Olympic Road Race

[Shickdawg]

It was comforting to hear Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen's voice again, amidst Bob Costas babbling "Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps". The coverage was a little disappointing, but it was cool to see the riders again. It was interesting to see so many riders abandon, but I guess 6 hours riding in 100 degree heat takes a toll on you.

So Paolo Bettini takes the gold, the unknown Sergio Paulinho takes silver, and Cannibal Jr., Axel Merckx takes bronze.

And now I just hope the coverage for the women is better, since it's not going to be on NBC, but on USA.

[KleinCrazy]

It was comforting to hear Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen's voice again, amidst Bob Costas babbling "Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps, Michael Phelps". The coverage was a little disappointing, but it was cool to see the riders again. It was interesting to see so many riders abandon, but I guess 6 hours riding in 100 degree heat takes a toll on you.

So Paolo Bettini takes the gold, the unknown Sergio Paulinho takes silver, and Cannibal Jr., Axel Merckx takes bronze.

And now I just hope the coverage for the women is better, since it's not going to be on NBC, but on USA.
I would not hope to high. it is going to be live and if the opening is any indication, they have a lot of issues to work on.

I will also say that the NBC HD programing has been just about the worst I have ever seen. Audi and video dropouts for long periods of time, repeated sequences, 24 hour delay of footage over SD broadcasts, low rate announcers, all in all it sucks. If the NFL, NBA, MLB can broadcast HD and SD live event simulataniously with one set of announcers an cameras, why can't they do it for the olympics.

All I can say is very sad.

[nigel]

[QUOTE=KleinCrazy] If the NFL, NBA, MLB can broadcast HD and SD live event simulataniously with one set of announcers an cameras, why can't they do it for the olympics. [QUOTE]

A little more money involved there to do it, that and unfortunatly the American masses care more about that then the Olymipcs......

[noise_is_life]

Why is it that they can show synchronized diving pretty much end to end, but they have to interrupt the men's road race twice and then skip a big chunk near the end, lame.

At least they are televising lots of the sailing this year, oops wrong hobby.

[soupboy]

...with so many hours of coverage they have to focus more on the ladies...

I mean, seriously, do you think the women would rather watch clothed, helmeted, sweaty cyclists or fit, clean shaven lads wearing man-thongs gallivanting about the pool.

My vote is for dodge-javelin...and make it pay per view to fund better technology.

Sean

[SPR]

So whats wrong with the women's road race. You get to see class atheletes like this::crazy2:

[soupboy]

...unsportspersonlike. Any clue as to what prompted this fraulien (sp?) to do this?

[nigel]

...unsportspersonlike. Any clue as to what prompted this fraulien (sp?) to do this?
From what i gather, something about Germany not letting her friend in?

[Shickdawg]

There's some info in the second paragraph at this article over at VeloNews (http://www.velonews.com/race/int/articles/6788.0.html).

"In the center seat of the raised podium sat Sara Carrigan, a starry gaze striped across her youthful face. Moments earlier the Aussie had grabbed gold, after pushing away from Judith Arndt on the last lap of the 118.8km race. Meanwhile, Arndt looked downright disgusted despite the silver medal swinging from her neck. The German was still seething over the Olympic-team exclusion of former Saturn teammate Petra Rossner, widely considered the world's top female sprinter.

The pair had also chosen distinctly different finishing salutes at the race's conclusion; Carrigan thrusting her arms in the air to celebrate victory, followed by Arndt casting up her middle finger in the direction of the German cycling federation, which had snubbed her good friend."

[Shickdawg]

But on the plus side, we've got time trials today. The women start racing at 1 PM, and the men share the prime time spotlight at 7 PM. Many of the racers consider this more interesting or important than the road race -- at least Tyler Hamilton does. The VCR is warmed up and waiting... Can't wait to get home.... :)

[soupboy]

...made her and her teammates shave their pits...

Sean

From what i gather, something about Germany not letting her friend in?

