Olympic Cycling Events

[Cid]

Well this took too long. The track events are way too busy, I got bored and have bolded finals/events which are one-offs. Most track days are only a few hours. BST gives us an hour on the usual GMT+9. I have probably made mistakes, check that and details here.

Date​	Event	JST	BST
24 July 2021​	Men's Road Race	11:00	03:00
25 July 2021​	Women's Road race	13:00	05:00
26 July 2021​	Men's MTB	15:00	07:00
27 July 2021​	Women's MTB	15:00	07:00
28 July 2021​	Women's ITT	11:30	03:30
28 July 2021​	Men's ITT	14:00	04:00
29 July 2021​	BMX Racing q/f*	10:00	02:00
30 July 2021​	BMX Racing semis/finals*	10:00	02:00
31 July 2021​	BMX Freestyle Seeding*	10:10	02:20
01 August 2021​	BMX Freestyle Final	10:10	02:20
02 August 2021​	Women's team sprint (qual to medals)	15:30	07:30
03 August 2021​	Women's Team Pursuit (All)	15:30	07:30
03 August 2021​	Men's Team pursuit (Heats), men's team sprint (all)	15:58	07:58
04 August 2021​	W's keirin+M's sprint (various), M team pursuit finals	15:50	07:50
05 August 2021​	Various bloody track (more sprint, W Keirin finals, M omnium to finals)	15:30	07:30
06 August 2021​	W's Sprint, W's Madison, Men's sprint finals	15:30	07:30
07 August 2021​	W's Sprint, M's Keirin, M's Madison	15:30	07:30
08 August 2021​	W Sprint, M Keirin, W Omnium	10:00	02:00

*BMX racing alternates men's and women's. BMX freestyle men start an hour after women's.

Cycling weekly gives a breakdown of the road events... Men's looks interesting - 234km, 4865m of climbing. So I suppose will be a long one, and probably possible to catch a fair bit of it.

Mikuni pass climb looks savage, with opportunities to shake up the whole thing in the run up to the last 30 or so km:

Fuji Sanroku is more of a steady grind:

Women's is less interesting, because sexism.

MTB should be the other interesting one to watch of course. Tom Pidcock and MvdP of course. Pauline Ferrand-Prévot favourite for the women. More details over on MBR.

I'm afraid I haven't done the paralympics, the classes are complicated and this has already taken too long.

 

[Hollis]

Women's road race at 2012 Olympics was kind of what got me into road racing.. superb race. Got bad memories of the road races in Rio - bonkers course.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

15,000 ft of climbing in 145 miles. Ouch. Rather them than me

Looking forward to watching the BMX racing - those guys are insane, highest peak power output of any cycling discipline, they even beat the track sprinters.

 

[Cid]

Inner ring has a bit more info on the first climb (the one in women's and men's), and Mikuni pass.

 

[David Clapson]

I hope the course won't be as dangerous as last time.

 

[Numbers]

15,000 ft of climbing in 145 miles. Ouch. Rather them than me

Looking forward to watching the BMX racing - those guys are insane, highest peak power output of any cycling discipline, they even beat the track sprinters.

Wow, not that I would know but that’s a pretty mad thing too now know about the BMX lot. Scary.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Wow, not that I would know but that’s a pretty mad thing too now know about the BMX lot. Scary.

Yeah, the top guys kick out well over 2000W down the starting hill, and over 1500W out of the corners. All at a ridiculously high cadence due to the gearing they use.

If you have GCN+ (and if you like cycling getting it is a no brainer) theees a great documentary on there called “Turning dirt to gold”…

 

[Hollis]

I hope the course won't be as dangerous as last time.

Apart from van Vleuten's crash - there was the American Abbott getting chased down by the trio of riders into 4th place. All good racing.. but painful to watch..

 

[twistedAM]

Has GB any chance of medals in the individual tracks events? The bookies are only listing team track events and they reckon GB has no hope in those.
What's been happening up at the Medal Laboratory?

