AzTallRider

I read quite a few books on my iPhone using the Kindle app, which I prefer to iBooks, in part because it syncs across all devices without getting messed up by user ID's. I can read on my wife's iPad, then switch back to the phone when she wants the iPad back (which is constantly!), and never miss a beat. It's a small screen, but I have the font set to just the right size and thumb the pages quickly. The big advantage is that the book is always with me. Recently finished the Women's Ownership Manual (aka the 50 shades trilogy) in a vain attempt to gain insight into female sexuality and relationship nuances. It was a fun read, but got a bit repetitive over the course of three books.

chasm54

Reading about female sexuality is like reading the theory and practice of swimming. It all makes perfect sense until someone actually throws you into the water.

Red Rider

I like reading on my iPad. I like the Kindle App on my Droid, even if it is rather small.

As for that trilogy -- I've heard much about it. My daughter, a copy editor, said it's self-published, unedited and full of typos, and is generally terrible. The women I know who've read it rave about it. I haven't made up my mind about reading it or not.

Cleave

According to the listing that I saw last night and selected on my DVR, NBC itself (not NBCSports, MSNBC, Untiversal Sports, or CNBC) will be showing the entire road race live from 5:00a-11:00a PDT. I may watch some of it before I leave for my ride but I probably won't be able to watch the finish until after my club's annual summer picnic. I really do like Cavendish but I hope some breakaway sticks and it comes down to a small group sprint. That would be much more entertaining.

chasm54

Really interesting interviews with the GB road race team and Chris Boardman before tomorrow, which helped illuminate for me the difference between real sprinters and the rest of us.

David Millar on Cavendish: " His defining skill is the ability to stay rational in the most chaotic, hectic environment you could imagine."

Boardman on Cavendish: " At the end of the stage the rest of us in the peloton just see bodies everywhere. All he sees is the gaps."

And a nice moment when the interviewer tries to flatter Wiggins. "You're the biggest name in cycling now you've won the Tour de France." " What? Am I officially bigger than Cav now?"

sarals 

Okay, now this is coming from a novice racer, and it's JUST my opinion (no punching, I'll cry!).

I was pretty disappointed in the Olympic women's road race today. It was a less than stellar display of tactics. That penultimate break went up the road with over twenty miles to go. It happened right where even I knew it would, so you know the peloton knew it would, too. It was a given as well that the Dutch would send Vos off the front, Armistead would likely go as well, as would Olds (I expected the German sprinter to go to, but..). The peloton just seemed to sit up when that happened, no one tried to cover that break. It was like the race was now decided, the strong women were off the front. Okay, bye bye, then. Then Olds flatted, and I fully expected the American women to try to get to the front of the main group and try to bridge her back to the break, or at least up the pace of the peloton to pull the break back. Nope, that didn't happen. The German women were sitting on the front of the main group, pacing - slowly - and everyone let them. What the hell??

I'm sure the weather played a part, and I have to think that Kristin Armstrong was a little more banged up from her crash than was apparent. But still - you had Evie Stevens and other strong riders who could have, working together, brought that break back. To me, the tactics were not terribly well played.

Did I read it correctly? Or, am I all screwed up??

chasm54

I enjoyed it, Sara, I thought the race was pretty animated and held the attention.

I don't think you are all screwed up. I think there were a number of factors at work. First, Vos was certainly the strongest in the race and Armitstead was probably one of top three or four - as was Pooley, one of the other Brits, who recently finished second to Vos in the women's Giro. So once Vos and Armitstead were off the front and working together, with neither the Brits nor the Dutch, probably the strongest teams, interested in helping bring them back, they had a good chance of staying away.

Second, and this is in a way an extension of the first point, in the women's race there is a fairly wide spread of ability, so the number of people in the peloton who could contribute was reduced still further. The German Arndt ended up doing far too much of the work.

I was pleased for Vos. She has been the top women's road-racer of the last decade and one of the best ever.

shovelhd

I thought it was a great race on many fronts, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I read it differently than you, sarals.

