4 ms·
Fantastic ride and if you follower her Twitter she's been doing a lot of very detailed exploration of her endurance limits in preparation. When the lead group
by sanguy 5y ago
Fantastic ride and if you follower her Twitter she's been doing a lot of very detailed exploration of her endurance limits in preparation.
When the lead group fell to 3 they had an 11 minute lead.
She broke free and went solo with 40km to go.
When she finished that lead had eroded to 2 minutes as the front group she dropped had been caught.
So in those 40km she lost 9 minutes of lead she had built with the help of the breakout group.
This was all strategy and then a tremendous physical performance on her part.
Dutch team needs a serious kick in the ass for underestimating an "amatuer" in this regard. It was obvious she was in it for the gold or nothing; and they fatally assumed it would be the later.
Fantastic win when you consider training, strategy, and performance all came together to pull it off. This is what olympians are all about!
- TomVDB 5y agoIt’s easy to underestimate a break-away rider when you don’t know that there is one. The silver medal winner thought she had won the race. They need a kick for not communicating amongst themselves.
- headmelted 5y agoI heard something early on about a communication failure, not sure how much truth there is in that. Nonetheless, it was an incredible performance - right down to her collapsing to the ground victorious in tears at the line. I laughed a little when I saw the Danish competitor come to congratulate her with a big smile while the Dutch team two meters away wouldn’t even acknowledge she was there - no point being bitter about it afterwards when you’ve already been beaten that badly by a “nobody”. I wasn’t even sure if Anna even realised because she was so exhausted (and elated!). 40KM without the help of a peloton. Incredible.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- ubermonkey 5y agoYeah, just an amazing performance. FYI, the pros got caught out here a bit. The Olympic road race is probably the last one running that doesn't allow radios.
- hi41 5y agoCould you please elaborate more on strategy you referred to. tia.
- Balazs64 5y agoTotally agree! Look at her bike, tires, wheels, the ceramic speed jockey wheels, her jersey, her helmet, her training. It was all set up for that last 40km. She executed what she planned perfectly, everybody else made a mistake. That played in her favor, true, but the strategy was there, using her strengths which suited the course with this tactics. Leaving the break with 40km to go, set up the rest of the break as a bait. She assumed, that the lack of radios may cause a miscommunication with rather high probability, buying her some time. She may not imagined 11 minutes, but she is good at downhill and TT, so it could work, and it did. Brains, guts and lots and lots of power, well done Anna!