 

[Cid]

So Slovenian gold men’s road race Sat? I mean Pog and Rog. Though I realise they’re competing. Parcour should favour them right?

Belgium strong too of course, be interesting to see how Evenepoel goes. Van Aert seems intent on upsetting things.

Colombian lineup has Nairoman, Uran, Dani Martinez, Chaves and Higuita.

Netherlands, GB, Italy… Ecuador, Australia, Denmark there are loads of interesting names peppered about tbh. Hungary has one spot across all the cyclings, it’s Atilla Valter though - want to see what he manages.

I suppose there’s a lot of climbing… but it’s not super tough climbing by the looks of it, nor is it altitude. So the major GC guys rather than climbing specialists maybe? And of course recovery and training opportunities may be an issue.

One thing is certain, quite a few people going to be dropped hard and early.

 

[David Clapson]

Got any advice on how to enjoy the road race? I have never been able to take it very seriously.

 

[Cid]

Look at the scenery.

 

[Cid]

To be fair I only watched a bit of it in 2012, and missed it in 2016...

 

[DJWrongspeed]

If the Netherland's don't win the Women's road race someone will have produced a miracle result.

Plenty of potential candidates for the men's race but you'd bet on WvAert I think ?

 

[Cid]

If the Netherland's don't win the Women's road race someone will have produced a miracle result.

I've not watched enough women's racing... I wish the schedules didn't overlap so much.

 

[DJWrongspeed]

I've not watched enough women's racing... I wish the schedules didn't overlap so much.

Any of them could win: Marianne Vos, Demi Vollering,Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen

 

[David Clapson]

The confusing bit is that the teams are not teams. There are no domestiques. It's every man or woman for themselves. Except when they plot to share the medals and ride together for a bit. And the plotters might be on the same trade team but different national teams.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The confusing bit is that the teams are not teams. There are no domestiques. It's every man or woman for themselves. Except when they plot to share the medals and ride together for a bit. And the plotters might be on the same trade team but different national teams.

Yeah, it’s what makes the tactics so interesting

 

[Cid]

Don't the World Championships work on the same basis?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

Don't the World Championships work on the same basis?

Yep.

 

[Nine Bob Note]

Well, I can't wait for this buffoonery

 

[Cid]

Well, I can't wait for this buffoonery

That's Keirin right?

That will be a high pressure one for the hosts...

 

[Cid]

They're on electric bikes now though I think...

 

[Hollis]

Blimey - there was me thinking I was going to have a nice Saturday afternoon watching it..

I'm really not sure I can manage 3am.

 

[twistedAM]

Heart says Remco for the men's road race and even though I can't quite see it, it's worth fiver.
Plus a few quid each way on these outsiders - Mollema (Ned), Bettiol (Italy) and Lutsenko (Kaz).
Having said that it'll probably be one of the three hot favourites.

 

[Nine Bob Note]

They're on electric bikes now though I think...

Bollocks. I want them on a moped in full traffic cop dress uniform

 

[twistedAM]

The confusing bit is that the teams are not teams. There are no domestiques. It's every man or woman for themselves. Except when they plot to share the medals and ride together for a bit. And the plotters might be on the same trade team but different national teams.

Not quite true.
Slovenia for instance has included two excellent domestiques in Polanc and Tratnik who'll be working for the two stars and Belgium will have designated helpers too for their pair. Spain will ride for Valverde.
I suppose there are some teams like Italy and GB where it is hard to pick out a real leader and that'll be sorted out on the road and then there are others like Russia where it'll be a right old internal battle

 

[Nine Bob Note]

My favourite Olympic cycling is in the Triathlon, someone PLS tell me the Brownlee Brothers are involved this time! I had no clue how the tactics worked at the time (and I've since forgotten) but watching the two of them very much bossing it in Rio during the cycling stage was eclipsed only by Max Whitlock's two golds in gymnastics.

 

[Cid]

GCN+ having some sound issues (and it was Brian and some other guy), BBC has Boredman. Sigh.

Ah, BBC taking a break.

 

[Cid]

The jerseys are confusing.