The attack that caused the winning break came after several strong attacks. The course conditions absolutely played a factor. Vos in the break was a given, she would power it. Olds and Armistead were in the right place at the right time. It's not often that sprinters get into small breaks where they will be expected to do work or get dropped. The Russian? was a big motor who really had no choice. So it was a strange combination that heavily favored Vos. The Americans did plenty of work on the front for the whole race. Did one of them have enough to bridge Olds or Stevens up to the break? Who knows. The one thing I'll give you is why didn't Team USA get on the front and drill it after Olds caught back on? My guess is that Armstrong's crash took enough out of her to make the difference. Before the crash she was a fixture on the front. After the crash, she wasn't. Stevens is more of a stage racer/criterium racer and that's a really long race for her. I did not expect her to be towing the field.

qcpmsame 

Watching the women's race I couldn't help but remember Bejing in 2008 and the horrible weather. It seemed as soon as a shower, or in some cases a storm, in this years race, someone up front that was a "strong" rider got dropped. Vos, as said, along with Armistead, was in the right place at the time for the final sprint. I was as baffeled by the American women's tactics as I was with Great Britain's mens team on Saturday. At times it seemed as if the GB team couldn't decide what to do next. (I am sure they did, just the way things seemed to this novice Yank.) The American women would look so strong and that they could stay with the German women, up front. Wehn Armstrong crashed I just knew that was America's hopes gone.

No problems with either race's result, it is the fate of racing that determined these god races. Overall I enjoyed both and look forward to the TT races. A silver medal for my favorites, Great Britain is enough to make me feel good about the job British Cycling has done. I know that Chasm is familiar with some mis-steps but he is there watching things first hand.

Bill

shovelhd

I'm looking forward to the track. That's my favorite part of the Olympics.

sarals 

Thanks for perspective, guys! There is no question Vos was the strongest, most consistent rider in the field. I would have liked to see a little more, well, competition at the end rather than something that looked like a concession. After I had a chance to think about the race (and see some replays), what began to stand out more and more to me was the makeup of the "teams". First, I noticed that some of the riders on the same team were riding different bikes. An "ah-ha" moment, that! They came from different pro teams, and therefore probably weren't used to working with each other. Plus, no race radios, so there was no instant direction coming from their team cars. Did that account for the weak tactics? Maybe.

You guys are right - it was an entertaining race. And, I too am looking forward to the track!

Hermes

I enjoyed both RR and I am looking forward to the TT and track. Under Olympic rules, teams may coordinate tactics between riders within a team. Teams may NOT work together. There can be no discussion before or during the race to organize to get those guys. Contrast that to a men's pro race with 9 men on a team and race radio detailing every occurrence as it happens.

I though the women's team USA did really well in the RR and executed perfectly. They got Shelley Olds into the what was the winning break and it was a flat tire that took her out of contention. I am not sure what else one could ask for.

Shelly is a local woman and was training for the 2012 Olympic track points race until the Olympic committee eliminated it from the competition. She races at Hellyer and we held races for her where she raced agains our best men plus a couple of pro men. She was capable of beating the men.

Here she is beating a Garmin Chipotle pro in a sprint during a points race.



She went on to road racing and has had a very successful season this year qualifying for team USA as well as last year. If she would not have flatted, IMO, she would have been competitive with Vos in a sprint finish.

chasm54

The GB men simply overestimated their own ability to bring back the break. On Saturday evening David Millar tweeted that Cavendish had the legs to jump across when the decisive break went, but waited because he trusted that they'd be able to bring it back together for him. Interesting. I think it was less the absence of radios than a failure to quite grasp how tough it would be with four domestiques instead of eight.

As for British Cycling, they've done well. I especially like the fact that there are a lot of women coming through. They've been helped, of course, by the sport England policy of investing in success, they've had a potful of money. Another big beneficiary of that has been our rowing team. If you want to see a GB team get a hatful of medals, watch them this weekend.

Can't see Wiggins losing the TT, and looking forward to the track. Much tougher competition than Beijing, though.

Racer Ex 

I felt horrible for Shelly. Tough, tough break.

The USA team rode a very aggressive race, with no race radios they would not have known Olds flatted. We don't know if they had to pace her back to the field or not but it's likely; I don't think there were any service vehicles between the break and the field at that point. This would explain why it took them a bit to come forward.

We also know that two of them had to ride hard to get back on after they crashed. But prior to Olds flatting you can also assume they did not help at all with the chase and were covering moves.

For the USA team, it was a case of doing everything right to that point, setting up things perfectly, then having a small sharp rock ruin all your plans. They put their best chance in the winning break.

Once she came out the course and conditions favored the break at that point...organizing a chase in the pouring rain on narrow twisty roads...tough to do. And you can only ride so fast for so long; it's one of the things I count on when I go OTF. You have two champion time trialists and one very motivated rider up their doing their thing. Think about the times the entire field futilely chases Spartacus. The field would have had to be willing to start completely sacrificing riders in an orderly fashion at that point.

