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Olympic Road Race Preview

The Olympic Games Road Race starts in just 2 hours 20 minutes  about 100 metres from where I'm standing. Which by the way, if you haven't been living in a cave without wi-fi for the last three years, is on the Mall, just a few hundred yards from where her Majesty resides... a certain Buckingham Palace. Take it from me this is one spectacularly impressive setting. I've tried to retain some composure and an air of nonchalance but I must concede that I feel as excited as I did as a rider back in 1992 in Barcelona. Blimey.. That was 20 years ago.. Anyway, back to the present and the race at hand..

 
The course is well documented but is essentially 40km out through London in  Westerly direction, passing many iconic landmarks en route to the challenging Box Hill circuit with its 2.4km ascent to be covered 9 times before heading back into the city to finish on the Mall.
 
The course is a testing one. Over the course of the day the riders will have climbed the equivalent of the Col d'Izoard... one of the reasons Mark Cavendish has shaved 4 kilos of weight over the last few couple of months. There were concerns this amount of weight loss would affect the World Champion's power but, as illustrated in the Tour de France, this fortunately does not appear to be the case as he took three stage wins without too much team support. Who can forget his fourth successive victory in Paris...
 
That takes us to Cav's supporting cast... Arguably the strongest line up Great Britain has ever fielded in an Olympics and a 'fantasy team' in its own right; Dave Millar, Chris Froome, Ian Stannard and to cap it off the living legend that is Sir Bradley of Wiggins....
 
Being a favourite won't phase Cav, in fact he thrives on pressure. This race has been in his sights now for several years and there is no plan B, just a plan C....
 
Hoping to upset the GB party today are a host of riders, a veritable feast of sprinters and classics specialists aiming to become Olympic Champion for the next four years; picking Cav's nearest rivals is tough but I feel that Lars Boom, Fabian Cancellara, Peter Sagan, Andre Greipel, Philippe Gilbert, Sylvain Chavanel, Alejandro Valverde and Matt Goss will be the guys that could medal today. 
 
The GB squad will have their work cut out and the race may pan out differently than the worlds with the maximum per team being five riders. When Cav took the World title he had eight riders at his disposal but this year will only have four. Luckily for him (and us) they are a 'fab four' who will ride themselves into the ground in an effort to ensure that Cav adds the title of Olympic Champion to his amazingly impressive palmares...
 
Right, best get out and take some photos now... This is going to be special, very special indeed. 

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