Olympic R/R Title : what value is it ?

Roadrash Dunc

I tend to agree.Even though the Olympics are only every 4 years , i suspect the top riders are after classic victories , far more history involved in something like the Paris-Roubaix than the Olympic Roadrace for cyclists.

Perhaps guys who have already won a classic or 2 would pay more mind to winning the Gold in the Olympics , but given the choice i know what i'd prefer.

That said , i think the Olympic TT is going to gain more prestige each games and be soemthing the big boys pay more attention to.Theres something more quantifiable about winning a TT rather than those dodgy Olympic circuits they set up for a road stage.

James Felstead

Well it seems to me that the reaction of each of the winners - and sometimes the losers - (men and women) seems to indiacte that the Olympic titles are valued pretty highly. Read Tyler's, Bettini's, Van Morsels, Nicole Cookes etc reactions and judge for yourself.

Happy amateur's such as myself can speculate all we like about the value but the only answers that seems worth listening to are those of the competitors. Anything else is pure conjecture - not a highly valued source of information in most walks of life!

ilpirata

It certainly has at least the same value as the of winning a classic. But not nearly the same as winning the tour de france. Naturally Indurain is more interested in the grand tours because that was his area of greatness. It is also natural for a cyclist to give more importance to a win in a classic that is in his home country. A road race of this type has interest because of the team tactics. This olympic R.R course was not particularly selective.

kgruscho

I think a lot of the writers here are underestimating the value of the olympics. I think the olympics means a lot more than people admit, not in terms of palmares but career.

It's a world champion style race that you can take to the bank for about 3 and a half years. BUT it's better because you even have some market ability to non-cycling folks. Jan Ulrich has certainly benefited tons from this.

Any rider whose style lent itself to winning that race was aiming for it big time.

It may be a bit less prestigous, but only for the same reasons that the World Championship has lost its luster... it's always a bit of a crap shoot, it's only one day and it has a bad time in the calendar for the top stage racers.
I really wish that they would have a four day stage race and give out an overall medal. Always have one mountain top finish, one rolling terrain with cobbles/rough roads, and one ITT. Give out medals each day and an overall. It's more hardware, but it would reward people for mastery of different cyclign skills and specialization as well as an all-rounder.
But this is unlikely to happen... why: because then it would be harder to market the winner.. final point, well Eki certainly seemed to care a lot about the ITT...

limerickman

Judging by the reaction of the inners to the r/r and ITT : I am beginning to think that you and James Felstead might just be right after all.
I think the Olympic title does mean a lot and I am happy to acknowledge that perhaps I might have just got it wrong.