slammed wrote:
You don't even need the motos to keep track of the front of race. When you're the favorite team like the Dutch were, you always have someone on or near the front, so counting down the riders dragged in is easy. Furthermore, the lead car marks the front of the race, which was obviously not in front of peloton. The Dutch squad was also barely even a 'team'. it was four favourites all riding their own race. What an embarrassing display.
There was some teamwork. A couple of times one of their riders dropped back to pull Vos back to the peloton when she had trouble and fell. They seemed to be putting in coordinated attacks towards the end too.
As for the winner, like another poster said, I kept wondering when the peloton was going to chase. They almost didn't catch the two other riders who broke away at the beginning and stuck with the winner for most of the race. If those riders had just a little more fitness, even if they'd fallen back they could have medalled. They were caught with what, like less than 5km to go. So even though the silver medalist thought she was riding for gold, had she realized she was silver, there was nothing she could have done. Maybe with a tremendous effort, she could have closed the gap to less than a k, but she still loses. I think the Dutch were getting times to the leader from their car or race crew or something too, so I don't know what a radio would have done. I guess a coach could have yelled break away now 15-20 k earlier or something.