Olympic R/R Title : what value is it ?

limerickman

I would like to get the Forum's view as to the value of an Olympic road race title.

I was fortunate enough to be in Atlanta for the 1996 Olympic cycling events.

The US commentators were quite hilarious with some of the questions they asked.
Miguel Indurain, who Juan Antonio Samaranch allegedly begged to participate,
was asked by an American commentator if he had rested and trained specifically for the Olympics !
BigMig answered by going through the miles he had trained that season (17,000) and then explained how he had raced, and that he had just finished 10th overall in the TDF etc.
The expression on the face of the American commentator was hilarious : he simply couldn't believe what he was hearing (through a translator) from BigMig.
(I am not having a go at our American friends here - I'm simply telling how
of how little knowledge there was of what the pros did - this is all pre LA).

That's why I am particularly interested in the view of the road men.
Reading Ullrich's comments about the Olympics evidenced the point of how, in
East Germany where he was brought up, the Olympic Games still means a lot.
Museeuw, in 1996, on the other hand, said that the road race was just another race
and the Paris-Roubaix to him was a more prestigious event to win.
I know the Olympic title means a lot in other sports - and it is the centre of the participants sporting life.

But do the Forum think that an Olympic title is worth more than a Classic title or a grand Tour title, for the road men ?

If I had the chance to win a Classic, a grand tour, or an Olympic title, I think I would a grand tour and a classic would outweigh, in importance, an Olympic title.

Perro Loco

Your last sentence I think sums it up perfectly. I think in general the Olympics rates somewhat below the classics (and I am from the U.S.). It would be interesting to ask Tyler Hamilton if he would trade his victory in Liege for the gold? Armstrong for one of his 6 wins (I think he answered that one). Indurain appeared less than interested.

meehs

I think it still carries a certain amount of prestige. Not as much as a Grand Tour by any means but I'm not sure if all of the classics outweigh the Olympic title. I bet most of the pros would say that the bigger classics like Paris-Roubaix are more important than the Olympic RR title. But do you think a top rider would rather win the Olympic title or one of the "lesser" classics like Ghent-Wevelgem? It's an interesting question.

philoakley

The Olympics is definitely worth winning. I view it almost on the same level as the World Championships these days. Like the World's today, it would be worth more if the big champions rode but they don't. However, I think the Olympic road race has value because it can only be won every four years Whether its worth more than a Paris Roubaix or Liege-Bastogne-Liege, I don't know. Only the riders can answer that . I would say that the field for this Olympic road race suggests that it is valued quite highly. O' Grady to win.

Jakebrake

If I had my choice, I guess I would rate a Classic, Grand Tour, then Olympic Gold. I think the Olympics have lost a bit of their luster due the fact now professionals participate (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, Eastern bloc countries use to send their pros routinely) and also for me, someone who use to enjoy team sports growing up, is the fact that now NBA, MLB, NHL have a very heavy influence of foreign players (thank god for that, especially for the NBA, it's nice to see players who are fundamentally sound again), where as before the only chance you would get to see some of the greatest players/teams go head to head was in the Olympics. Also all the hype, personal profiles, ad buys, tv ratings that dominate the American networks take away from my enjoyment of the games. Not that it really matters, I don't/rarely ever watch TV.

gearshift

I'm not exactly sure what the majority of the perception is the in cycling community among pro cyclers, but I have two questions I would ask a pro cycler in order to get an indicative response to whether the Olympic Gold means more than the others. I would first ask: Do you think the best of the best are competing in the Olympics, compared to that of a Classic or Grand Tour. If the answer is no, then winning the gold may not mean as much to them because they wounldn't have been up against the best....well, I forgot the second question, but it would be interesting to here a take on how cyclers feel about it, especially in the US.

Jakebrake

Do you think that the rich history and tradition of the classics and grand tours might also be a reason why some people/riders might consider these of more value than an Olympic gold?

renoster

Several top pros are competing in the Olympic Road race. Many targeted it as a major goal for the year.

A lot of strong riders from country's with very deep talent did not make the teams. Ask one of the top french, spanish, italian, belgian riders how they felt about not making their team. I think you will find that they were deeply disappointed.

I only know of one top rider that specifically chose not to compete - Lance Armstrong. For many, an Olympic gold medal is up there with any victory.

keydates

Lance would have competed, but he wanted to spend more time with his family. At least, that's his reason, obviously up to you to believe it or not.

I concur with many posters here that the Olympic (Gold) Road Race is important and prestigious, but nowhere near the likes of the Grand Tours and major Classics.

derKaiser

I think the Olympics are second only to the three grand tours. Although Paris-Roubaix and Milano-San Remo are prestigious wins, they don't attract the same level of competition as the Olympics. When was the last time Jan Ullrich rode Paris-Roubaix for the win? And the Olympic Road Race is a much more publicized international event than the regional classics. An Olympic victory carries more prestige.

patch70

I think it varies quite a bit with nationality and how important the olympics are in general. I know it means a lot to Aussies and I believe it is also important to people from US, NZ, East Germany, Russia. I think it is less important to Italians, French, Belgians, Dutch - maybe as they have much more of a history with the classics?

thebluetrain

One thing you have to realize is that the NFL is KING in the States. After that is the NBA, MLB, and NHL. After that is Golf, Track and Field, Volleyball, NASCAR, X-games,Tennis, plus many others. Not to mention you have all these same professional sports at the college and high school level also(with the exception of Nascar and Xgames). Kids in the States grow up playing football. It is the #1 sport in the States. Cycling in the States is way down on the bottom of the list of sports, so of course their is little knowledge. Kids in the States ride their bicycles to football, baseball, and basketball practice. Thats about the exent of cycling to most young kids. Another thing you need to look at is the salaries. Compare the salaries of the top cyclists in Europe to Shaqille O'neal, Peyton Manning, and Alex Rodriquez. Money talks. Which means more advertising, publicity, and endorsements. Trust me I will be the first one to agree that these sports stars are overpaid but thats just the way it is. I guess the point I am trying to make is that while Cycling is KING in Europe, Cycling in the States has a lot of competion.

mojomarc

In Olympic coverage over here, there are a ton of sports that have only a small following, and the commentary is almost always bad. It's not a lack of knowledge about cycling, but that the various networks will only hire so many people to cover all the sports. This means events like the equestrian Three Day Event and team handball and field hockey often get covered by people who spend most of their time reading the rules off the card some intern prepared for them. If you're trying to attribute this to a lack of pre-Lance knowledge, I think you would be surprised to find that there still aren't American-born commentators for cycling here in the country, but instead we get the same group from the TdF--Liggett and Sherwin. You don't only have to be knowledgeable, but a broadcaster, too, after all ;-)

Then again, I remember being in China when Wayne Gretzky broke the NHL scoring record, and caught a newspaper brief about it which I wish I had kept, it was so hilariously ignorant. Just goes to show that even with 1.2b people, it's still hard to find a decent sportswriter

James Felstead

straight from the horses mouth (or should that be crickets?):

http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/200...hp?id=paolo0417