlds in Doha (?) where a small bunch rode away never to be seen again was not a bad spectacle to watch versus the Kopenhagen worlds. Big teams can make a race very boring if the parcours isn’t selective enough.
Yep. Anything possible tomorrow. But boring is as much possible as the best race ever. 😂🦋👊🔥🤞
Cycling is one of those sports where an Olympic medal is not as important as their regular schedule.
yeah it is for the winner since he gets to wear a cool jersey. In general I agree though. Cycling and Marathon, they really don't care as much.
Yup, same with soccer (football) if youre outside the us
@stevenmeyer9674 The Olympics is bigger than the world championships. It's certainly not more important than the TdF though.
Agreed. 🤔🦋👍
@@buffalobilly6046 i dont agree. the olympic marathon from Maratona to Athen through Termopili pass has been the most fascinating ever. It was more unique then a total eclipse
I keep thinking about the UCI Road Race World Championships and how Peter Sagan managed a three-peat with a small team of Slovakians. He seemed not to need his team for any of his victories. Are you saying that this race should be revamped to meet your more structured view of road racing? And who, other than you and the big teams, does that benefit?
It's not just cycling the organizers have screwed up look at the officiating and judging in swimming, diving, gymnastics, rugby etc. Are these games in Russia?
Totally agree, it's like a different sport. +270 kilometres and maximum 4 riders pro team, (Even a team of 1 rider!!!) Complete knucleheads.
There are five Olympic rings, and maybe that's how far they can count. I don't have any better explication.
Knucklehead count: 8 In Video Knuckleheads + 1 Bonus Title Knucklehead for a total of 9
Sent a donation...use where it is needed most...love your videos and wearing my "knuckleheads beware" tshirt...thank you
Pog’s decision to skip the Olympics is looking better and better.
I was about to write the same thing but I was too slow.
He was a definite medal contender in the TT and has won plenty of classics with worthless domestiques in the past. Totally understandable that he's tired though
The three grand tours are far more important.
Mucho happy that he’s focused on Worlds.
Dirty truth might shine brighter than a medal!
* Always wondered whom would be so narcissistic as to cheat at armature races for a t-shirt… then I read your comments.
All the best with that cold.
👊🦋
Traditionally the olympics is an amateur sporting contest, right? Bring on the chaos
Before the 1996 Olympics yes. 🦋👊
@@ChrisHornerCycling wow I would have imagined that it was much longer ago than that!
It's the Olympics, of course there's gonna be a huge spread of ability. It's not fair to knock it like it's an event like the rest of the year. It'll be a very interesting race in its own right. But you go ahead, Chris, and knock it for a video headline if you want.
Back to the roots. Olympics used to be amateur competition anyway.
Since men are allowed to box women the whole thing is off the charts anyways.
Road cycling as a team sport with individual winner is not olympia compatible.
If he’s going to post some insights then at least know the mechanics behind the reasons for smaller road race teams at the Olympics.
The reason is that the IOC has to limit the number of athletes coming to the Village, therefore all sports have restrictions. So if you qualify for the Time Trial that rider has to double up and do the road race. Same for track cycling with the Team Sprint and Individual Sprint. You cannot have 8 man teams per nation as he suggests because they don’t have room.
You had a video a while ago about your experience in the Olympics and you basically said that it's run by amateurs. Why don't the national teams get a DS from a World Tour team to "run" the race? I don't know if you said who the U.S. DS was but I would think that you could get Tejay VanGarderan to be the DS.
He was talking about the people organizing the race (the olympics). They dont have experience with bike races. Probably they should be hiring the right people. Organizing and managing a long bike race is complicated and difficult
Let's see wild and crazy guys in Paris, crazy efforts, crazy tactics, crazy finish! And if five guys get away, well, free burgers and French fries for them, woohoo! Just let 'em all line up, drop the gate, and zing-zing-zing like two-strokes to the finish! Pro racing is exciting, to be sure, but it sure can get boring, too, the super teams stomping out all the fun so everyone can see the same ol' same ol' jersey at the finish. Enough of that, we get it, let's see some fun tomorrow, maybe we'll get a surprise winner like four years ago in the women's race, the Austrian who basically rode it all alone in front because the superstar ladies couldn't get their act together. 😀.
