Audaces fortuna juvat - Or, check out her LinkedIn

[jt10000]

What a ride in the Olympic cycling road race with the winner attacking from kilometer zero.

Her LinkedIn profile shows she's a postdoc in math. And on Twitter she was was working very carefully on performance in hot conditions to get ready for this race.

 

[jt10000]

Also, check out this really interesting interview:

"[A]ll those people who say they know, they actually don’t know. Many of them don’t know, and especially those who say that they know, don’t know, because those who do know say that they don’t know."

 

[Jwrags]

Pretty interesting strategy to attack and break away early so nobody knew she was out there. Congratulations for a great ride.

 

[Rudi Riet]

The Olympics are one of the few UCI events that doesn't allow the athletes to wear race radios. So communication between teammates, watching the other athletes, and dropping back to the team car to get intel is vital.

Some athletes adapt to this well, others not so much. Witness van Vleuten's celebration at the line believing she'd won gold when she'd actually won silver. Apparently Marianne Vos was aware that Kiesenhofer was ahead but Annemiek van Vleuten wasn't and... well, there you go.

 

[Primoz]

If someone would ask me, I would be for radio ban on all events. Now you have 150 brain dead robots doing whatever DS tells them to do. It's boring and it's dangerous. Until you see in real life what means "get into front line" on radio from 10 different teams at same time and road is 3m wide, you don't really know how bad these things are. And then they were complaining disc brakes are dangerous Without radios riders would need to think a bit and smarter and more experienced riders and teams with proper road captains would do way better then now, when everyone listen to radio and watch useless power meter numbers.
As for women road race... if you didn't manage to gasp in 120km there's someone infront of you, with all the visits back at DS car, with all those guys handing you food and drinks next to the road, then well... it's not really down to radios but to complete incompetence... rider's and whole team's.

 

[jt10000]

As for women road race... if you didn't manage to gasp in 120km there's someone infront of you, with all the visits back at DS car, with all those guys handing you food and drinks next to the road, then well... it's not really down to radios but to complete incompetence... rider's and whole team's.

Yes.

And she puts a little burn into the Dutch by saying everyone knew there would be no radios and she was ready for that (at 2 minutes).

 

[Tom K.]

Breakaway from the starting gun?!

Eddy Merckx would be proud!

 

[markojp]

If someone would ask me, I would be for radio ban on all events. Now you have 150 brain dead robots doing whatever DS tells them to do. It's boring and it's dangerous. Until you see in real life what means "get into front line" on radio from 10 different teams at same time and road is 3m wide, you don't really know how bad these things are. And then they were complaining disc brakes are dangerous Without radios riders would need to think a bit and smarter and more experienced riders and teams with proper road captains would do way better then now, when everyone listen to radio and watch useless power meter numbers.
As for women road race... if you didn't manage to gasp in 120km there's someone infront of you, with all the visits back at DS car, with all those guys handing you food and drinks next to the road, then well... it's not really down to radios but to complete incompetence... rider's and whole team's.

Ban radios, heart rate monitors, and power meters. Bring back brains and self-knowledge to the sport. Heck, speedos too while we're at it.

 

[scott43]

I guess we can ask, have radios and power meters made the spectacle any better? Probably not I'd say...

 

[KevinF]

I haven't been watching the Olympics, and I don't generally watch bike racing in general... But having the second place rider be so far back that she thinks she won is the best reason to ban radios that I've ever heard.

If you can't keep straight who's up front and whether or not you need to start bringing them back -- too bad. You burned too many matches chasing an unimportant breakaway to have legs to contest the victory? Too bad.

How many TdF stages would Cavendish have if he didn't have a radio telling him (and his team) exactly how hard they have to chase to give themselves any shot?

Sports in general need more "sucks to be you" "rules".

 

[RobSN]

[Ban]

speedos too while we're at it.

Couldn't agree more - far to many obese middle aged men in them ...

 

[Seldomski]

[Ban]

Couldn't agree more - far to many obese middle aged men in them ...

Funny, I thought we was advocating for more speedos.