Olympic road races explained

Heading: FOLLOW THE OLYMPIC ROAD RACE ACTION ON BOX HILL

By Keith Bingham.

The men will lap this testing 15.5-kilometre circuit nine times for a period of three hours.

They will cover a total of 140km on Box Hill - more than half the 250-kilometre full race.

The women will lap it twice (31km) to cover 130 kilometres in total.

Box Hill is certain to play a big part in deciding who wins Olympic gold on The Mall 40 kilometres away, and spectators are assured of plenty of action.

The riders will have covered 70 kilometres from the London start by the time they start their first ascent of the Zig Zag, when battle will commence. It is unlikely any of the favourites will have made a move before then.

In both races, the field is certain to split asunder after several ascents of The

Zig Zag road, which is followed by a false flat after the summit as far as the Smith and Western restaurant.

SPRINTERS  like Mark Cavendish, currently the fastest in the world in a bunch finish and easily recognisable in his world champion’s rainbow jersey – will want to control the field, as he did to win the test event last year.  

But back then he had both the services of the GB and England teams  setting a fast pace to keep his rivals under lock and key in the main bunch, enabling the Manx missile to unleash his deadly sprint from the pack in the final few hundred metres on The Mall.

However, the test race bears no comparison. It was 100 kilometres shorter for a start, because it included only two laps of Box Hill – not nine.

Another big difference is only a maximum of five riders per team is allowed in the Olympics, instead of the usual nine or 10 men as in most road races. This means teams may not have the same degree of control. In which case, the race is very likely to split up into smaller groups on this circuit.

And should a group succeed in getting clear without Cavendish, and Britain’s Geraint Thomas is with them, and then he could be a major challenger. 

LOOK out for the likes of last year’s Tour de France winner Cadel Evans of Australia, who will want to get ahead, leaving Cavendish behind before The Mall.

Also look out for Belgium’s big star Philippe Gilbert.  Gilbert is a good sprinter, but unable to match Cavendish’s explosive finish.  Should Evans or Gilbert escape in the closing kilometres they’ll be hard to catch.

So, too, will be Swiss star, the 2008 Olympic time trial champion, Fabian Cancellera.

And watch out for Tour de France revelation, the Slovak Peter Sagan, winner of three stages in the first week of the Tour this July.

Sadly, defending Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez of Spain who broke his hand in the Tour is now a doubtful starter.

Britain’s Nicole Cooke is the defending Olympic champion in the women’s race.

She will aim to stay near the front of the field, ready to join any escape that may go on Box Hill. But she is just as capable of winning the bunch sprint should the race regroup for the finish.

Lizzie Armitstead is another Brit to watch. Like Cooke, Armitstead is versatile, and can climb and sprint, and is also strong enough to sustain a lone attack in the closing kilometres.

Opposition will come in the form of Holland’s former world road champion Marianne Vos or Italy’s current world champion Giorgia Bronzini. Both are good in a mass finish, with Vos also capable of breaking clear. Another talent is Swedish champion Emma Johansson, silver medallist to Cooke in the Beijing 2008 Olympic road race.

HEADING:  HIGH SPEED CHESS

Team strategy in cycle road racing is often likened to chess, with moves aimed at outwitting rivals. It is the job of each team to do their leader’s bidding. Riders will be assigned duties, to pace the top man back after a mechanical problem, give up their own bike if necessary, or mark rivals.

They do this by chasing them down if they escape the pack. They may box them in or, in windy conditions, expose them to the elements by leaving gaps. If their leader gets clear, they will ride to disrupt the chase, infiltrating the line of chasing riders and “soft pedalling” as they get to the front of it, or just simply sitting on the back of the line like a dead weight, guaranteed to irritate the others. The whole point of the exersize is to make sure their goal scorers, like Cavendish or Cooke or Armitstead – to use a football analogy – conserve energy and are in the right position to finish the job.

Sometimes a teammate will join a leading group early on, specifically to be of assistance to his or her team leader should they escape the field and join up later.

Cavendish, for instance, may calculate on losing a little time to attackers on Box Hill, in the belief his team can help him catch up before the finish.

Heading: GETTING THE TIMING RIGHT

FIVE or four minutes. That’s the minimum advantage a breakaway group needs over the main field in the final 40 kilometres, if they are to stand any chance of staying ahead to the line.

SIX seconds a kilometre. Some 40 kilometres out, a bunch can close on a leading break at a rate of six seconds every kilometre - if sufficient number of teams commit to the chase.

FASTER than that with 10 kilometres to go. 10 kilometres out, the bunch will really start to move, and close down on the leaders at 10 seconds per kilometre.

However, these calculations apply to eight or nine-man teams, which is the norm. The Olympic road races allow only five-man teams. Cav's one of the five and he will want to save one man to act as a lead-out.  So that leaves only three men to chase. In the Olympics, the chasing is going to be much more complicated, more chaotic.

And the winding roads through London’s suburbs will play to a leading group’s advantage – out of sight, out of mind.

PACING can save a rider 20 per cent more energy. This is because the greater number of riders sharing the pace to break the air resistance can move faster than a few riders sharing the load.

The faster you go the harder it becomes to punch you way through this invisible but nevertheless solid air resistance, unless you have a howling tail wind!

A rider tucked in behind another rider can save 20 per cent more energy – if he’s not too knackered! And over the Olympic distance – longer by some 40 kilometres than the average road race - many riders will be found wanting. If Box Hill doesn’t kill them, the 35-40mph rush from there to The Mall will finish them off.

Heading: A TEAM SPORT WITH ONLY ONE WINNER!

Cycle road racing at top level is a sport for individuals ridden by teams!

Understandably, this puzzles newcomers to the sport who ask is it fair that one rider gets the glory when his teammates have done much of the donkey work to set him or her up for the finish.

This practice has its origins in the early days of long-distance European road racing when men took up the sport to earn better money than offered in the mines or dreary factory work.

There was far more money to be had from pro bike racing, to put meat on the table for their families. But it was risky. Clearly they couldn’t raise the effort to win or get in the top prizes every time. They’d be dead before they reached 30! But they could help others do so, for a share of the proceeds and a reasonably steady income.

In long-distance events of six hours and more, alliances are absolutely key to getting a good result. So teams are built around a breadwinner, the most talented rider able to finish the job.