Don't forget Shanaze: yet another gold in the cycling tomorrow by our BIGGEST STAR

yeah; I wish nick h had had a crush on Rebecca Romero instead

I always thought this would happen once i saw this thread!

That is so offkey! Rebecca did what she came to do!

She stood tall while Shanaze buckled.

Gutted for her, on the other hand she's got a few olympics left in her yet. She was reckless pretty going for it in the last corner but on the other hand I like the way she didn't think the silver was good enough and wanted the gold.

And whats wrong with Romero?

I've been winding Melinda and others on the cycling thread about that but since you ask would i rather see a gold go to someone who came through the grassroots in the sport (which let's face it up to now not that many in the UK were interested in but now all seem to be experts) rather than someone who got funded from day one and is talking of leaving the sport now that she's got her medal, so she can try her hand at being someone who wins three different events?

At the end of the day I don't give a toss about Rebecca Romero and her quests but I do care about GB cycling and would rather see money spent on grassroots as opposed to some gympony that might get us a medal.

*Derail* There's a US women in the pentathlon this year who has previously won a swimming gold in a relay years ago, Atlanta maybe (not sure), moved to triathlon where she did at least one olympics and is now in the pentathlon. It can't be that common, people moving to different sports. I wonder how many have been successful?

meant to say are all of our cyclists posing in evening dresses or nude these days?

Victoria, what have you started? Even you know who stripped off for an advert.

Thats on the Olympic photography thread

She looks GLORIOUS!

ooh-err...must visit that thread to see if my favourite is on there

you teaser!
i was expecting photos of VP and I found an advert instead

LMAO!

Your anti Romero vendetta will not be tolerated!

Just a note of thanks to Part2 for the insights on this thread. Great stuff.

I have to say, when I first saw this I thought 'what kind of sport is this, BMX?'

I'm completely converted - it's totally mental, not like chess

Do you need to get tickets in advance for Peterborough?

*goes to google

Echoed

*applauds her thanks*

This was also my instinct. Unlike the very noticeable and remarkable preparedness of all GB athletes I’ve seen at this Olympics, Reade seemed to have not benefited fully from the huge increase in the (sports) psychology component – for example, she wasn’t calm and totally clear, and any visualisation seemed not to have taken into account anything past the race start. It all became a mad rush of blood and adrenalin: 3 falls in 6 rides . . .

You have to look at her coaches imo, though it's possible her age also had something to do with it (I recall she missed the start beep in the World Champ Final with Pembleton last year . . . though it didn't matter on that occasion).

Fwiw, I thought the French woman deserved it and I wouldn’t know what to say if someone suggested Reade intentionally tried to take her out.

Oh dear, I shouldn't have started this thread, should I?

She really did let herself down. Her coach said her first crash was because she put in an extra turn of the pedals on the berm to get more speed. That wasn't part of the plan - he said something like 'that's Shanaze for you'.

Boardman said her second crash, the one in the semi when she landed just before the first berm with her front wheel askew was because she'd been trying to make a jump that she'd been advised not to.

I still can't work out why she was overtaken so easily in the final. As Part2 says it does seem odd to choose lane 1 when you know you've got to turn in sharply to switch to the women's course. But she must have practiced it a bazillion times. Maybe she's used to having a bigger lead going into the first corner? Maybe she didn't get as fast a start as usual, allowing ACC to stay really close to her? Maybe she could have turned tighter but bottled it a bit because she was worried about washing out again? I keep replaying it and really it just looks as if she could quite easily have blocked ACC by staying lower on the banking and she just chose the wrong line. Very average bike handling.

Her final move was a disgrace - she was relegated, and rightly so. If ACC had been knocked off and Shanaze had crossed the line first she wouldn't have got gold. It had to be a deliberate T-bone. Either that, or she was gambling on ACC drifting wide, which wasn't going to happen.

I dunno Shanaze

Hats off to ACC - a well-deserved win. Her lines were perfect. She had her knee out when she came under Shanaze on the first turn, just like a motorbike racer. After that she did a great job of defending her line.

where's nick h?

Here!

this makes sense. I think her strategy was simply one of setting the course record every time she went out. Why would she crash twice in qualifying when she could have simply waltzed in the final? She wasn't go to slow down to win. But she's young I guess.

FIrst time I've posted on this therad, and first I'd like to say thanks to the two french girls for gettinga one-two - ACC was the first French gold medallist of the games.

Don't think Shanaze was trying any dirty stuff when she crashed - think she just tried to do what ACC did to her at the first berm but got it wrong.

I did get confused though - why was were the semis run over three races and the final run over one? Also, why on earth if you had the first pick of lanes ( as Shanaze did) would you pick the inside lane? Yes it's the shortest way around but it clearly wasn't the quickest - as ACC showed.

Thank you

Your rarely pay to watch a BMX race in this country, Peterborough is free. Not sure how the schedule is for this weekend, usually practice Saturday, racing Sunday, starting from about 10am. I'll have a look.

British Champs schedule and info here:

http://www.britishbmxchampionships.co.uk/raceschedule.html

Also read that she has broke her finger, torn her hamstring and brusied her coccyx.

Ouch!

Torn her hamstring? How did she manage that?

someone (not in the know) said to me the night before Shanaze was upset about having learnt the manchester track was going to get levelled, and that it was likely to affect her performance.

The track near the city ground was always temporary, due to be flattened on 29th.

In an article in yesterdays evening news the council have said although this will go ahead an indoor track will be built next to the velodrome by 2010, this has been a plan for sometime but first I've heard it confirmed. They article also said she can have another temp track built anytime if she needs one.

What would be really good is if they looked at including racing in the Commonwealth Games, too late for India? 2010 though I think.

Apologies for the source but Shanaze-watchers will find this interview quite interesting and no other paper seems to have it http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/ol...seven-Inside-story-big-hopes-London-2012.html

She seems to have changed her tune about the course! And I'm surprised she thinks that the women need slower turns than the men. Perhaps the M**l misquoted her.

I wonder if she thinks her relegation was fair. Anybody know?

Interesting. Not prepared to take any responsibility by the sounds of it.

When my son was racing if he ever complained about the track I told him it was the same for everyone.

I read something yesterday, bbc I think. It said she was told by Boardman in her first semi that she didn't need to try the jump going into the first corner but she went ahead and did it anyway. That was where it all really started to go wrong IMO. Years ago the only major team manager wouldn't give her a deal because he said she will never do as she's told. He is a bit of a cock but may have been right.

For anyone interested I was told the Brits will be on Sky, not sure which channel or when but should find out soon enough.

Yeah, I saw that thing about the jump in the semi in a few places. She wanted to try covering the 3 bumps before the berm in one jump to give herself a big lead. Boardman wasn't the only one who advised against it but she did it anyway.

Bit of a waste building a replica of the course for her to practice on when she experiments with a new way to get round in the semi! That's got to be easily the most undisciplined thing done by anybody in this Olympics. She says she's learned her lesson, but can you imagine her calming down and listening to anybody else? I suspect the rest of the squad are well unimpressed with her. Can't wait to see her try a few more track events - I'm sure she would cause some huge pile-ups in the Madison or the Keirin.

On the other hand she ought to have a good chance of beating everyone, including VP, in the sprint in 2012. Should be interesting watching them compete with each other at the next world championships.

Whatever else you can say about her, she makes great telly - the new Evel Knievel.

She'd be better suited to the pursuit. No tactics, no bike skills involved, just sheer power.
Team pursuit might not be an option.

So I finally found a use for Facebook...Shanaze and I are now friends!

It's all terrribly exclusive - she's only approved about 40 new friends this morning.