Olympics - Cycling Track Previews

My preview

Mens Team Sprint

Great Britain have come here well prepared. They want gold and they will get gold. They beat the French in the world championships at home earlier in the year and they have a strong team. Stronger than the French IMO. France however, are a strong team. Netherlands will put up a fight. Good underdog status is Germany who took gold in this event in Athens. They failed in the world championships that year. This year, they failed in the world championships. Can history repeat? One thing for sure, there is not going to be much in this. The top 5 will be very close.

Gold - Great Britain
Silver - Germany
Bronze - France
Fourth - Netherlands

Womens Individual Pursuit

Rebecca Romero @ $1.85

Romero is a gun at this discipline. Will be hard to beat. Her only challenger will come from the yank in Hammer.

Gold - Rebecca Romero
Silver - Katie Mactier
Bronze - Sarah Hammer
Fourth - Alison Shanks

Mens Team Pursuit

Great Britain takes this with ease. Only a crash can stop them from taking gold.

Gold - Great Britain
Silver - Denmark
Bronze - Netherlands
Fourth - Australia

Womens Sprint

Pendelton deserves the favouritism and will probably take this out. However, Anna Meares used to be the world champion and used to be the World Record Holder. A question mark is over the health status of Anna Meares after her accident. But we know that a fully fit Anna Meares is the best in the world at this discipline. Meares and Pendleton fight out Gold and Silver and I edge it to Meares 2 - 1 in the final.

Gold - Anna Meares
Silver - Victoria Pendleton
Bronze - Guo Shuang
Fourth - Jennie Reid

Mens Individual Sprint

Great Britain's Hoy and France's Sireau fight this out. Hoy is riding in great form and Sireau is a good sprinter. This like the Womens is going to be a good final. Hoy takes this.

Gold - Chris Hoy
Silver - Kevin Sireau
Bronze - Ryan Bayley
Fourth - Theo Bos

Mens Individual Pursuit

This is Bradley Wiggins event to lose. Wiggins should **** this in. Nothing more to say about it.

If you like an underdog, Taylor Phinney is one to watch. He's being hyped up everywhere. In January he won this event in LA and came 8th in Manchester and has only been on the track for 10 months.

Gold - Wiggins
Silver - Phinney
Bronze - McGee
Fourth - Huizenga

Mens Madison
People will say I'm being bias, but nothing can stop the Great Britain pair of Cavendish and Wiggins. Cav is the fastest man in the world - particularly on the track and Wiggins is a handy team mate. Pollock and his team mate are the only threat to this.

Gold - Great Britain
Silver - Germany
Bronze - to come tomorrow
Fourth - to come tomorrow

Well done Grates.

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where is Rogers and Ciolek?

edit: are

They'll be in the break.

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what about risi and marvulli?

An interesting preview Grates but just one little thing - the French team are reigning world champions in the team sprint having beaten the GB team in Manchester, not the other way round.

Having said which, in qualifying, team GB have just knocked 1 second off the world record - looks they came well prepared...

worlds best, slight diff, not WR.

3 laps. Different sized velodromes, plus different velodrome speeds.

British team break the world team sprint record in qualifying:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008...ympicscycling4

Thunder, I agree - this from the official website:
'Because of variable track lengths there are no records kept for this event'

But the media are reporting it as a world record...

amazing opening session on the track for team GB - they will win most of the GB golds again - and still we won't get any decent coverage of cycling in the UK

Looks like GB Cycling is going to provide at least half of our medals this olympics, but hey, as long as we own everyone on the track that's fine by me! Go team GB!

Looks like GB are off to a flyer. It looks like they could dominate even more than they did at the World Championships.

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Great Britain are going to dominate it's not funny. They have almost a guaranteed gold and silver in the Womens Pursuit. Who gets it? - your choice.

Off to a good start with my selection in the team sprint. Like I say, world championships are one thing. But when it's Olympics, it's game on. Look at Leisel Jones in the 200m Breatstroke.

Mens Kieren

Well Hoy wants at least 2 gold medals. He got his first last night and is on track for a possible 3 in both the mens sprint and also the Kieren. However, this is a wide open race. I've discounted Ryan Bayley from the mens sprint - but he did look good last night.

Hoy and Bos should both fight out Gold and Silver in this event. However, I like Bayley's chances and also Tournant's chances. But Hoy is the master of this event and is going to be hard to beat. Whoever beats him, deserves 2 gold medals.

Gold - Chris Hoy
Silver - Theo Bos
Bronze - Ryan Bayley
Fourth - Arnaud Tournet

Mens Points Race

This is interesting. It's good to watch. Confusing to the people who don't know the sport. The current world champion Kiryienka from Belarus is favoured to take this out. But in this discipline, the favourites don't always come through. Ignatyev is a threat from Russia. However, in this, I'm liking the veteran in Joan Llaneras. This is his last Olympics. He won the Gold in Sydney and Silver 4 years later. Also, at the risk of sounding Bias, the name Greg Henderson stood out to me. He's got a few gold medals on the track - mostly in the team pursuit, however, he doesn't ride a bad points race either. You don't neccessarily have to be fast to win this event but be smart and both he and Llaneras have the experience to execute good races tonight. He came 4th in Athens and in 2001 he won a few points races. He also hasn't been racing on the road much for team Columbia so he has been preparing for this Olympics. Big threat. It's a toss up between Greg and Joan for me. I see one of them winning and I'm going for the Kiwi.

Gold - Greg Henderson
Silver - Joan Llaneras
Bronze - Vasili Kiryienka
Fourth - Mikhail Ignatyev

We are getting no track cycling on TV or on the live streaming on the network website As far as I know...

Is there a website out there that has live streaming of the track cycling and doesn't block out US located viewers?

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