They just didn't know. So why limit themselves? It's not like all the permutations of possibilties are *that* hard to figure out. That's the job of a national governing body.

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I guess so. I do have trouble with some of your posts at times. Like I'm confused your saying they knew who would win the domestic qualifier. It was pretty competitive. And even knowing who'll enter isn't clear at times, given injuries, etc. I'll drop it, out of the interest for our congenial thread.

I do agree, at this point, it's fine just to try to find positives out of sending Dygert likely alone into the RR. Unless Knibb decides to join?

Dude, c'mon.

The US has the - hands down, no question about it - best TT rider on the planet in their athlete pool (hint - it isn't Knibb).

They arranged the Olympic selection criteria to advantage a TT rider to a (literally) unprecedented extent.

It wound up being totally unnecessary because the rider pre-qualified before the circus tents could even be erected.

Too bad, too late to change things around, colossal screwup because the Triathlete wins.

It's really no different from back when Chris Horner won the Seattle selection race that Motorola/Frankie Andreu/Kevin Livingston/George Hincapie were "supposed" to win to support Lance at the games. Shocking to no one, Horner didn't wind up being on that Olympic team, but all three of those guys were.

USAC has been screwing the pooch on this stuff for as long as there have been pooches to screw. Being *bad* at trying to fix the results of a selection process doesn't mean the attempt wasn't made.

And, again, you're continuing to miss the point that they can still nominate a rider other than Knibb to the road team, she just has to turn down the slot.

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RE: who winds up riding the road race with Dygert, this article is likely a pretty strong hint.

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Tech writer/support on this here site. FIST school instructor and certified bike fitter. Formerly at Diamondback Bikes, LeMond Fitness, FSA, TiCycles, etc.
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i'm with trail on this one - if dygert winning worlds last year changes the thought behind the selection process - then maybe just change the selection process.
I hadn't seen that cyclingnews piece. i'd been going with the theme of the other 'knibb wins us tt thread' that knibb not wanting to do the road race would mean 1 us starter.
again from the other thread it sure seems like Knibb has big goals and chances the day after the oly road race.

if knibb does want to do oly road race - it sure seems like racing yesterday against faulkner and edwards would have been great prep/intel for that kind of effort.

if nothing else - wouldn't settling this be in usa cycling's interest so we hack internet pundits could give this a rest?
i want to start scheming on netflix's story lines for season 2 of tour coverage.

USAC lost an arbitration decision and were forced to select a new team five days before track worlds in 2022. The selection process for these games were directly - and explicitly - influenced by that decision. The idea that they would "just change the selection process" after taking that "L" - and the litigation that had surrounded the Armstrong selection in '16 - is magical thinking.



It appears a lot of people have been suffering from that misperception.


Aside from the fact that Knibb probably wouldn't have qualified to participate in that race (she wouldn't have qualified for the Oly road race either, prior to the points she took home with the TT win) it would be pretty bananas to choose the national championship road race as your first ever attempt at a road race. Almost as bananas as choosing the Olympics for your debut.


This is all a big damn self-inflicted mess for USAC, but it seems pretty clear that Faulkner being added to the Pursuit team for some training and (maybe) qualifier runs is likely to be the solution.

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Faulkner was already on the Olympic track long list, so no surprise there.