Taylor Knibb olympic races

Triathlon Forum
121

I think it’s easy for us to criticize when we weren’t there. According to her interview her brakes were bad after the first crash and she didn’t slow down to compensate. She also lost her garmin in the first crash. She also said she crashed 4 times plus then had a bike change. Definitely a disaster, worse case scenario. I just really hope she’s okay for the tri, but going down that many times is going to affect anyone.

Thanks for offering a voice of reason. Lots of others went down today, she was not the only one. If her bike was damaged after the first crash and she did not know that makes a lot more sense

122

Knibb suggests brake failure. (I say: what the actual F? Did this failure occur before or after the first crash?)

https://www.tri247.com/triathlon-news/elite/taylor-knibb-olympic-games-cycling-time-trial-paris-2024-reaction-crashes

Well she has a great attitude about it! Doesn’t sound like she’s rattled at all.

123

Yes not a great showing, except to show her tenacity to keep fighting. It really sucks for the ladies that the course dictated so much of the result today, and not the actual athlete. I’m sure that it affected a lot at different levels, and no one got to ride the power they were training for. I have raced in the rain on many occasions, and it just messed with your head so much, that thinking about going fast becomes secondary…

Of course you race what you got, and some shined through the conditions and rocked it… But not normal by any means…Hope she is ok and just has the usual road rash, that shouldn’t slow her down for the triathlon coming up. Probably put a fire in her belly to really go after it, this has to weigh heavy on her mind going down 3 times in her olympic debut…

She was also the fastest moving rider up to that point in the places where she went down. By the time other fast moving riders were coming through, I assume news filtered back on where to take some speed off. It’s still on her to stay up, but you’ve lead races and been the guineau pig for others following. My guess she was the first person testing the course in that rain at that speed.

She lost control but stayed upright. That was the first sign.

She proceeded to crash 3 times. Did she really need someone up front to tell her it was slippery ?

It was either lack of experience or a decision to go for broke. Either way, congrats to her for getting to the start line and fighting until the end

maybe she should hire rolf aldag …

more seriously if she works on her bike skills, she will go a level up in tri drafting and time trialing racing , i guess one of the most crazy things i have heard this year was that she said she was told one day before san fransico ie in june 2024 when to brake going into a corner.

124

haha pretty sure Taylor’s Kona time is faster than Rolf Aldag’s !!! Not that it matters for cycling

125

No, I’m pointing out how the goalposts moved; I don’t recall any talk about how successful it would be to finish within :90 of Vollering. Finishing upright is part of bike racing, conditions were the same for everyone.

Before you resume Devsplaining, while I was not in favor of her racing RR I was certainly cheering for her in TT, just with realistic expectations of her going against pro cyclists.

I am a fan of Taylor Knibb, but I can’t see how anyone would think of this of any less than a disaster of a ride. Even on dry conditions she wouldn’t have been anywhere close to Brown’s ride.

Also, some folks are in these forums just provoking or trolling. No point playing those games. The ignore button does wonders.

126

I don’t think anyone is saying it wasn’t a disaster. I think they are just trying to gauge what could have been. Obviously it’s a fruitless exercise.

I do find it frustrating that in the 3 big TT races she’s done, it’s rained in 2 of them (if I remember right). The one with good weather she nailed it.

127

Crazy twisting and turning it personal. All I said was being 90 seconds behind Vollering after three crashes was decent performance while she was moving. She had to be holding a good effort and position to do that.

It would be crazy to consider the crashing as part of any positive. It seems based on post race interviews she has carried a positive attitude forward and now we also know about bike malfunction post first crash event.

We can have different views on the race and that’s fine.

128

Today I listened to PTN Olympic preview podcast, recorded a few days ago

Her manager says something like “Taylor will be doing the TT”
Mark Matthews says “I think they are predicting rain”
Her manager : “that’s OK, she gets to select her tires”
.

129

Knibb suggests brake failure. (I say: what the actual F? Did this failure occur before or after the first crash?)

https://www.tri247.com/triathlon-news/elite/taylor-knibb-olympic-games-cycling-time-trial-paris-2024-reaction-crashes
Impressive attitude from her after her day.

Was it a disaster of a ride? Unquestionably.
Can you take positives from a day that was a disaster? Certainly.
I guess now she knows her coach may know what he’s talking about so heeding his advice may be a good idea.

130

It was a disaster, weather was a nasty one. Several crashes - even the mechanic dude felt with a replacement bike before handing it over to Taylor. Feel so bad, since she’s a speed machine on both TT & triathlon.

