gntlmn said:Maybe you might say a little more about this article. "Information at your fingertips" is giving me a little bit of trouble. Google gives me nothing. I didn't expect it to, actually. Otherwise, it might be a while before I get to the library and check out the mags there, provided I remember to look. 🙂
A few choice paragraphs .....
What makes this year's contest compelling is that, unlike recent versions, a truly hard and tricky course is compounded by heat that could soar into triple digits. As the first event of the summer Games, scheduled for August 14th, the 145 -rider men's race will be a showcase for the hardship, danger, sacrifice and teamwork that make the sport exciting. The 13.2 km loop squiggles around downtown Athens, up and over the Acropolis and a steeper, neighboring hill. "I wanted to have a course in the center of the city." says Vladimir Petsas, the Olympic cycling competition manager, who designed the course, "but one that would be challenging, up to the level of the Olympic games. Because Sydney was too easy."
The tight, twisting course, with a cobbled descent and two 90 degree corners in the last mile, promise crash-and-bash racing worthy of NASCAR--or, possibly, an epic to rival the very first Olympic road race.
The writer then goes on to describe the first Olympic road race back in 1896 where seven cyclists lined up in Athens for what was called "the cycling marathon". The first half of the course ran across the Hymettus mountain range to Marathon(Marathon the town, from which Pheidippides had run to Athens bearing the news that the Persians had been defeated in battle--before he promptly died). Then the route returned to Athen, to the seaside Phaliron velodrome, for a total of 55 miles. That may not sound like a long way, but try it on a 40 lb single speed bike with no brakes, on stone roads, and you've got something that makes Paris-Roubaix look fairly tame. The first edition of Paris-Roubaix would be run later that April; it's infamous cobbles were the good roads then. The initial Tour de France was still seven years away.
The writer of this article then recruited three local riders to accompany him on a single lap of the 13.2 km course (Olympic riders will circle 17 times). He writes about all the traffic they battle, expresso and pastry stops, a beer or two, and another coffee stop along the way. He then describes a certain ascent where after cranking up a few switchbacks the grade gets as steep as 12 percent. (Get away here and the peloton won't see you again). From there, the road curves around the conically shaped hill, still rising to the maximum course elevation of 184 meters. The course designer, Pestas, had wanted to run the race still higher, over the top of Lycabettus, but the UCI nixed the idea. "They said they needed to have someone to give the medals to," he said. "Not kill them all."
The writer and the 3 other riders flew around the arcing road, and then dove left, plunging back down the sketchiest descent yet: a hard right, then a left, and down some more. He writes that it was scary enough at 25 mph; it should be quite interesting watching the pros take it at 35 mph. And from that descent, the Olympic racers will have 4 miles to chase down any breakaways before the finish.
The Olympic riders won't be permitted to ride the course until three days before the event, when the men's and women's field will take 4 laps, with a police escort, to get to know it's tricky corners.
