Paralympics

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Yep saw first that in 1996 Para's The wall isn't concrete but they clip on timing pads so they aren't rock hard.


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imadodgyumpire said:
Alex Zanardi had raced a numebr of times at Brands Hatch, in Formula 3000 and the World Touring Car championship. But, the first time he won at the track was yesterday, in the h4 time trial.
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I saw that on they news but haven't been able to find out why the they are holding all the road cycling stuff at Brands Hatch.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
I saw that on they news but haven't been able to find out why the they are holding all the road cycling stuff at Brands Hatch.
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It actually makes perfect sense - and I would like to see more of it.

a) Easy to set up an event - no need to lock of miles of roads.
b) Spectators can see the whole course - they can go and watch individual corners if they want.
c) It's easy to see relative speeds of riders - there can be several on the track at any one time, and you can physically see if they are catching up or not.
d) Great facilities (grandstands, food, drink etc) already in place for spectators. And riders/teams (pits).

The only downside seems to be that they can force the spectators to pay to see the action, while traditionally a road race is free to watch (except for the last 100 or so metres).

Watching a standard road time-trial live is a really boring event. Each rider goes past individually - once. You have no idea about relative times or speeds without watching the clock. It's about as exciting as watching the GBytes tick over when you are downloading something off the internet.

Car races used to be always held on public roads. Moving to special tracks made the sport a far more entertaining event for spectators. Road cycling has always seen to be different to Track Cycling - it was always about getting to the physical destination (eg - Le Tour is a lap around France). But for a time trial - this has to be the way to go.
 
Yeah what I was getting at why wasn't held in London where more people could watch it. I know there are traffic issues but Londoners have taken to the games and 1 or 2 more days of traffic hassles would have been acceptable. They would have had the chance to ride down the mall, pass the palace etc.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Yeah what I was getting at why wasn't held in London where more people could watch it. I know there are traffic issues but Londoners have taken to the games and 1 or 2 more days of traffic hassles would have been acceptable. They would have had the chance to ride down the mall, pass the palace etc.
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Except then you get the situation we have in all TTs. It would be like watching the 1500 mtrs and only being able to watch from the 600-700 metre mark. Yay, give them a cheer as they go past, and then look in the paper to find out who won.

I just don't understand why they don't run all TTs around a race track, beyond 'they don't do it that way'. And I'll admit I hadn't thought about it up till yesterday.

It just seems far more logical from a spectator point of view.
 
How long was the TT?? I haven't been able to find the distance. 44kms was the TT in the Olympics so that was a point to point course in London and Surrey. If its a lot less than that they could have done a few laps around the Mall and they would have had huge crowds watching.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
How long was the TT?? I haven't been able to find the distance. 44kms was the TT in the Olympics so that was a point to point course in London and Surrey. If its a lot less than that they could have done a few laps around the Mall and they would have had huge crowds watching.
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There was probably a series of distances, relative to the disabilities of the various athletes. I noticed one category was for trikes (i imagine those athletes have severe balance problems), the hand cycles are significantly slower, and the brit girl who won the C5 class was good enough to be in the GB regular Olympic team pursuit squad (she missed the final cut, but she was good enough to ride in one test event where the GB squad set a WR).
 
I've been watching in London and I've found the Paralympics enthralling, but then Channel 4's coverage is excellent. They've explained the categories very well with a system called Lexi which was designed by an ex-Paralympic swimmer .

The swimming has pretty much blown my mind. How anyone without what you really call arms can do a sub 30 second 50m freestyle as a Chinese swimmer did tonight is something else.

I've never seen Wheelchair Rugby before either and love it and the basketball is pretty good to watch as well.

Got to say, the Brits have really embraced it. Tickets for a lot of events are very hard to come by.

Edit: That women's 34 point medley relay tonight was a cracker. Four swimmers coming into the wall at the same time. Bloody ripper.
 

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Doodlesweaver said:
Anybody watching the Wheelchair rugby semi between Aus and Japan?
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Yep. Have to admit I haven't paid any attention to the Paralympics.

But Batt is damn entertaining to watch.
 
TomFC said:
Yep. Have to admit I haven't paid any attention to the Paralympics.

But Batt is damn entertaining to watch.
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Yeah, Batt is great to watch.

First game I saw I wasn't that interested, but the more I watch it, I'm getting how the lower rated players do a lot of work off the ball clearing space for the most athletically able players. I wish I'd got tickets for it but it sold out, as did wheelchair basketball, pretty fast.
 
Doodlesweaver said:
Yeah, Batt is great to watch.

First game I saw I wasn't that interested, but the more I watch it, I'm getting how the lower rated players do a lot of work off the ball clearing space for the most athletically able players. I wish I'd got tickets for it but it sold out, as did wheelchair basketball, pretty fast.
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Absolutely. That Erdem bloke with the long hair. If you watch him for a few minutes you start to notice how he compensates for his lack of speed with really intelligent positioning and awareness.
 
Another great medley relay on the last night of the swimming. China just touched out Russia with Aussies fighting it out for the bronze. Gee, the swimming has been good to watch.
 
Aus leading by 9 points in the Wheelchair Rugby final. Interesting match so far. Canadian passing is very good but they haven't got anyone as fast as Batt or Bond.
 
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