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news
E7IMJVzWUAIazGDAnnemiek van Vleuten celebrates after mistakenly thinking she won Olympic gold
Annemiek van Vleuten celebrated mistakenly thinking she had won an Olympic gold medal as she finished in second place.
She rode across the line at the Olympic road race in Tokyo with her arms in the air, however Austria's Anna Keisenhofer had already soloed to victory 1 minute and 15 seconds earlier.
Riders in the Olympic's cannot communicate with their team and directors via radios and it appears van Vleuten and her teammates were simply not aware that the Austrian was still up the road.
> Anna Kiesenhofer wins surprise gold in 'stunning' Tokyo Olympic road race
Van Vleuten wasn’t the only rider confused by the race situation, with Lizzie Deignan telling the BBC that she also thought van Vleuten had taken the gold medal.
And indeed Lizzie Deignan in a BBC interview just said that van Vleuten had won -- so the peloton didn't know there was someone up the road. Now, is that an argument for race radios? Or is an argument for the opposite? #Tokyo2020
— Michael Hutchinson (@Doctor_Hutch) July 25, 2021
Hardly any riders in the peloton appeared to realise that Keisenhofer had won with Danish rider Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig one of the only riders pictured congratulating her.
What a win from @AnnaKiesenhofer! A well-deserved #gold medal at today's Women's #CyclingRoad #Olympics race, after a 137 km breakaway.
Congratulations to @AvVleuten #Silver and @ElisaLongoB #Bronze for completing the podium, and to all riders who competed today! #tokyo2020 pic.twitter.com/jBL7Cvmw9b
— David Lappartient (@DLappartient) July 25, 2021
Latest Comments
- lesterama 3 sec ago
I think they had this in mind* *buried in the antipodean psyche
- gazza_d 19 min 31 sec ago
Acts like this should be regarded as domestic terrorism, because that's what it is.
- brooksby 1 hour 19 min ago
Maybe everyone will be given those blue plastic shoe covers like they wear on police procedurals?
- eburtthebike 1 hour 44 min ago
The Daily Mail, Telegraph and GB News.........
- Tass Whitby 1 hour 53 min ago
Still available on Amazon if anyone's keen - link is in the review.
- Benthic 1 hour 57 min ago
Not AB specifically, but that sort of thing. Focus Pocus is the most entertaining.
- Benthic 2 hours 4 min ago
That question would send Daily Mail readers into turmoil.
- Dnnnnnn 2 hours 26 min ago
Was that Marchmont? I remember a £975 Claris bike there a few years ago.
- Rendel Harris 2 hours 45 min ago
It is for four months, TrainingPeaks offers a free basic athlete account and TrainingPeaks Virtual is currently free for all users until March 2025...
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14 comments
I guess the question comes back to who should be responsible for keeping track of breakaways.
Riders may be at the back of the peleton when the break goes and not be aware how many riders are missing, therefore not count them all back in. Obviously keeping track of only the rivals fails when the solo breakaway is not one of the expected favourites.
Those riders who were dropped by the break and caught by the pelton know, but there is no incentive for them to inform other teams .
Is it down to the the riders to be aware of who is off the front, or is it down to the teams to keep their riders informed.
Or should the time behind the leader be displayed by organiser's signs at various locations (such as 30km, 20km, 10km to finish)
It did seem strange to me watching a convoy of official cars as the winner crossed the line, that riders were not aware that all these cars had passed the peleton at some stage, and never been caught again, heavily suggestive there is a rider ahead of those cars. Surely easier to remeber the cars that have passed the group and never been caught, than knowing (potentially from the back of the field) that 5 riders broke away, but only 4 were caught.
This is the most detailed analysis I've seen so far (and from someone who really knows the sport):
https://inrng.com/2021/07/womens-road-race-review-tokyo/
Thanks for posting- that's a great write up. The key takeaway is that she got a 5 minute gap on the best in the world at the Olympics, and they barely made an impression on her lead, despite her soloing for 40km. I know Kiesenhofer is only an amateur by virtue of not being signed at the moment, but still the stuff Olympic dreams are made, in an increasingly professional dominated event.
Huge congratulations to Keisenhofer!! Honest question, how does a breakaway happen, to pro riders no less, where a rider in the top 3 overtakes you and you don't realize they are in front? It doesn't seem possible to be at the forefront of a race and suddenly lose track of who you're chasing.
Initially it was multiple riders. All but Keisenhofer got dropped. They probably miscounted how many of the original break (was at the start of the race) had been reabsorbed by the group. It does explain a lot though - the strongest team was in front of the peloton and didn't seem to be pushing the pace to close the gap at all.
I think this is because it's chaotic when the breakaway happens and quite difficult to know (without a radio) how many riders are in it. So when two were reabsorbed into the peloton, many may not have realised that there was one left ahead.
Well you say that but Elisa Longo Borghini said she knew there was still a rider up the road,but it was up to the Dutch to work it out and chase it down.
Hmmm. How many hours was it beween the breakaway (right at the start of the race) and the finish. How long was it from when Anna went solo (41km to go) and the finish. And no Dutch rider went to the team car for drink or food in that whole time? A very very big dropped ball by them and many others I think. A very very brilliant performance by one rider and the team who choose her.
Congratulations to Anna Keisenhofer, our new womens champion, way to go!
In my opinion, the race was dull and boring; perhaps if there was team-radio, it might have had something to offer. You'd think the racing would be more intense, at only 137km long. The commentators constantly saying its was exciting, didn't make it so, and didn't help either. Feel a bit robbed of my time.
A 137km breakaway: that takes courage and an ability to suffer - especially in 30+ degrees heat at 80% humidity. What an astonishing ride. I didn't think that much could surpass Carapaz' victory yesterday, but didn't have to wait long.
Perhaps the Pro Tour should look at race radios: riders would still have time boards and access to the team cars, but there would be no one with a calculator helping riders chase breakaways down....
Well that would explain why the Dutch team seemed a bit laid back about chasing. I heard Lizzie's post-race comment and did wonder if they thought they caught all the breakaway...
Amazing ride by Keisenhofer.
Appears to be a Complete failure by the Dutch Team Management in not keeping their riders in the picture. Time boards etc are allowed. IF the Winner had not survived so well, we would all be saying "what a well judged race by the Dutch". Their Management Team threw it away, not the riders
Weird thing is Vos (and some others in the peleton) did know there was another rider up the road.
yes, I just read that interview, thats quite intruiging dont you think ? I wasnt buying the Dutch team had too many star players excuses to begin with as theyd surely have enough experience to have sorted that out their roles beforehand, but maybe not.
Perhaps we are reading too much into it, but if Vos knew the situation,but somehow didnt communicate it properly with her teammates,as both AvV and AvdB said they didnt know and had assumed AvV was soloing to gold.