131

No, I’m pointing out how the goalposts moved; I don’t recall any talk about how successful it would be to finish within :90 of Vollering. Finishing upright is part of bike racing, conditions were the same for everyone.

Before you resume Devsplaining, while I was not in favor of her racing RR I was certainly cheering for her in TT, just with realistic expectations of her going against pro cyclists.

I am a fan of Taylor Knibb, but I can’t see how anyone would think of this of any less than a disaster of a ride. **Even on dry conditions she wouldn’t have been anywhere close to Brown’s ride. **

Also, some folks are in these forums just provoking or trolling. No point playing those games. The ignore button does wonders.

The same could be said about every other woman in the race so what’s your point? Brown destroyed everyone.

132

No, I’m pointing out how the goalposts moved; I don’t recall any talk about how successful it would be to finish within :90 of Vollering. Finishing upright is part of bike racing, conditions were the same for everyone.

Before you resume Devsplaining, while I was not in favor of her racing RR I was certainly cheering for her in TT, just with realistic expectations of her going against pro cyclists.

I am a fan of Taylor Knibb, but I can’t see how anyone would think of this of any less than a disaster of a ride. Even on dry conditions she wouldn’t have been anywhere close to Brown’s ride.

Also, some folks are in these forums just provoking or trolling. No point playing those games. The ignore button does wonders.

At the end of the day speed wise she was about 6 th fastest,
bike handling wise last.
And she was still 19 th out off 34.

133

currently sitting at 3rd/11 finishers; medal hopes are pretty dim!

i think a few people pegged this during the discussion about her doing the road race, but even the ITT requires some skill. or anyway, winning the ITT does. holding aero, pacing, managing the conditions, even swapping quickly - they all count. there’s some chap called chris boardman commentating for the bbc. not sure if he knows anything about cycling, but he said,

"Judgement is all part of game. It isn’t just power, it isn’t brute force, it’s also technique and judgement and knowing where to back off.
"

Lol, world champion and Olympic champion at time trial, pursuit champion at Olympics, hour record holder, yes he knows a bit about cycling

134

Lol, world champion and Olympic champion at time trial, pursuit champion at Olympics, hour record holder, yes he knows a bit about cycling

.

Yeah,but not as much as the average Slowtwicher…
.

135

currently sitting at 3rd/11 finishers; medal hopes are pretty dim!

i think a few people pegged this during the discussion about her doing the road race, but even the ITT requires some skill. or anyway, winning the ITT does. holding aero, pacing, managing the conditions, even swapping quickly - they all count. there’s some chap called chris boardman commentating for the bbc. not sure if he knows anything about cycling, but he said,

"Judgement is all part of game. It isn’t just power, it isn’t brute force, it’s also technique and judgement and knowing where to back off.
"

Lol, world champion and Olympic champion at time trial, pursuit champion at Olympics, hour record holder, yes he knows a bit about cycling

It’s 100% accurate and it also explains why Dygart crashed and couldn’t pull off first. If Knibb raced safer, in retrospect obviously that would have been better. But if she raced safer, the subsequent racers could have known exactly what they needed to do to beat her. If Knibb’s gambit worked, they would have needed to push harder and in those conditions the result would likely be a crash for abyone chasing her time.

Dygart crashed because she was forced to chase a time. Knibb crashed because she was trying to put others in the position to chase her.

The point I’m making is the weather amplified the gaming factor of the start times. Someone was going to “get lucky” (right combination of skill, risk taking, setup, etc) and force the others to push a little too hard those conditions.

The comment about brute force isn’t exactly a revelation. Obviously, the athletes knew they needed to ride carefully. I don’t get the impression Knibb was brute forcing her way through the course where she crashed. But it would be nice to watch her entire ride uncut. Does anyone have that?

136

Or simply a case of lacking experience of how to handle a bike in the wet ?

Painted road surface, cobbles, man hole covers all lethal in the wet if you’re not careful.

137

No, I’m pointing out how the goalposts moved; I don’t recall any talk about how successful it would be to finish within :90 of Vollering. Finishing upright is part of bike racing, conditions were the same for everyone.

Before you resume Devsplaining, while I was not in favor of her racing RR I was certainly cheering for her in TT, just with realistic expectations of her going against pro cyclists.

I am a fan of Taylor Knibb, but I can’t see how anyone would think of this of any less than a disaster of a ride. Even on dry conditions she wouldn’t have been anywhere close to Brown’s ride.

Also, some folks are in these forums just provoking or trolling. No point playing those games. The ignore button does wonders.

