NOW THE OLYMPICS.......

POSTER IN LOCAL SHOP

Now that the TDF has been and gone we are into the Olympic Games. 
The BBC has wall to wall coverage of the events and everywhere you look there are reminders of the games....The poster above was seen in the window of one of our local shops over the weekend. 


I have to say I did feel sorry for Mark Cavendish and the other members of Team GB Road Cycling Team on Saturday during the Road Race...none of the other teams seemed prepared to do any work on the front of the peleton for fear that it would assist the GB Team....
None of them wanted  the race to end with a sprint finish with Cav in the mix and to that end they were content to leave all the work to the British Team....mind you I am not surprised.  
Cav, Wiggo Froome and Stannard were marked men from the off. 


When all is said and done the performance that the guys put in was nothing short of amazing and as they finished the final climb of box hill, it did look as if they were in with a chance of reeling in the breakaway group...but it was not to be. 


As the tag line on the poster in the picture above says 'BETTER NEVER STOPS' and the British guys certainly didn't.  
In my opinion the guys never stopped giving it 100% and I think while most of the other teams were happy to do almost nothing, the Team GB guys showed themselves to be BETTER. 


As I said I do feel sorry for Mark Cavendish...so much pressure for a medal was put on him by the British media on top of his own desire to succeed and it was a huge burden to carry into the race, but unfortunately his previous successes proved to be the biggest barrier to his possible success in this race...... 


Not the case in the Womens Road Race on Sunday though...and what an exciting race it turned out to be... with the Dutch girl  Marianne Voss as the favoured rider. 
Weather wise it was very different than that encountered by the men the day before......the girls faced a much colder day with some truly atrocious conditions during the race....very heavy rain made the course quite treacherous in places  with a number of riders falling. 


Unlike the Men's race where we were praying for the breakaway to be caught, on Sunday it was the other way round....with all of us hoping that the final breakaway group of three would manage to stay away. 
The group consisted of Lizzie Armitstead, the Russian Olga Zabelinskaya and Mariane Voss . 


The three girls worked well together all the way back into London even though the Russian girl seemed to run out of power towards the end.....the girls managed to stay away from the Peleton all the way back and the final sprint for the line was won by Voss with Lizzie Armitstead giving it all she had to come in second and take the silver medal.....the first medal in fact to be won by any member of the entire TEAM GB up to that point..... 


With lot's of other cycling events of various disciplines yet to come I am having a pretty good time....Lot's more to enjoy......