Category: Olympic Cycling

The four US track cyclists who showed up at the Beijing airport wearing protective face masks have issued an apology to the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee.

They're the wrong people to apologize. The International Olympic Committee should be apologizing to all the athletes at these Summer Games for choosing a site with such notoriously bad air quality.

But it is Michael Friedman, Sarah Hammer, Bobby Lea and Jennie Reed who are apologizing. US Olympic Committee chairman Jim Scherr said the four cyclists came forward on their own volition and were not coerced. The apology ….

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Weather forecasters are calling for rainy weather in Beijing later this week. That may be bad news for the Olympics opening ceremony on Friday, but it could mean cleaner air in advance of the men's road race on Saturday.

Beijing has notoriously bad air quality and many Olympic athletes are expecting the worst, in spite of China's efforts to curb pollution by closing factories in the region and banning half the vehicles from the roads.

Some members of the US cycling team, among them track cyclist Mike Friedman, arrived this week wearing black respiratory masks that covered the nose and mouth. USA Cycling officials said it was an individual choice, not a team policy.

Perhaps their choices are based on the experience of Olympic mountain biker Adam Craig, who competed in the pre-Olympic warm-up games last year. He recalled his experiences to PBS on Monday:

“It's like — it's a weird bronchial spasm thing that I was getting, that just like — whenever you tried to take enough breath to give your muscles that fuel of oxygen they need, your bronchioles just start spasming and you just like physically can't do it …

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Laoshan Velodrome

NBC is providing live video-streaming of many major cycling events at the Beijing Olympics on its website once the games begin this weekend.  The only drawback is that because of our time difference with Beijing, the live coverage will occur during the wee morning hours.

Because I'm interested in trying to catch some of this action, I've been checking the NBC schedules. I've broken down their coverage in a list below.

In addition to the online coverage, I found that local NBC affiliates will show highlights of the cycling action, along with everything else, during their regular Olympic programming. The USA Network and MSNBC also will broadcast some live and delayed cycling events.

While road race, time trial, many track events and mountain bike races will be streamed online, NBC is saving the BMX races for live and taped coverage on its affiliates. No BMX races will be video-streamed online, as far as I can tell …

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Australia's Cadel Evans is recovering enough from his knee injury that he might be able to compete in both the road race and individual time trial at the Beijing Olympics afterall.

But didn't he already withdraw from the time trial, giving Australia's lone time trial slot over to Michael Rogers?

Well, yes. But with Evans …

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Norwegian cyclist Thor Hushovd says he's sick and won't be able to represent his country during the 2008 Olympics that starts next weekend in Beijing.

The 30-year-old cyclist on Credit Agricole won Stage 2 of the Tour de France on July 6, but struggled later on.

He's quoted in VeloNews: “It's stupid and very bitter …

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The bad luck stories for Australia's Cadel Evans continue to mount up.

Even though he finished in second place overall at the 2008 Tour de France last week, he joined the post-race partying anyway and slipped and fell on a wet floor, injuring his knee.

Evans immediately refuted rumours that he had severely injured his knee and wouldn't be able to compete in the Beijing Olympics that start next weekend. Since then, however, the knee has become swollen and he realized he wouldn't be able to compete at his peak in the individual time trial on Wednesday, Aug. 13 …

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The Olympics makes a lot of money off sponsorships, but I don't think there's an “Official Condom of the 2008 Olympics” yet.

According to the blog Gawker, though, Chinese condom-maker Elasun is going for the gold with some Olympic-inspired condom advertising.

It gives a whole new perspective to the race for the finish line or riding the time trial in a skinsuit. …

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It's time for me to play the “homey sports fan” now.

Five cyclists from Washington, Oregon and Idaho were chosen by USA Cycling to represent the US at the Beijing Summer Olympics in August.

The five are Kristin Armstrong, 34, of Boise, Idaho on the road race and ITT, Jennie Reed, 30 of Kirkland, Washington, in the match sprint, Adam Craig, 26, of Bend, Oregon, in the men's mountain bike, Georgia Gould, 28, of Ketcham, Idaho, in women's mountain bike, and Jill Kintner, 26, of Seattle in women's BMX.

Congratulations to you all. We'll be cheering for you in August.

Armstrong earned her spot on the Olympic team by winning a silver medal in the time trial at the 2007 world championships last September. A graduate of University of Idaho, she discovered that she suffered from osteoarthritis. She stopped competing as a triathlete and focused on cycling

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George Hincapie may have helped Lance Armstrong set a historic 7 Tour de France wins, but Hincapie set his own mark when USA Cycling nominated the 35-year-old to the U.S. Olympic cycling squad for an unprecedented 5th time.

Others on the list for men's road cycling are Levi Leipheimer, Jason McCartney, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie.

In all, 21 male and female cyclists were chosen for 24 spots on the team. The other disciplines include track cycling, bicycle motocross (BMX), and mountain bike.

A cool thing for my hometown crowd is that five cyclists from the Pacific Northwest were chosen for the Olympic cycling team …..

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