Bless you, John Major

[poliphilo]

Thanks to massive investment in velodromes and such (bless you, John Major)  Britain is now a nation that produces Olympic cyclists. Yesterday we won gold in an event which I think is called the Pursuit.  You position two teams of four cyclists on opposite sides of the velodrome and get them to whizz round several times, trying to catch each other up.  The teams ride nose to tail, like the engine and carriages of a toy train, with the leader periodically peeling off, as he loses momentum, to attach himself to the rear. It's beautiful in a weird, man-bonded-to-machine sort of a way. 

I can think of worse things for a nation to spend its money on.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

oooh. The Network didn't chose to show that. Now that swimming is over and The Network is making such a big deal between the top two women's gymnasts, I've just about had the Olympics. BUT...a local woman won gold yesterday as part of the Equestrienne team, and Sunday a local woman won gold as part of the Women's Eight crew team.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've just watched the women's hurdles. The American favourite hit a hurdle and lost her stride and Dawn Harper, also American- but an outsider- took gold.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

I was absolutely fascinated by the dynamics of that race.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It took me a while- and an explanation from Ailz- to work out exactly what was going on.