moneypenny20

Triboy, what's the point of the Sprint? What's with the lets go as slowly as poss and then peddle like all ****? Can't they just go bloody fast to begin with?

And sailing, what's the go with having a boat that doesn't have a seat and a stubby holder, why have a boat that you spend all your time hanging over the edge of. All very strange.

cresta57

Safely passed the halfway point with no hope of any egg on face it could be time to bring humour into Australia's poor performance:

Doctors in Australia have diagnosed a new condition which they are calling "Olympic finger". Symptoms are pain & blistering in the index finger caused by repeated scrolling all the way down to see Australia's medal tally.

Good news in the sailing:
GB have taken gold, USA silver & Somalia have taken a middle aged couple from Weymouth.

moneypenny20

Aus will be up in 11/12th place by the end of today. Apparently they only have to turn up to get it, I'm sure they can manage that.

cresta57

There's plenty of mileage left in suggesting that the swimmers aren't as fast as the rest of the world without their "go faster" cheat suits...... I've rattled a few cages onsite with that one.
Then throw in the fact that since reading 50 Shades Of Shite Aussie women are welcoming blokes that are not afraid to come second..................

Tr1boy

Because it cannot be sustained. Even though the track looks small and non cyclists could be thinking that the bike does a lot of the work, that's far from the case.

Track bikes have no (changeable) gears, no brakes and are 'fixed gear'. Which means you have to have enough strength to get them up to speed and then accelerate. (if you stop pedalling, you'll find out whether you have a future in rodeo riding).

A sprinter needs enough muscle to get the bike moving quickly from a virtual standstill, but not be so big that they it hinders momentum.

In the sprint, the idea is finish first (obviously), but the best way to do this is to have more momentum than your opponent. This can be achieved in two ways.

Go from the gun and hope you opponent cannot get onto your wheel, this rarely happens as rider in front will ride looking backwards to see when their foe will 'jump'.

Or get high on the track as the bikes are fixed gear, the faster you go 'downhill' the faster you will go. That's harder than it sounds, mainly because when the race is 'on' the front person can stay in the 'sprinters line' (the space between the black and red line) and any challenger must come around the outside, which obviously puts their nose is dirty air (think F1 slipstreaming).

So what they are doing when they are going so slowly for the first 1.5 laps is jostling for track position. The rider at the back will try to dive underneath the front rider to get the sprinters line, but the rider in front will 'shut the door' and hold them higher so they can get maintain position.

In terms of outright fitness, the sprint track racer is akin to the 100mtr runners, and they are just not built to sustain their high speed for very long. Full on sprint with the top guys are reaching 70/71kms nowadays.

They go 3 rounds, swap starting positions and draw for the third.

I hope that makes sense

moneypenny20

Perfectly thank you. I may know nothing but it's been bloody good!

DeadVim

And I thought I was the only one that had "50 Shades Of Shite" in my head whenever I heard it mentioned.

Tr1boy

No worries I forgot one thing, being fixed gear bikes, the riders have choose a gear that they can get up to speed fairly quickly, but not so easy that they will 'spin out' at the end of the race (have energy to spare). It's tricky. I'm a (bad) road racer, good at time trials and a general all around 'roadie'. My average cadence (the rate at which your legs turn) is about 90-92 rpm, in a sprint I can reach about 115rpm max. The track guys will regularly hit 135-140rpm

Gibbo

Come on, be fair, everyman and his dog was wearing these suits not just Australian swimmers. The present swim team comprised people at the end of their careers and novices. Going in to the Olympics only Magnussen had time that was best in the world. The girls in the 100m relay swam above themselves to win gold and the silvers were more than anyone should have hoped for.

rugbymatt

Good to see Dave Brailsford winding the French up by telling them the GB success was down to them making their wheels perfectly round and by constantly hiding their wheels from view.

cresta57

My dad just sent me that clip, pure class that went over their heads by a mile.

rugbymatt

When I then heard that they were hiding the wheels from French view I couldn't stop giggling, you know full well whats going there. Brilliant sledging!

cresta57

Not quite true, many swimmers did not wear them. They either couldn't afford them or were sponsored by swimwear manufacturers that were not making their own bodysuits. Once records began to tumble they caught on like wildfire.
To say that only Magnussen had the world best time beggers the question: Why then did the pre Olympic forecast predict 17 swimming medals?

Tr1boy

Triathlon starting soon, I desperately wanted to go to Hyde Park to watch this, but alas, I am on the floor in pain, so definitely not worth the risk

C'mon the Brownlees

Gibbo

Your guess is as good as mine. Only thing I can think of is that they were looking for improvement, for what ever reason, didn't happen. I am not disappointed with the results. They did the best they could and who can ask for more? Hopefully, Rio will give the swimmers the rewards they deserve for their hard work.
Forgot to say that the suits were worn by all of the main nations who were in competition for the medals. eg China, GB, USA, Australia etc etc.