Olympic Mountain Bike Race Update

[KleinCrazy]

ATHENS (Reuters) - Danish mountain biker Mette Andersen had to pull out of the women's Olympic cross country race Friday after being attacked by a bee.

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Anderson was stung on the second lap of the five-lap race and had a bad reaction, the whole of the left side of her chest swelling up.



She was receiving medical attention at the course on Mount Parnitha, just north of Athens.

[jitterjepp]

Thats sucks!

Those bees are really out get the Danish! First they come at me four times at Wirth during trail work and now they want a piece of Mette! My elbow is still itching like crazy!

[Aaroneous]

Is anyone else pissed that freakin' synchronized swimming is on at primetime tonite, and we have to stay up til 12:30 to see the women's mtbing? :fool:

Grrr!

[PWAXON]

Is anyone else pissed that freakin' synchronized swimming is on at primetime tonite, and we have to stay up til 12:30 to see the women's mtbing? :fool:

Grrr!
We are talking about the Olympics. Ping Pong is an event to these people.:geek:

I propose a new event... Shopping cart races:D Have to be more fun to watch then most the events.

[TrailPatrol]

Don't read this post if you want to be surprised tonight at 2AM.

Results



1 Gunn-Rita Dahle (Norway) 1.56.512 Marie-Helene Premont (Canada) 0.593 Sabine Spitz (Germany) 2.304 Alison Sydor (Canada) 2.565 Elsbeth Van Rooy-Vink (Netherlands) 4.506 Maja Wloszczowska (Poland) 5.177 Ivonne Kraft (Germany) 8.278 Laurence Leboucher (France) 8.439 Mary Mcconneloug (USA) 9.2110 Lisa Mathison (Australia) 10.1011 Anna Szafraniec (Poland) 10.5312 Jimena Florit (Argentina) 11.5113 Irina Kalentieva (Russia) 12.0614 Barbel Jungmeier (Austria) 12.3115 Kiara Bisaro (Canada) 12.5916 Robyn Wong (New Zealand) 14.0817 Yanping Ma (China) 16.2718 Jaqueline Mourao (Brazil) 17.0119 Katrin Leumann (Switzerland) 19.1620 Maria Ostergren (Sweden) 19.251 lap behind21 Jenny Mccauley (Ireland) 22 Yukari Nakagome (Japan) 23 Karen Matamoros (Costa Rica) 2 laps behind24 Elina Sofocleous (Cyprus) DNF Marga Fullana (Spain) DNF Magdalena Sadlecka (Poland) DNF Barbara Blatter (Switzerland) DNF Mette Andersen (Denmark) DNF Paola Pezzo (Italy) DNF Janka Stevkova (Slovakia) </PRE>

[GearDaddy]

We are talking about the Olympics. Ping Pong is an event to these people.:geek:

I propose a new event... Shopping cart races:D Have to be more fun to watch then most the events.
Hey, I resemble that remark! :p I have to stand up for table tennis, a.k.a. "ping pong" here. I've played tennis, squash, racquetball, badminton, and table tennis competitively, and believe it or not table tennis is the best of them IMHO. It is claimed to have the largest participation of any sport in the world and has had world championships since 1927. Minnesota's Brandan Olson was a U.S. olympic team member in the 90's too. Yes, in europe and asia there are actually professionals that make a living playing this game.

Hey, there's actually a tournament happening tomorrow. Check out http://www.tabletennismn.com.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming ....

[FSSS]

Yeah... I gotta agree. Ping-Pong is freakin' awesome! Have you ever seen Olympic quality table tennis? It's insane!!

[Aaroneous]

Yeah, table tennis is cool, but I'd much rather watch Gunn-Rita Dahle bouncing her way along the XC course. :shocked: Or Paola Pezzo doing anything. She makes my banana dance. :banana:

[PWAXON]

My apologies to “Table Tennis” fans every ware I had know idea it was such a prestigious event.:D

[Panman]

Well, after watching the womens MTB race I'm quite dissapointed in the coverage. It was like the beginning, middle, and end in a half hour. That went WAY to fast. The course isn't all that technical either, IMO. However it was very loose dirt. Oh boy I could go on.. LOL

[rusto]

As a synchronized table tennis olympic wiffleball player, I just wish you guys'd lay off... :angry: :mad:
What time is the olympic D&D tournament? I hope it doesn't occur at the same time as chess, like last year. I mean, what were they thinking?!

