The problem with the descent was the combination of difficulty and lack of any kind of margin for error or safety precautions in the event of someone getting it wrong. Vincenzo Nibali is one of the best descenders in world cycling, yet it caught him out on Saturday. If you're going to have a descent that tricky and made even more so by the shadows cast by the trees over the road, then you can't have six inch deep gutters on both sides of the road that will throw anyone getting it slightly wrong over their handlebars. It's like putting concrete walls with no deformable barrier on the fastest part of a Formula One track.

I agree. I get Sal's point about it be the ultimate challenge to win an Olympic gold so of course it should be difficult but they seemed to go beyond that to almost reckless/careless. It says it all about the course when we are relieved that it's 'only'.a severe concussion and three spinal fractures. Perhaps also 'fortunate' that she was on her own and not in a group of 3/4 that could've caused mutiple injuries.

As for others making it down safely, I'd imagine that with her being in 1st place at the time that others may have gotten a heads up to use caution going into that particular turn, especially as she still lay motionless on the side of it. In the gymnastics that's just an unfortunate injury that can happen in sport and whilst cyclists know that crashes come with the territory, this was pretty much asking for something serious to happen.

I thought straight away at the time when she didn't move at all that she had broken her neck, was awful viewing. I fully agree the course should be difficult for the Olympics - but not so barbaric that any mistake not just costs you the race but potentially your career. I do however think she got the speed and angle of entry into that particular turn all wrong, she was far too narrow for the tight bend under no pressure from other riders - I guess they will have ridden the course many times before the actual race (?) so that turn shouldn't have been a surprise.... however mistakes like that should cost time allowing the pack to catch up somewhat, not have you speared into a concrete wall fracturing your back!

always look forward to the Athletics, that is the Olympics for me. I will watch a few of the other things going off involving Brit hopes but things like football and Golf etc.. wouldn't give it the time of day as Olympic sports go they just don't belong for me.

I'll watch the athletics and maybe Nicola Adams in the boxing thats all for me though. No interest whatsoever in the other stuff

455 to Brazil is hard to defend. More than Wigan took to Donny for a cc semi final

I've seen a lot of discussion on this in the cycling forums I hang about, and there is various discussions about how they could mitigate against this, maybe hay bales but if it rained this could have caused flooding, and its not possible to have a net here (like that which caught Richie Porte the day before)

I can see from her Strava she had been down this same descent 3 times last week, maybe many times before. How many of those would be at the same intensity & pressure as leading the race for Olympic gold, with a decent gap back to second (caught with 150m to go & finished 4th)?

She's done thousands of similar corners while descending before, but got caught up in the pressure of the moment. Its the equivalent of passing the ball to Tony Clubb on the 5th tackle, in a Grand Final.

That was a shocking performance by GB's women 7's side. Completely choked with a bronze medal up for grabs.

Nibali also fell in the TDF on a descent this year so maybe he has become a bit blaze about going downhill maybe he is no longer as invincible as he believes he is.

The points I was trying to make are: it wasn't the first time they made that descent IIRC three times during the race and the number of fallers were few. Thomas fell but that is not new for him last year he spent more time on his bum during the classic season than on his bike.

The fencing was excellent, got right into that, never watched it before and now looking forward to the team event gb good chance of a medal

Not sure you're quite comparing like with like there...



Olympics for me is all about the track & field and particularly the 100m. That's pretty much the pinnacle of competitive sport of any form.

Other than that will watch the later round basketball, and accidentally saw some of the women's rugby 7s and it was actually quite good, so might watch the men's too. Remember quite enjoying the Handball during London 2012 too.

There are a lot of ridiculous sports there though, anything that needs to be scored by judges or involves a horse for a start.