[SPR]

But on the plus side, we've got time trials today. The women start racing at 1 PM, and the men share the prime time spotlight at 7 PM. Many of the racers consider this more interesting or important than the road race -- at least Tyler Hamilton does. The VCR is warmed up and waiting... Can't wait to get home.... :)Never mind I don't want to spoil it for anyone.:etard:

[Shickdawg]

Never mind I don't want to spoil it for anyone.:etard:
I'M NOT LISTENING!!! I'M NOT LISTENING!!!! LALALALALALALALALA! :banana:

[Shickdawg]

There was some solid cycling going on yesterday, despite NBC's coverage. I was really irritated to sit through nearly 2 hours of swimming and gymnastics in order to watch the men's time trial smushed into 10 minutes. They were practically handing Hamilton the gold while Ullrich was still riding! :mad: (Not that they even showed Ullrich.)

Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel comes back from a nasty, nasty crash during the road race to take gold in the time trial (and quite convincingly). She becomes one of the most decorated cyclists in Olympic history after that ride. American Dede Barry takes silver and Karin Thürig from Switzerland takes the bronze.

The men's trial might have been interesting, but it was really hard from the coverage to tell. There were only splits available every 7.5 miles, which made it somewhat hard to tell how things were going. Tyler Hamilton had some trouble right off the bat with his radio falling out of that goofy time trial helmet, but that didn't keep him from taking the gold. Viatcheslav Ekimov takes a solid silver, and Bobby Julich takes gold. Interesting to see a couple of Armstrong's ex-teammates on the podium -- obviously he only chooses the best. And it's interesting to see the gold medal winners overcoming pain and adversity to triumph. Ride through the pain!!

And now we wait for the mountain bike races...

[SickBoy]

So whats wrong with the women's road race. You get to see class atheletes like this::crazy2:
her German teammate (and teammate on the Nurnburger trade team as well), Petra Rossner, was snubbed by the German cycling federation when they made their Olympic selections. Petra is widely regarded as the best sprinter in the world when she's on form. Had Petra been there... she'd have won. Judith Arndt's angst was directed at the German cycling federation and no one else....

[SPR]

There was some solid cycling going on yesterday, despite NBC's coverage. I was really irritated to sit through nearly 2 hours of swimming and gymnastics in order to watch the men's time trial smushed into 10 minutes. They were practically handing Hamilton the gold while Ullrich was still riding! :mad: (Not that they even showed Ullrich.)

Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel comes back from a nasty, nasty crash during the road race to take gold in the time trial (and quite convincingly). She becomes one of the most decorated cyclists in Olympic history after that ride. American Dede Barry takes silver and Karin Thürig from Switzerland takes the bronze.

The men's trial might have been interesting, but it was really hard from the coverage to tell. There were only splits available every 7.5 miles, which made it somewhat hard to tell how things were going. Tyler Hamilton had some trouble right off the bat with his radio falling out of that goofy time trial helmet, but that didn't keep him from taking the gold. Viatcheslav Ekimov takes a solid silver, and Bobby Julich takes gold. Interesting to see a couple of Armstrong's ex-teammates on the podium -- obviously he only chooses the best. And it's interesting to see the gold medal winners overcoming pain and adversity to triumph. Ride through the pain!!

And now we wait for the mountain bike races...
And the winners are ... Never mind I don't want to spoil it for anyone.:etard:
Now wasn't the wait worth it...:banana:

[soupboy]

...a hottie? Here's a pic of this kraut-roket...looks a bit she-manish for primetime coverage...then again, so does the entire non-US womens swimming and diving field...

[SickBoy]

...a hottie? Here's a pic of this kraut-roket...looks a bit she-manish for primetime coverage...then again, so does the entire non-US womens swimming and diving field...
Dude. I can only name one or two female road racer chicks that I am attracted to at all, and Petra Rossner is NOT one of them.... she -is- quite the butch.

[soupboy]

...Anne-Caroline - not "hot" per se, but she can ride the pants off 99.9% of the male population and Shonny V - uber XC goddess. Neither are roadies. I digress.

[SickBoy]

Dotsie Cowden (T-Mobile) is extremely good looking. Former model.

Jessica Phillips (Nurnburger) and Genevieve Jeanson (Rona) are both cute too. On the MTB side, Kelli Emmet and Tara Llanes have both been faves of mine. Marla Streb is cute (but tall, and getting a little old). I saw her in a grocery store in Durango last summer w/ her husband. She's like 6' so she's easy to pick out of a crowd.

[igor]

It was a buzzkill to only see 10 minutes of cycling last night. However it sounded like last night on MSNBC they had expaned coverage of it on late night. Did anyone here see it? I'm sure it was better. Congrats to Tyler and Bobby J!