Olympic MTB

[Sylv]

Don't forget Great Britain has another chance to win a medal in cycling on Saturday with the men's MTB

Liam Killeen despite being ill in 2007 has had a 4th place at the 08 Worlds

Oli Beckinsale has had some of his best results recently too

Women's race Friday @ 8am
Men's race Saturday @ 8am


Olympic MTB by numbers - there's at least one obvious mistake in there can you spot it!

17,000 – Spectator capacity at the Laoshan Mountain Bike course at Beijing 2008.

1996 – Year in which the Cycling Mountain Bike competition officially became an Olympic Sport.

188 – Height in cm of Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands, Geoff Kabush of Canada and Todd Wells of the United States, tallest riders at Beijing 2008.

156 – Height in cm of Laurence Leboucher of France, the shortest rider in Cycling Mountain Bike at Beijing 2008.

79 – Weight in kg of Bart Brentjens, the heaviest rider in Cycling Mountain Bike at Beijing 2008.

50 – Riders participating in the Men's event.

45 – Weight in kg of Russian Irina Kalentyeva, the lightest rider in Cycling Mountain Bike at Beijing 2008.

39 – Age of Bart Brentjens, the oldest rider in the Cycling Mountain Bike competition at Beijing 2008.

30 – Riders participating in the Women's event.

23 – Distance in kilometers from the Laoshan Mountain Bike course to the Olympic Village in Beijing.

17 – Age of American Adam Craig, the youngest rider in the Cycling Mountain Bike competition at Beijing 2008.

9 - Different National Olympic Committees (NOC) have won an Olympic medal in Cycling Mountain Bike.

4 – World Championships won since Athens 2004 by defending Men's Olympic Champion Julien Absalon of France.

3 – Medals won by France and Switzerland, the most by any NOC in the Men's and Women's competition.

2 – Gold medals won by Italian Paola Pezzo, the most by any individual in the Men's and Women's competition.

0 – Olympic medals won by China in the Cycling Mountain Bike competition.



http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/sports/he ... 5870.shtml



http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/o ... leen-18003

[Rob C]

number 9

[Wal]

I'm currently stuck in a one-horse (or 5,000 SUV) town in Newfoundland, Canada on business where much of the TV Olympics coverage has been in French - and Newfoundland isn't even a French speaking part of Canada!

I'm hoping someone in the UK will record the MTB races for me...

Personally I'll be cheering for NZ's Kashi Leuchs, but Liam and Oli will have my support too as representatives of my adopted homeland.

[Sylv]

There are some handy Canucks in both the women's and men's race


The error I spotted was #11

Maybe they read Adam Craig's blog a bit too quickly

[quote]Team Giant Report, Bromont World Cup and Korean Training
We’ll go ahead and tie a homecoming of sorts in with some new frontiers here… August was ushered in with a race that’s close to home and close to heart, yet it’s going to go out with a trip to the biggest sporting event in the universe.
I last raced in Bromont, Quebec in September of 1998. It was my first event as a member of the US National Team and my first World Cup competition, albeit as a seventeen-year-old junior. I remember starting hard, riding fast against the “Euros” on super fun trails and eventually getting a flat tire to finish lucky thirteenth or so. I was hoping for the same thing this year, minus the overindulgent riding resulting in a puncture… The trails, upon initial inspection, weren’t as super fun this year, but they ended up being entertaining in a kind of sadistic way during the race. It must have been the morning rain and resulting sh1t conditions… I’m glad I wasn’t a bike in said conditions, they got THRASHED! Mine somehow worked mint though. Thanks, Neb…

[adrian]

Poor old Bart Brentjens - tallest, heaviest and oldest. He would appear to be up against it...

[Sylv]

hé hé ... .

most scary photo too!

[img]http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/images/athlete_photo/normal/5/217835.jpg[/img]

The women's Olympic mountain bike race has been postponed until Saturday because of rain damage to the course, the UCI confirmed on Thursday.

The decision follows the postponement of the sem-final rounds of BMX competition earlier in the day.

The women's mountain bike race, held on a 4.5km loop to be raced for approximately 1 hour 40 minutes, was due to be held on Friday.

It means that both the women's and men's Olympic races will be held on Saturday, with a scheduled start of 10:00 a.m. for women and 3:00 p.m. for the men.

3am for the women's race

[Sylv]

With some of the favorites DNF'ing seemingly because of the heat (at 10-12am) it should make an interesting men's race at 3pm ...


[quote]Sabine Spitz of Germany fulfilled her dream of an Olympic gold medal by dominating the field early on. Silver went to Polish rider Maja Wloszczowska and Irina Kalentyeva (Russia) scored the bronze medal. The best Chinese rider was Chengyuan Ren in fifth place. She was 2'29 back.

The race in the unforgiving Beijing heat on a very technical course saw some of the pre-race favourites drop out early. Margarita Fullana (Spain), Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Norway) and Marie-Helene Premont (Canada) all were not able to finish the race.

Spitz had a good start and was at the front together with Fullana and Wloszczowska. Only a half lap (of six) into the race Spitz put in a very strong move. She completed the first lap 4.3-kilometre lap in 16'51, 21 seconds faster than her closest competitors.

From there Spitz kept pulling away until she held a commanding lead of around 50 seconds until the end.


It looks as though Marie Helene Premont has quit and is sitting on the side of the trail looking distressed.
Premont has made a statement that she was having problems breathing
Fullana has dropped out

1 Sabine Spitz (Germany) 1.45.11
2 Maja Wloszczowska (Poland) 0.41
3 Irina Kalentyeva (Russia) 1.17
4 Catharine Pendrel (Canada) 1.26
5 Chengyuan Ren (China) 2.29
6 Petra Henzi (Switzerland) 3.30
7 Mary Mcconneloug (United States) 5.23
8 Georgia Gould (United States) 5.40
9 Rosara Joseph (New Zealand) 5.56
10 Aleksandra Dawidowicz (Poland) 6.10
11 Elisabeth Osl (Austria) 6.28
12 Ying Liu (China) 6.50
13 Lene Byberg (Norway) 8.08
14 Elsbeth Van Rooy (Netherlands) 8.19
15 Nathalie Schneitter (Switzerland) 8.31
16 Eva Lechner (Italy) 13.11
17 Laurence Leboucher (France) 15.44
18 Adelheid Morath (Germany) 17.14

One lap behind

19 Jaqueline Mourao (Brazil)
20 Rie Katayama (Japan)
21 Blaza Klemencic (Slovenia)

Two laps behind

22 Yolande Speedy (South Africa)
23 Vera Andreeva (Russia)
24 Janka Stevkova (Slovakia)
25 Francisca Campos (Chile)
26 Dellys Starr (Australia)
DNF Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjaa (Norway)
DNF Margarita Fullana (Spain)
DNF Marie-Helene Premont (Canada)
DNF Tereza Hurikova (Czech Republic)

[huw williams]

Well - 1/2 a lap to go and a French 1-2 looks certain
Shame Kileen crashed so early cos he's come through the field and is lapping in a comparable time to Absalon at the front.

Why are the so many former drug cheats in this race? And why the hell is Brentjens still competing?