[TrailPatrol]

Is anybody but me disturbed by the fact that this sport which was invented in the USA is so dominated by Euros now? I mean the best we could muster in the Women's was 8th and 19th in the men's. Granted, the way our team was picked was more based on obscure mathematics than performance, and we sent this huge MTB team of three. (One woman and two men.) USA Cycling continues to have no use for mountain biking, and NORBA keeps groveling at the feet of the US ICF designate. (Most other countries seem to have had teams of three of each gender.) Then there is the ultra high priority placed on MTB coverage by "the networks of NBC." :mad: Surely there are medal-worthy Americans out on the race circuit.

Anyhow, the French guy won Gold.

Hans


1 Julien Absalon (France) 2.15.02 (19.240 km/h)

2 Antonio Hermida Jose (Spain) 1.00

3 Bart Brentjens (Netherlands) 2.03

4 Roel Paulissen (Belgium) 3.08

5 Liam Killeen (Great Britain) 3.30

6 Ralph Naef (Switzerland) 4.13

7 Thomas Frischknecht (Switzerland) 4.37

8 Manuel Fumic (Germany) 5.27

9 Seamus Mcgrath (Canada) 5.31

10 Marco Bui (Italy) 5.43

11 Jean-Christophe Peraud (France) 5.57

12 Fredrik Kessiakoff (Sweden) 6.21

13 Bas Peters (Netherlands) 6.42

14 Marek Galinski (Poland) 7.12

15 Christoph Soukup (Austria) 7.48

16 Ivan Alvarez (Spain) 8.06

17 Oliver Beckingsale (Great Britain) 8.13

18 Riis Andersen Peter (Denmark) 9.01

19 Todd Wells (USA) 9.35

20 Carsten Bresser (Germany) 10.07

21 Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (USA) 10.26

22 Radim Korinek (Czech Republic)

23 Sid Taberlay (Australia) 11.14

24 Marcin Karczynski (Poland) 11.39

25 Thijs Al (Netherlands) 12.11

26 Adrian Bonilla Bonilla Jose (Costa Rica)

27 Iuriy Trofimov (Russia) 12.44

28 Kashi Leuchs (New Zealand) 13.18

29 Mannie Heymans (Namibia) 13.26

30 Robin Seymour (Ireland) 13.30

31 Joshua Fleming (Australia) 14.52

32 Michael Weiss (Austria) 15.12

33 Souza Cruz Edvandro (Brazil) 15.33

34 Lubos Kondis (Slovakia) 16.13

35 Yader Zoli (Italy) 16.37

36 Sergiy Rysenko (Ukraine) 18.08



1 lap behind

37 Christian Poulsen (Denmark)

38 Cristobal Silva (Chile)



2 laps behind

39 Sigvard Kukk (Estonia)

40 Zsolt Vinczeffy (Hungary)

41 Yongbiao Zhu (China)



3 laps behind

42 Emmanouil Kotoulas (Greece)

43 Franco Gennero Carlos (Argentina)



DNF Christoph Sauser (Switzerland)

DNF Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic)

DNF Kenji Takeya (Japan)DNF Lado Fumic (Germany)

DNF Miguel Martinez (France)DNF Ryder Hesjedal (Canada)

DNF Tudor Oprea Ovidiu (Romania)





</PRE>


:banana:
Hans

[Brick]

. Granted, the way our team was picked was more based on obscure mathematics than performance, and we sent this huge MTB team of three. (One woman and two men.) USA Cycling continues to have no use for mountain biking, and NORBA keeps groveling at the feet of the US ICF designate. (Most other countries seem to have had teams of three of each gender.)
This seems to be a common thread coming out of some of the Olympic sports this year..."how did these people get selected"? Most commonly raised after a poor showing.

[nigel]

What time is the olympic D&D tournament?

OMG I am sooo there!


