She'll probably abandon the Olympic village, destroy her passport and claim political assylum.

Oh, I'm sorry, I mistook the title of the thread, I understood it to be the 2012 Olympic Thread not the "Who has more natural resources" thread, my bad.

You don't come in Aus very often these days do you? every fricking thread ends up being about natural resources, China, house prices, blah blah blah. Even the price of lettuce doesn't really get a look in any more.

Bananas do though..

How about Bananas? No, I try and stay away, its all very unpleasant in here.... much more friendly in the Spain forum.

sorry Matt beat you to that one..

Barsteward!

What? What did I say? Might have a look around the Barbie, see if there is any.... what's the word..... oh yeah, fun.

hmm, to paraphrase Cav, sometimes it's easier understanding the race by being in it, rather than watching it. But I'll give it a shot.

AM held VP high on the track in order to force her to lead from the front. When sprinters are very close in ability, the only real way to win is by getting in their slipstream and coming around the outside. The amount of space doesn't really come into it, it's more about who blinks first.

That was a bit of a nod to old school sprinting there, where riders were allowed to stop (known as a track stand, where you stop but don't put your feet down). They changed the rules years ago to stop this because some riders would stop for about minutes at a time. Continual forward progress has to made nowadays.

So AM went high, very high and in my very humble opinion (and remember I am just a hack), VP was not ready for the move, she was too close to AM and by the time she realised what was going on, she was right up AM's clacker.

Bad situation to be in. If VP had scooted under AM and driven for the sprinters line, AM would have just followed her, they both would have faded over that distance, but they are so equal it would have been a wash anyway. If VP had tried to 'duck' under AM and get the front position, AM would have pounced because at some point VP would have had to take her eyes off of AM.

You have to realise that these races are won and lost on 1,000ths of a second in terms of reaction, there is no recovery time, mess up and it's all over (like the 100mtrs running).

As to your 'low/high' question. The idea is to try and stay lowish on the bends and very high on the straights, obviously there is less of a ramp on the straights, so more energy has to be used to speed up.

It doesn't always work this way though, because sometimes the cat and mouse can go on longer than you plan, then you have to adjust your strategy If you start low and stay low, the following rider will just sit on the wheel and save energy.

As for last night's race once VP was forced to make the first dive, I would have gone on with it. I am at a loss to explain what she thought she had to gain by going high again, it just let AM 'regroup'.

I hope that makes sense. Track racing is instinctive, it's way way harder to explain than do!

I will say that the call on VP in the first was harsh IMO, but Meares had a very harsh call made on her at the Worlds in Melbourne. It's a bit like lapping traffic in F1, sometimes the gods are with you and sometimes not.

VP's story is an amazing one. She's like an egg, so insanely strong in some directions and incredibly fragile in others. She fell in love with one of the GB coaches (Aussie Scott Gardner) a few mths before Beijing Olympics and they had to keep it quiet. The news broke just before the meet, and the team was in pieces as it was a violation of British Cycling's very strict code of conduct.

Gardner was sacked by GB coach Shane Sutton (legendary Aussie cycling family) and VP's performances just dive bombed, as did her confidence. The two moved in together and I think once it was established as a long term relationship (they are engaged now), Sutton came out and said he'd mismanaged the situation horribly, and eventually Gardner was back on team and Queen Victoria was imperious once again

Everybody say,,,aaahh

Probably easier to just accept she lost isn't it? I mean I love the woman too but she didn't seem too upset really, she was just happy to be shot of racing!

Who isn't accepting she lost? I was asked for an explanation of the racing and I (hopefully) provided it.

Fair enough....

Thanks for the explanation mate. So just to be thick, at which point did VP touch the line - when they were off in the deciding sprint - which it seems VP was forced to lead? I thought the line was quite low.

..I looked for a video but couldn't find a good one in the time I had.

She touched it once she was in the "racing line", in her own explanation Meares was leaning into her, she leant back and as Meares pulled away she lost her racing line. She did state quite clearly that she was more than happy that Meares won, she deserved it, she got the better of her physiologically and as I said earlier, its sledging, she got sledged.... Besides, we had to let Australia win something before they lodged a complaint that Team GB's wheels were fixed to move too quickly.