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PARIS (Velo) — Paris delivered a spectacular and becoming backdrop for highway biking in the course of the Olympic Video games that can be arduous to beat.
The Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Coeur, and the Pont Alexander III had been the centerpieces of highway racing and time trial competitions in good days of racing.
The grandeur and iconic settings introduced an virtually cinematic taste to the competitors that was each wildly entertaining and extremely hard-fought and emotional.
The reactions of the athletes after the race, be it tears of victory or disappointment, revealed how necessary the Olympic Video games have develop into.
Ever for the reason that UCI eradicated novice racing in 1996 and allowed the professionals to race for gold, the Olympics at first appeared prefer it was little multiple extra race on an already very busy calendar.
An Olympic gold medal was nice for many who received, however for everybody else, the Olympics merely didn’t pack the status or sponsor significance as successful the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix, or a world title.
These Paris Video games confirmed that the mindset has modified, and the peloton now considers the Olympics as a private {and professional} highpoint.
Los Angeles will host the subsequent Video games, and there’s little doubt that the highway racing occasions will even have extra worth by then, however it’s arduous to think about any Video games matching the elegant magnificence and deep emotion that Paris delivered.
Winter is coming: CX rumors are true
A number of sources confirmed to Velo that rumors that cyclocross may develop into an Olympic Winter Video games medal sport are very a lot true.
The undertaking is quietly being promoted behind the scenes by UCI president David Lappartient, who already boasts a rising political base throughout the IOC. Some even see Lappartient as a potential future IOC president.
Sources say that Lappartient is throwing his political weight behind a marketing campaign to see cyclocross designated as a medal sport for the 2030 Winter Video games set for France at totally different venues throughout the French Alps.
Lappartient needs a part of his legacy to be that biking turns into the primary sport to be represented throughout each the Summer time and Winter Video games.
The cyclocross races held on Val di Sole over the previous few years had been extra than simply take a look at occasions, however fairly a dry run to see if racing on snow was viable and sensible.
Winter Video games guidelines insist that sports activities should be contested on snow or ice, and the wildly fashionable CX occasions within the Italian Dolomites proved it may be pulled off.
The UCI has additionally been testing different snow-bound occasions, and held the first-ever Snow Bike World Championships in February, to some derision from some, and the occasion included Tremendous-G and Twin Slalom downhill racing.
Proper now, it seems that solely cyclocross is being promoted as a medal sport, however now that skateboarding and breakdancing are within the Summer time Video games, one by no means is aware of.
One supply stated that the IOC continues to be not satisfied, however the wheels are in place to attempt to make it occur.
No Tour de France detour over Montmartre
Final weekend’s spectacular highway races over Montmartre with sweeping views previous Sacré-Coeur had many questioning why the Tour de France couldn’t finish with just a few loops earlier than a last kick down the Champs-Élysées.
This yr’s Tour ended past the larger Paris area for the primary time in race historical past, and the grand tour is anticipated to return to the Champs-Élysées subsequent yr to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Tour’s finale on probably the most well-known avenue in Paris.
However why not embrace a loop or two to spice issues up?
Tour de France technical director Thierry Gouvenou was fast to level out each sensible and security the reason why a Montmartre detour received’t be within the playing cards.
“It labored for the Olympics, however it wouldn’t be acceptable in the course of the Tour,” Gouvenou instructed L’Équipe. “The Tour de France peloton is twice as huge because it was on the Olympics, so we’d have to search out a lot larger streets than these used on the weekend.
Sigo en esta locura de Van der Poel y Van Aert en la subida a Montmartre sobre adoquín del pasado sábado.
— Adrián Moraleda (@adrimoraleda) August 5, 2024
“In Montmartre, they went by means of some very slim streets, and in some locations, once they would have wanted to supply mechanical service to riders within the pack, they’d barely may have opened the automotive door.”
Gouvenou additionally identified the size of the highway closures that had been required for Saturday’s and Sunday’s highway races, and that it could be arduous to last the political muscle to tug that off once more.
Main sections of central Paris had been closed down, from the ultimate circuit looping on the Proper Financial institution up and round Montmartre, to when the route swept alongside the Left Financial institution of the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower.
In distinction within the Tour de France, as soon as the race hits the ending circuit on the Champs-Élysées, the highway closures are comparatively minor on what’s an in any other case sleepy summer time Sunday night.
“Once we do the Champs-Élysées circuit, we barely affect the neighbors. If we went to Montmartre, that will have an infinite affect on the residents,” Gouvenou stated. “You would wish very sturdy political will to place all that in place.”
Paris appeared prepared to close down town for a as soon as in a century Olympic Video games, however it’s asking so much to do this each summer time for the Tour.
Message in a bottle
No race radio, no data, proper?
Unsuitable.
Groups had been looking for inventive methods to cross up data to riders in the course of the highway races in entrance of a yelling throng.
At first, some tried to have white boards to write down the splits with magic markers, however there have been so many individuals they couldn’t get anyplace close to the course.
Somebody had one other thought; cross up notes on the water bottles in the course of the feeds.
When riders took their bottles, staffers had been attaching little notes to the athletes about time gaps. The gist of the message? Go quicker!