Har

[Tetreves]

Matrix Ping-Pong (http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/pingpong.php)

This is one cool ping-pong game. Check it out! :crazy2:

[noise_is_life]

Is anybody but me disturbed by the fact that this sport which was invented in the USA is so dominated by Euros now?

It is disturbing, but not hard to understand. Cycling of any kind is just a much more respected sport in Europe.

[Trevize1138]

So, how non-technical was the course? Someone here mentioned that for the women's race, I assume it was the same for the men's. Might tie into our discussion earler about how MTB racing tends to have too little technical and ventures too closely to a road ride on dirt than a true MTB race.

Maybe the olympic MTB event simply needs to come of age before Team USA starts performing? I remember in Atlanta there was talk of how the Europeans dominated the Americans because they had a lot more road training. As I keep saying, road training is good, essential and important, but an MTB event shouldn't simply go to the racer with the best legs. That's what road biking is for.

[noise_is_life]

It looked a little technical, no obstacles or anything, but parts of it looked pretty steep and sketchy, it's always hard to tell on TV. I know they said one of the up-hills had a 45% grade.

I did hear in the woman's race that the racers were complaining about the double jump in one section and that they ended up modifying it. That seems kind of lame, it looked like it was easily rollable (maybe it wasn't originally), some of the men were clearing it.

[Panman]

Ya, it was hard to tell how technical the second half was on TV but the first was mostly gravel road. One part looked like bmx track with a couple "jumps", more like hills (mentioned below). The second half had nice singletrack downhill and a few good climbs. All in all, it looked like I could have competed. LOL It just didn't look that hard to ride but again, TV, who knows. How bout we take a trip!? :banana:

[SPR]

It looked a little technical, no obstacles or anything, but parts of it looked pretty steep and sketchy, it's always hard to tell on TV. I know they said one of the up-hills had a 45% grade...Yea things always look bigger and distorted on TV...:D
Is beach volleyball really worthy of being in the olympics???:scream: :crazy: :scream:

[grizzly adam]

Yea things always look bigger and distorted on TV...:D
Is beach volleyball really worthy of being in the olympics???:scream: :crazy: :scream:As long as the dancers are there!

[transplant]

Is beach volleyball really worthy of being in the olympics???:scream: :crazy: :scream:As long as it's the women's competition and my wife isn't watching with me!

[TrailPatrol]

As long as it's the women's competition and my wife isn't watching with me!
Totally agree, but use the competition as an "teaching experience" and you won't have to worry. She'll watch it with you, then whip your butt (Can I say that here?) when you try playing it together! :D

Spike safe,
:banana:
Hans

[destrago]

It is disturbing, but not hard to understand. Cycling of any kind is just a much more respected sport in Europe.
Which is not too hard to comprehend if you look at the price of gas here and the price of gas in europe. It's not the only factor, of course, but I know a lot more poeple would ride or do anything if their montly spending on gas was comparable to their rent! It's only a matter of time before our artificially deflated gas prices catch up (seems like they're starting, I wonder if they'll meet up with what they should be). Most european cities also formed long before the age of the car, and are much less spread out, so biking is a more viable option. Set gas prices to $5 to $7 a gallon and you'll watch those american urban sprawls come shrinking back in pretty darn quick. ok, I'll get off the soap box now.

-Tony

[jitterjepp]

Which is not too hard to comprehend if you look at the price of gas here and the price of gas in europe. It's not the only factor, of course, but I know a lot more poeple would ride or do anything if their montly spending on gas was comparable to their rent! It's only a matter of time before our artificially deflated gas prices catch up (seems like they're starting, I wonder if they'll meet up with what they should be). Most european cities also formed long before the age of the car, and are much less spread out, so biking is a more viable option. Set gas prices to $5 to $7 a gallon and you'll watch those american urban sprawls come shrinking back in pretty darn quick. ok, I'll get off the soap box now.

-Tony I agree and not for nothing but your location says you are in Eagan. Isn't that one of those sprawling suburbs?

[gopherhockey]

I agree and not for nothing but your location says you are in Eagan. Isn't that one of those sprawling suburbs?
Eagan has been swallowed up long ago by the super sprawling ones... heck its basically downtown now. ;)

Anyway.. back to olympic mountain biking.