Olympic Women's Road Race

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday nothing but sunshine, and today rain rain and more rain.  So glad I wasn't out at Box Hill today as it would have been miserable.  The race actually ran about 3 blocks from our flat, within 2km of the start and finish, so ran down the road to watch it come by and then got to watch the rest on TV.  Much more comfortable than standing in the rain the whole time.  Even worse it was real rain, even heard some thunder which is really abnormal here.

I guess the women took note of what happened yesterday and didn't really let anything go up the road.  Watching the race again last night is seemed like 30 seconds of extra effort on the climb when the last 15 or so people bridged would have gotten everyone to the finish together.  But what do I know?  Cancellara was complaining that the fans were too close to the road and the riders.  Sad to see him crash but don't really think the crowd had anything to do with it.

Since they released the course everyone thought that Box Hill would have been the deciding factor, boy were we wrong.  Who would have guessed the downhill, downwind, run back into London would be the decider?  Either way it was pretty exciting.

The Brits were doing the wave waiting for the race to come by.  I am not sure they could have been more excited that one of their own was going to win.

Light rain and a bit of sun at the start

This bike cop was warming up the crowd giving
high 5s.

Pouring rain at the finish

BMW is sponsoring the Olympics and supplying
all cars.  Something like 4,000 cars.