2020 / 2021 Olympic Cycling Racing Discussion

Provided it all goes ahead…

Who you got?

Men’s Road : Rog, Pog, Remco
Women’s Road : Annemiek, Anna van der Breggen, Demi Vollering (very hard to call, could be a climber, or a sprinter, as they ruined the women’s race by taking out the Fuji circuit)

Men’s TT - Remco, Wout, Roglic
Women’s TT - Annemiek, Anna van der Breggen, Dygert

Men’s MTB - MVDP, Pidcock, Flueckiger
Women’s MTB - Rissveds, Lecomte, PFP

Take em to the bank :grin:

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Men’s TT - Ganna, Remco, Wout.

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846m of climbing in the men’s ITT…

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Yeah, will be really interesting to see who the TT course favours. It’s a bit like stage 7 of this year’s Tour de Suisse - except that was a big climb followed by a descent … and this is a descent followed by a climb, then a smaller descent and another climb …done twice for the men and once for the women. At the Tour de Suisse, the course favoured the climbers/GC guys over the TT specialists (e.g. Stefan Kung). But Ganna wasn’t in that race, and we now know that Wout can climb a bit :wink:

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The OG version of Remco would be a lock for me, on this course.

I wonder, after bridgegate, are we ever going to have the OG Remco back?

That Belgian team is pretty stacked for the Road Race. It’ll be fascinating to see what tactics are played. Looking at the course, that last climb is pretty steep and decisive, but it’ll take someone with outright horsepower to stay away after. Might be a finish like when Cadel Evans one World’s?

I feel like Flueckiger is in such a good headspace and riding so well he’ll be hard to beat. I was sure he’d have started to fall off by now, and it’s really hard to go passed Pidcock for the Gold. I hope Anton has a big bounce after an off weekend in Les Gets!

road - Wout
TT- Wout
XC- MvdP

CXers for the win!

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I bet on João Almeida for the Road event :portugal: :portugal: :portugal:

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Don’t sleep on Rohan Dennis in the TT. He may not have the flat out speed of Ganna or Wout, but he’s so good on rolling/punchy courses especially which are longer (whereas Ganna’s strength is typically shorter TTs). Dennis put on a clinic at Yorkshire and Innsbruck on very much non-flat courses.

Also Roglic is on the TT start list- if he’s healthy, he’s definitely a podium threat as well on a punchy course.

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Kate Courtney has had a bit of a haphazard season with the injuries. However I’m really hoping she is going to peak and get the win in XC.

That being said, how can you bet against Lecomte. She has seemingly been on another level all season long and making it look effortless in the process.

For men, it’s going to be a battle between Pidcock and MvdP. With how MvdP can rise to the occasion, its going to be hard to bet against him.

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Pidcock and Lecomte on the MTB side.

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Wout for TT
MVdP for XC
Idk who for RR

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My MTB picks posted on another forum:
Women’s Race:
Gold: Loana
Silver: Rissveds
Bronze: PfP
If Jolanda had not broken her hand, she very well could have been on this list, will be interesting to see how she goes.

Men’s Race:
Gold - MvDP
Silver - Fluckiger
Bronze - Jordan Sarrou
I’m still not sold on Pidcock, he had to pull out of the race a couple weeks ago due to a sore collar bone, not sure he’s healed yet.

TT:
Women: Chloe Dygert
Men: Filipo Ganna I think Rohan or Wout could be equal picks here

Road:
Women: Vollering
Men: Pog I suppose?

This is Mike Wood’s or Dan Martin’s year. I don’t say that with a ton of confidence because of how hard the olympic RR’s are and how stacked the field is, but this looks like a good course for them with that nasty 12%'er.

It seems like an LBL type guy will win it.

Wildcard: Valverde

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40km to the finish though, unless there is a group of climby types go clear I can’t see them having the horsepower to stay away?

Except for the TdF it seems built for a Pogacar/Roglic type. Maybe even Alaphalipe a la World’s last year.

It could actually play out very similarly to last year’s world’s and come down to who rolls the dice at the right moment and then everyone sitting on Wout’s wheel.

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The men’s road race is a fascinating course.

It really could be all sorts of riders, not because of the phenotype. More because of tactics. If it’s all together leading into the Mikuni Pass, then it’s definitely a very small climbers group. 4km at 12% is brutal. Add in the crazy temperature plus high humidity and it will be about the best heat adapted riders.

Interestingly, Pog has not gone terribly well in the heat, so he may not factor. I’m not too familiar with who climbs well and deals with high heat. I imagine the Spanish riders will feature.

They’ll need a big gap to stay away from Wout, Asgreen etc on the long section to the finish.

Should be a great race.

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Have the dates for the races been released?

Also super excited for the track events!!

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They start the day after tomorrow, so I’d hope so :wink:

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Living in EDT it looks like I’ll just have to catch the replay the next day…10pm to 5am isn’t the greatest time slot.

Same for XCO…2am to 5am