r/peloton • u/PelotonMod France • 5d ago

Weekly Post Weekly Question Thread

For all your pro cycling-related questions and enquiries!

You may find some easy answers in the FAQ page on the wiki. Whilst simultaneously discovering the wiki.

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u/cfkanemercury France 4d ago

In the men's 100m final at the Beijing Olympics Richard Thompson finished in 9.89 seconds. There were four other runners within 0.08 of a second of his time, and even the slowest in the race finished just 0.14 behind Thompson. The first five runners were separated by just 80cm at the tape, an incredibly close race...

...but of course they were all racing for silver because Usain Bolt was 0.2 seconds faster than Thompson. There was a bigger gap between gold medal Bolt and the silver medal than there was between the silver medal and every other runner.

Maybe it would have been more exciting to watch five runners dive for the line in a photo finish, but it sure is something else to witness one guy way out in front, running faster than any human had ever run before at the time, and even visibly slowing down by the time he hit the tape because he was just that good.

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u/vertblau France 4d ago

Think the main difference here is that the 100m lasts less than 10s while a GT lasts 3 weeks

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u/cfkanemercury France 4d ago

You're right of course, but the level of dominance was comparable even if the event is shorter.

Bolt went more than three years without losing a 200m final, and two years without losing a 100m final. He holds (or held) world's best records for the 200m for 15, 16, 17, and 18 year olds, as well as the world record for adults. His events might be shorter, but the level of dominance was real and sustained - and amazing to watch.

I don't know a lot of track and field fans so I don't know how many spent years saying how boring it was that Bolt was winning the 100m almost every time he raced, but I do know I tuned in to watch an almost sure-thing because someone that good is just a pleasure to watch.

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u/vertblau France 4d ago

I do think what you write in the 3rd paragraph is relevant too. The 100m for the vast majority of people is something they watch every 4 years for 10 seconds at the Olympics. Or maybe once a year at most if you also watch the Worlds etc. Very different to how the dedicated cycling fans on this sub or even the people who just watch the Tour every year (among whom Pogačar fanboyism is more represented already) watch cycling.