That's much easier to do with radios, rather than trying to rally your teammates in a pouring rain by yelling. And the small number of riders per team (4 max) meant there we limited resources and three teams willing to disrupt things. We've grown accustomed to seeing teams mass at the front to close down a break, but remember there's 9 folks on a team vs. half that for the Olympics. Much different dynamic as the GB men noticed.

The Russian gal gave it a shot, but unless you're Cancellera, you're not going to drop two sprinters. She didn't and decided a bronze medal was better than nothing, and was probably the best the Russians were going to do at that point. Armisted played it well, I was telling me wife she had the perfect set up. But she mentioned in the interview Vos usually beats her in the sprint. I think she did what she could but she clearly was outclassed.

shovelhd

Absolutely. It's power .vs. time .vs. rest.

If you watch the sprint again, she was set up perfectly. To me, it looked like Vos had a great jump. Armisted used up her jump to stick, went around Vos, could not gain, fell back, tried it again, and then just held on to the end. Her head was bobbing all over the place, a sign that she was giving it all she had.

tomgdaly

Excellent short analysis here - while conceding that's it's easy to be wise after the event.

sarals 

The sprint was pretty terrific. Even I could see that Armisted was outclassed, but by gosh, she really gave Vos a workout.

I guess I'm just used to seeing tactics played differently (three weeks of Tour de France) with larger teams. I totally understand that a smaller "team" is going to have to work harder to keep their sprinter in the fray, and Team USA did a hell of job to do that. I have to hand it to the the Dutch, as well. Their aggressiveness paid off, apparently wearing down the field. They got Vos into the break, too (but I think that was expected). It was a total shame that Shelly flatted, I feel really, really bad about that and for her. Thanks for getting my head right on that break setup, too, guys - the gals did get her into the break, and she looked pretty fresh. That race overall was a mama, long, with awful weather, slippery roads, and huge crowds - sheesh! I applaud those gals, all of them!

And all of this from a woman who is consistent in one respect - a string of DFL's (AJ, do I see a movie coming up about that?)!

Hermes

Further to Racer Ex's analysis... When Shelly got in the break, team USA probably went to the front to disrupt, slow down or block the chase. We did not see all the action. The next time we saw them after Shelly flatted, they were all together in the back. Well that does not make sense other than they had to pace Shelly back into the peloton. As I recall, Armstrong went to front and did lift the pace but there was not enough racers and energy left in the peloton to pull back the break. TV coverage did not show all the effort the peloton made. And the weather was horrible - not bad but horrible. Visibility was terrible and spray in a racers face at high speed when on someones wheel going through puddles is unpredictable and dangerous. However, they did that too. I would use words like epic and heroic to describe the race.

Team USA was very aggressive OTF as well as GB. Poole was OTF a lot. It was not just the Dutch.

Cleave

Racer Ex, there is a nice shot of you from yesterday floating around on the interwebs. Look at your FB account if you haven't seen it yet. I'd post it here but I don't want to invade your privacy or misery.

sarals 

I can't argue with that at all, Hermes. I'll add that I thought the Dutch were probably the most aggressive - besides being on the front for long stretches, they launched attack after attack after attack.

I have to admit, all in all it was a hard fought, exciting race. I quite enjoyed it (in spite of my frustrations).

Hermes

Cleave

The "girl" that beat Racer Ex in a couple of time trials earlier this year is on the course at the Olympics.

Hermes

She left scars.

Hermes

Recovery week for me, so I have been supporting MEA's racing. I was at Hellyer Monday for women's team pursuit practice and Tuesday for Women's team pursuit racing. One tense moment on Monday was when MEA blew a front tubular tire in the second position during a team effort. We heard what sounded like a gun shot. She came out of the aerobars, held her position soft pedaling and rode in like nothing happened - but many crash. She carried her bike across the field and said to me, go to the car and get me another wheel - very pro. Quite frankly, it scared the crap out of me. I think I would have needed a trip to the head first. The sidewall of the tire just blew out. It is not clear why other than the tire was 2 years old, but in good condition. The side wall may have been damaged somehow. I always inspect the tires. Go figure.

One reason I like racing on tubular tires is survivability of flats and blowouts at speed. After the tubular blows out and since it is glued securely to the rim, the edge of the rim is covered with rubber so that there is still traction on the road even in a turn. Last year, MEA was on a descent in a time trial and hit a stone that cut the sidewall and blew out the front tire in a turn. Once again, she keep the bike up without a problem. One blowout per year year is too many. But that is racing - expect the unexpected.

Hermes

Double disc for the Aussie woman in the ITT.