Tom Pidcock - MTB Gold

[Tubby G]

Meh. I disagree with you. I understand the drive and competitive work required to be a cardio queen but what man wants to be built like a 140lb princess. I thing in a street fight all the xc fags would get their heads pounded in by the FR and DH boys.

Exactly this. An Olympic gold medal is awesome obviously, but in terms of mountain biking gnarliness, is it held as in high prestige as say Warners first GB downhill win, or Peaty being the undisputed king of gnar ?

 

[StevoKickstart]

I think that the MTB Olympic discipline(s) should be/ include DH; I think the viewers would go mad for it;
although....... creating more MTBikers would put added pressure on the paucity of bikes and parts.... so maybe stay as is for the next Olympics..

 

[Gary]

Tom is waaaay tougher than both of you.

and he's less than 130lb

 

[Zimmerframe]

I think “what is this vagina saying to me”

I thought that only happened when you met a girl with Mumble Trousers on ?

 

[RustyMTB]

Well you're both wrong as BMX is now basically the national sport & Bethany & Charlotte are our new queens. ?

It's an interesting topic, since us who know what's involved understand how much commitment & bravery yada yada goes into DH as well as the mad risk & it's by far the most exciting racing to watch. An XC race is enormously tedious as a spectacle for me but on a sporting level where athleticism rules, it's XC.

On the minority sports thing, there's something rotten where we're seeing two Olympic gold medalists at the peak of achievement, one of whom had to crowdfund her way to Tokyo & the other was working in a Mexican restaurant to pay her way. Don't see that with Froome & Wiggins do you?

 

[Doomanic]

An XC race is enormously tedious as a spectacle

The Olympics course certainly wasn't a snoozefest. I'll bet there's more people posting in this thread than forum members who would actually hit some of those features flat out, lap after lap.

 

[Tubby G]

Tom is waaaay tougher than both of you.

and he's less than 130lb

I followed Pidcock on Strava after he won gold. He went for a 118 mile ride around Yorkshire yesterday morning, yeah I reckon he’s quite hard, even for a feather weight

 

[Zimmerframe]

The Olympics course certainly wasn't a snoozefest. I'll bet there's more people posting in this thread than forum members who would actually hit some of those features flat out, lap after lap.

I just entered the Olympics XC course into Carl's - very helpful - free downloadable bike and suspension predictor advisor spreadsheet.

It advises I'd need at least 6 different bikes, 4 with variable geometry. 59 different forks and an amazing 273 different rear shocks. For tyre suggestions it gave an infinity error.

 

[Tubby G]

I just entered the Olympics XC course into Carl's - very helpful - free downloadable bike and suspension predictor advisor spreadsheet.

It advises I'd need at least 6 different bikes, 4 with variable geometry. 59 different forks and an amazing 273 different rear shocks. For tyre suggestions it gave an infinity error.

And once you’ve bought all those bikes, made all the upgrades, ridden them for a few miles, may as well sell them for a huge loss and buy another one ?

 

[Doomanic]

If I was at a bike park and riding up the gondola and some dude was like ‘hey man I got the gold in xc’

You wouldn't see him in the gondola because he'd pedal up and still smoke you on the way down...

 

[Doomanic]

And once you’ve bought all those bikes, made all the upgrades, ridden them for a few miles, may as well sell them for a huge loss and buy another one ?

Is Carl getting a Siryon? Only I'd like to call dibs if he is...

 

[steve_sordy]

.....................On the minority sports thing, there's something rotten where we're seeing two Olympic gold medalists at the peak of achievement, one of whom had to crowdfund her way to Tokyo & the other was working in a Mexican restaurant to pay her way. Don't see that with Froome & Wiggins do you?

The rowers got £24m and what medals have they got?
1 silver and 1 bronze, that's it so far.

 

[Zimmerframe]

The rowers got £24m and what medals have they got?
1 silver and 1 bronze, that's it so far.

Did they have to build their own river ? Or re invent water ?

 

[R120]

I think XC Olympic gold, its not my cup of tea, but my reason is the depth of talent in the field who are all fully professional in terms of training, equipment etc.

Whilst I love DH and enduro, the reality is there is a big drop off in competitiveness outside of the top riders, which IMO is as much about funding as natural talent, as not many riders actually get the opportunity to maximise their ability as other professional athletes as there simply isn't the time or money for them to do so - there just isn't the money in the sport for people to commit to the level of training that the XC riders can.

 

[Gary]

TBF Pretty much all the UK elite level DHers and Enduro riders have plenty time to train. it's having money to fund racing internationally that's extremely thin if you're not top 30 in the world or supported by a big team
Having said that. it's not all that different in roadracing. Yes the top contenders earn millions but their team domestiques don't earn anywhere near as much and arguably work harder for it. Roadracing just has a far larger wider audience so there's more money available.

The rowers got £24m

What does that actually mean?

.

 

[steve_sordy]

................................

What does that actually mean?.

It was quoted on the BBC Olympics program. Not being a rower, or even interested in it, I don't know. I took it to mean that £24m was spent on the Olympic rowing team in total. That would pay for coaches, personal sponsorship so that they didn't have to work full time, or maybe even at all. Kit of course, maybe hi tech boats (or do they call them hulls?) Travel costs to racing events near and far.......

 

[RustyMTB]

I know nothing about rowing beyond you get wet but there was something in the news about the British Olympic set up falling apart at the managerial level, apparently. By all accounts, Bethany Shriever had her finding cut for seemingly arbitrary reasons & we almost lost a generational talent because of it, which is spectacularly short sighted. More on it here.

The U.K. cut BMX star Beth Shriever's Olympic funding. So she crowdfunded her way to Tokyo – and won a gold medal.

Shriever even became a part-time teaching assistant for two- and three-year-olds to raise money for her BMX competitions.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Gary]

So £24m over 3 years?
between 67 athletes and staff? I don't know the first thing about rowing but I'd assume the British Olympic rowing team would include coaches, dieticians, physio, management/office staff etc too. and I'd assume that money is also meant to pay for equipment, travel and training facilities/premises and bills

Our Government, The IOC and UCI are all horrible corrupt organisations... I wouldn't lose sleep over the money they waste/steal/withold/give out

It's all fucked TBH

 

[apac]

I think XC Olympic gold, its not my cup of tea, but my reason is the depth of talent in the field who are all fully professional in terms of training, equipment etc.

Whilst I love DH and enduro, the reality is there is a big drop off in competitiveness outside of the top riders, which IMO is as much about funding as natural talent, as not many riders actually get the opportunity to maximise their ability as other professional athletes as there simply isn't the time or money for them to do so - there just isn't the money in the sport for people to commit to the level of training that the XC riders can.

its crazy to think that the Olympic gold medalist for bmx racing crowd funded herself to get to events leading up to the olympics.

 

[Norange]

Oh yeah. Make a mistake? Try your damn hardest to make up the shortfall.

or you know, just strop off in a team event ruining all their chances too, then complain about how stressful it is.
Stressful? It’s the bloody Olympics. What were you expecting?

Bit odd if you're referring to Simone Biles there. I think she quit because mentally she knew she wasn't at the races and one of her team mates would do a better job. Which they did, as I think they won silver. Also, she has half a dozen Olympic medals. Reckon she probably does know how stressful the Olympics can be! Finally, Isn't it better that, if someone is really struggling, we give them our support? I was up watching the BMX and it was an amazing performance. Surely we can celebrate that on its own merits rather than using it to run someone else down?