People on monitor with medal rely
Chatting with Velo forward of the Olympic Video games, USA Biking’s head of efficiency Jim Miller stated the American crew was concentrating on “three to 4” medals throughout all biking competitors.
Headlined by Faulkner’s gold medal Sunday, popping out of the highway races, mountain bike, and BMX, the U.S. already hit these pre-Video games expectations.
People have received 4 Olympic medals to date in biking, and had been second on the biking medal chart going into monitor biking Monday behind France, which had two golds and a complete of eight medals.
Chloé Dygert received bronze within the girls’s time trial regardless of crashing on moist roads to open competitors. Haley Batten roared to silver for the all-time American lead to mountain biking. Perris Benegas received silver in girls’s freestyle BMX.
Faulkner’s gold was a primary by a U.S. rider in highway racing since Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Alexi Grewal each received in Los Angeles 1984.
The crew hoped for extra in BMX, the place the French swept the lads’s podium, however sturdy showings basically throughout all biking occasions to date bodes effectively for Los Angeles 2028.
Miller is hopeful the monitor will produce one other medal or two, with Dygert and Faulkner headlining the ladies’s crew pursuit push to attempt to lastly win gold within the self-discipline.
The U.S. crew certified with the second-fastest time Tuesday and can attempt to hit the medal spherical Wednesday.
Since girls’s crew pursuit was launched in 2012, the U.S. crew has medaled in each Olympics since then, with silvers in London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016 plus bronze in Tokyo 2021.
Jennifer Valente may also be defending her gold medal in omnium, in addition to race girls’s crew pursuit and the Madison, the place she is going to pair up with new companion Lily Williams.
Probably the most medals Staff USA has received in biking in a non-boycott yr is 5, so the crew is only one extra medal wanting equaling that mark.
Evenepoel makes males’s Olympic historical past
Remco Evenepoel made historical past by turning into the primary male racer to win the time trial and highway racing gold in the identical Olympic Video games.
Dutch star Leontien van Moorsel achieved the double gold within the girls’s highway race and ITT on the Olympic Video games Sydney 2000.
That’s one thing that not even Eddy Merckx may do, however Evenepoel was having nothing with any comparisons to the good Belgian.
“Eddy is Eddy, and he did so many wonderful issues, however these are totally different occasions,” Evenepoel stated. “It’s my profession and I’m racing in my very own approach. This isn’t the start of my profession, however I hope to do many extra issues.”
Already a winner of gold within the time trial, Evenepoel went dwelling to Belgium to disconnect for just a few days earlier than returning to Paris for the highway race. He left his TT gold medal at dwelling, however his spouse introduced it again along with her to Paris, permitting to make the photograph with the 2 medals.
“This can make for a pleasant photograph for Instagram,” he stated. “To have the ability to share this second with all of the Belgians and everybody near me could be very particular.”
Silver for Knibb, gold for Faulkner
Taylor Knibb didn’t race Sunday after giving up her spot to Kristen Faulkner. The triathlete punched her ticket for the Paris Olympics after successful the U.S. nationwide time trial race in Could.
Knibb, who crashed 3 times throughout a moist and treacherous time trial race to open the Olympic Video games, opted to not race the highway race.
Whereas a strong performer on the bike legs in triathlon, Knibb has virtually no expertise racing within the bunch, and everybody determined the perfect factor to do was to permit Faulkner begin the ladies’s race.
“It was simple resolution to make. She’s by no means raced on the highway earlier than, and we talked in regards to the professionals and cons of it,” Miller instructed Velo. “They’ve a triathlon crew relay the day after the highway race, so I talked to their crew, and stated if I used to be in your sneakers, I’d in all probability need her to not race this as a result of you may win a medal within the triathlon relay.”
Everybody agreed, and Knibb provided up her spot.
The substitute was simple, with Faulkner already confirming her chops on the highway with some huge wins in 2024, to not point out that she was already a part of the ladies’s crew pursuit squad on the monitor.
“Taylor agreed, so it was it was fairly mutual resolution and a simple dialog,” Miller stated. “With Kristen, we all know we have now a really sturdy card to play within the highway race.”
That call proved proper on course, as Faulkner got here dwelling with gold.
It labored out for Knibb as effectively, who received silver Monday in combined relay triathlon.
Residence roads a salve for French
France loved a “dwelling highway” benefit throughout biking to go away Paris with arm fulls of medals.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot delighted the house crowds along with her divine Olympic gold in cross-country, with Victor Koretzky solely overwhelmed by a daring Tom Pidcock to win silver.
The French swept the lads’s BMX race, and took bronze in males’s BMX freestyle.
Nobody may cease Evenepoel within the highway race, however the French performed a cagey sport to hit silver and bronze. Valentin Madouas was sturdy sufficient to stick with Evenepoel when he bridged throughout on the penultimate lap to hold on for silver, and Christophe Laporte hitched a trip on the chasing Matteo Jorgenson to win the decreased bunch dash for bronze.
These medals had been the primary by French males in highway racing within the Olympics for the reason that Nineteen Fifties.
Popping out of the ladies’s highway race, the French had been main the medal rely, with two golds for a complete of eight medals.