Does Chris think big teams have no say who gets into the breakaway? I say they won't let good riders go and it's going to be the likes of Chaiyasombat in there.
Tim Declerq made a career of controlling breakaways on his own.
There are no big teams. There are only four riders on a team and only 5 teams with four. 2012 Olympics had team GB with six of the best (5 plus one;) riders. And they still could not control the peloton. If no team helps Belgium on the front controlling the race, then no way they can control 66 riders on their own. 🤔🦋
@@ChrisHornerCycling relative big teams obviously. And that's what riders say in interviews too, controlling who's in the breakaway is the first job.
You can look at it in reverse too. If you have a tiny team of 2 riders , are you going to throw half your team into a desperate 270 km breakaway ?
There will be more riders with instruction to make sure nothing dangerous gets away in the early breakaway then those with instructions to do so.
@@ChrisHornerCycling and here I am to tell I got it right. I even got Chaiyasombat right.
What can bini do as he is solo rider in the field?
I’m going to pick Matteo Jorgensen! It’s been 40 years since I watched Alexi Grewal win the gold in LA so it’s time for another American! Great job has usual breaking things down Chris!
It is going to make for some amazing racing. Hard to control and who knows what will happen. This is a good thing. Why don't some important races have full pro-tour-level team control? I think it will make things extra exciting. It is good to have different dynamics than the Classics of World Tour races.
2012 and 2016 had approximately 145 riders and that number decreased to 135 in 2020 (2021) and now it's 90 riders. On the longest course in Olympic history if I read correctly. Were TIIC (the idiots in charge) of deciding these things hoping for a more interesting race? I know there is a process by which riders qualify, and maybe that and personal priorities shortened the peloton this year, but it's hard to believe 45 fewer riders qualified for this year's Olympics than for 2020 (2021). It just seems a SNAFU in a long line of them for this Paris Olympics.
Maybe the Olympics are the place to award the medals to the team in cycling as a team sport?
If they added additional riders it would just make it easier for the favorites. So few teams had 4 riders, imagine if Belgium had brought 8.
If I'm team USA, I'd definitely making a deal with Ecuador's Narváez. And possibly the riders form Denmark and/or France. I'd also be looking at making a deal with strong riders that have weak teams. All in order to go fast up the road and force Belgium and the Netherlands to blow up trying to chase the others down. Let's call it the tier twos joining up to force the tier ones to go to work.
Screw teams. Everyone should race for themselves. Be exciting
Why does the US only have 3 riders? Powless didn't want to ride?
teams got there slots from uci standings. US just not strong enough.
The thing is in the Olympics they have no radios so they have to count, Thats what makes it interesting!!!
Well, REMCO has done it! Love the way he rides.
It will be just like a Belgium Classic except all the action will happen with 100 km to go instead of like, you know, the finale.
With only 4 riders per teammate, who are the domestiques?
The whole thing makes no sense. There needs to be some way to narrow this down in advance in terms of countries and then there needs to be equal sized teams.
No teams. Every man for himself. Would like to see it just once.
There should be no regional represention in cycling, all team sports such as basketball and football don't have it. Just give the top 25 nations 6 spots each. The medals should be given to the whole team.
As a Belgian I can say that it will be Belgium against the Netherlands if everything goes normal, if we get some help, perfect. If not, so be it, might be a bit boring if nobody races. Mathieu gets a lot of love here, also from the Belgian riders but the end phase will be a battle of the titans.
What a thriller, enough margin for a bike change (he didn't like the color I guess) almost couldn't go better. Well done for the Frenchies with silver and bronze.
Time for some old school combine!
And i mean the favorite nations enlisting some good riders in the small teams ...
I think its okay, Belgium will still have multiple avenues of winning and losing given their team composition.
Personally, if the other teams light it up without a break I think it will just lead to an 80km Remco/WVA solo which would be amazing in its own right but I don't see that happening. Heck, even WVA can fail to win a reduced bunch sprint for the win for all we know.
And not all races will be exciting, that it just an inevitability that we will get races that are more of in hindsight thoughts.
90 riders??? We get more than that at our local circuit race in north east England.
It's the Olympics. It is Not Pro Cycling. What is the problem?
So what you're saying is McNulty is going for a long one.
There are six Belgians. Wout, Remco, Benoot, Remco's big right ball, Stuyven and Remco's big left ball. 🛋️🦋