At the end of the day speed wise she was about 6 th fastest,
bike handling wise last.
And she was still 19 th out off 34.

When you did your math for moving time for taylor and others did you also account for their stalled time (ex Kopecky and Dygert both crashed). In terms of her finishing last on bike handling, let’s allow for the full story to evolve. If her front brake was truly damaged and she did not realize it and rear brake barely working, then I think anyone should be forgiven for at least the second crash, because she would not have a chance to test it until she had to brake again, and if it did not work then, in the heat of battle she did not figure out what was going on, until the third time and then she likely realized "crap, my brakes are screwed, I may die at the next corner because we never pre road this course in the rain and I really don’t know what it is like it I can’t stop. She asked for a bike change for a reason.

Some people are bashing her for ‘triathlete skills’ but poor bike handling by Dygert resulted in a crashed and so did Kopecky (and they would have known the dicey spots by the time their seed times came), maybe their brakes did not get screwed up so they were OK for the remainder of the race.

I think it is easy for the collective on here (not you) to say how bad her ride was, but I doubt most would have that discussion with her in her face (and that’s fine, she is a pro athletes and should take the scrutiny that happens in the media),

Does anyone have a report on how banged up. I read in one article last night she was walking around with both knees gashed and bandaged. I hope that does not affect gait in tri.

Women’s tri looks like a dry day. Thunderstorms later in the day. She will have a swim to loosen out body before bike-run (not sure how banged up upper body/shoulders/rotator cuff/clavicle are for the swim)

138

No, I’m pointing out how the goalposts moved; I don’t recall any talk about how successful it would be to finish within :90 of Vollering. Finishing upright is part of bike racing, conditions were the same for everyone.

Before you resume Devsplaining, while I was not in favor of her racing RR I was certainly cheering for her in TT, just with realistic expectations of her going against pro cyclists.

I am a fan of Taylor Knibb, but I can’t see how anyone would think of this of any less than a disaster of a ride. Even on dry conditions she wouldn’t have been anywhere close to Brown’s ride.

Also, some folks are in these forums just provoking or trolling. No point playing those games. The ignore button does wonders.

At the end of the day speed wise she was about 6 th fastest,
bike handling wise last.
And she was still 19 th out off 34.

When you did your math for moving time for taylor and others did you also account for their stalled time (ex Kopecky and Dygert both crashed). In terms of her finishing last on bike handling, let’s allow for the full story to evolve. If her front brake was truly damaged and she did not realize it and rear brake barely working, then I think anyone should be forgiven for at least the second crash, because she would not have a chance to test it until she had to brake again, and if it did not work then, in the heat of battle she did not figure out what was going on, until the third time and then she likely realized "crap, my brakes are screwed, I may die at the next corner because we never pre road this course in the rain and I really don’t know what it is like it I can’t stop. She asked for a bike change for a reason.

Some people are bashing her for ‘triathlete skills’ but poor bike handling by Dygert resulted in a crashed and so did Kopecky (and they would have known the dicey spots by the time their seed times came), maybe their brakes did not get screwed up so they were OK for the remainder of the race.

I think it is easy for the collective on here (not you) to say how bad her ride was, but I doubt most would have that discussion with her in her face (and that’s fine, she is a pro athletes and should take the scrutiny that happens in the media),

Does anyone have a report on how banged up. I read in one article last night she was walking around with both knees gashed and bandaged. I hope that does not affect gait in tri.

Women’s tri looks like a dry day. Thunderstorms later in the day. She will have a swim to loosen out body before bike-run (not sure how banged up upper body/shoulders/rotator cuff/clavicle are for the swim)

139

It did not go well today. I guess that those injuries were worse than we all thought. This was always going to be a risky exercise for Taylor. I hope that she recovers from these games.

140

currently sitting at 3rd/11 finishers; medal hopes are pretty dim!

i think a few people pegged this during the discussion about her doing the road race, but even the ITT requires some skill. or anyway, winning the ITT does. holding aero, pacing, managing the conditions, even swapping quickly - they all count. there’s some chap called chris boardman commentating for the bbc. not sure if he knows anything about cycling, but he said,

"Judgement is all part of game. It isn’t just power, it isn’t brute force, it’s also technique and judgement and knowing where to back off.
"

Lol, world champion and Olympic champion at time trial, pursuit champion at Olympics, hour record holder, yes he knows a bit about cycling

thanks. i thought it was obvious that i was being facetious, but i guess nothing’s for sure on the internet.

anyway, to monty’s point: do we know what kind of shape knibb was in for the tri this morning? has she done any interviews, or have we seen any pictures of injuries?