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news
Mark Cavendish on Box Hill (pic Surrey News)Olympic News: Phil Liggett says MTB and BMX shouldn't be in the Games, Cav recces Box Hill again
Veteran cycling commentator Phil Liggett has risked the wrath of BMX and mountain biking fans by suggesting that those events should not be at the Olympics. Meawhile, last minute preparations are being made ahead of tomorrow's men's road race, with world champion Mark Cavendish and Tour de France champion Bradley WIggins among those out on training rides yesterday.
Speaking to the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun, Liggett criticised changes to the track programme introduced by the IOC and UCI that result in five events in the Velodrome for both men and women, with the individual pursuit one of those to be ditched: "It is absolutely disgraceful what they have done," he said. "They have devastated the track with the new events and taking out the iconic events of the Olympics," Liggett said.
"They have taken out the exciting and interesting events - the individual pursuit, the 1km time trial and the women's 500m time trial, and put in an omnium that no one will ever understand. There is only one rider from each country in the omnium and they are a jack of all trades and master of none."
"Nations and riders complained, but the UCI wanted equality. They got that but they also took out women's events. They introduced BMX. Great, but I am sure [Olympics founder] Pierre de Coubertin would have laughed his head off if he found out it was an Olympic discipline.
"It might be exciting but we are talking the Olympic Games. We have never had a good mountain biking event. Thousands will watch them but they are not Olympic gold medal events.
"They weren't meant to be in the Olympic Games."
Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, together with the rest of Team GB, took to the Box Hill circuit yesterday for a training session there as the big race approaches. Other countries including Australia, Belgium and France were also out training on Surrey's roads yesterday.
There are more pictures accompanying this story on the Surrey County Council website, which also has links to useful information for those looking to attend this weekend's races.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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39 comments
Mind you, imagine what he would have said if the UCI had managed to get skateboarding under it's wing and classified as an Olympic sport, which they were trying to do a couple of years back.
Following Phil's logic though the road race shouldn't be there cos the Olympics certainly isn't the pinnacle of the sport either. In fact I'd say if you were going to use the 'pinnacle of the sport' argument MTB and BMX would be in there ahead of road cycling.
Oh, I hadn't really understood his point on that bit. So he's saying that if the Olympics isn't the pinaccle of a sport then it should be an Olympic sport? That would rule out half of the Olympic sports! We'd be back to just track and field, really, and maybe track cycling too. Road definitely wouldn't be in there. Loon.
Liggett lost the plot a lot time ago folks. He maintains that Lance didn't dope "because he looked me in the eye and told me so" (this was at an event at Look Mum No Hands a couple of years ago) and he generally doesn't understand much of what is going on on screen. I do however agree with him about the track events - I've been racing for 20 years and I have only the vaguest notion of what the omnium is. How the public work it out.... but I don't see why he has a problem with bmx and mtb. They are huge cycling cultures in themselves and there is huge public participation in them. Can you imagine the old boy's reaction if they introduced downhill onto the agenda??!!
I'd expect comments like this from an uninformed outsider but it seems Ligget is becoming a seriously bigoted, grumpy old man...
I can't even watch ITV4's TdF coverage anymore because of his (and Sherwen's) ignorant comments.
I agree that removing the track events is outrageous but to suggest that BMX & MTB have no place at the Olympics is shameful.
I agree, Phil Luddite defiantly suffers from a case of the Murray Walkers. I went off him years ago when he scoffed at the computers estimate of when a break being caught was out by 1km and when he had a rant about wind turbines and the overly dumbed down explanation of cycling and.......
I agree that they ballsed up the track events - they should have ditched the omnium and kept the individual pursuit, if they absolutely had to lose an event. They claimed that they wanted to make track more understandable and appealing to those new to it - but the individual pursuit is the simplest and most easily understandable of all races to watch, as well as being very exciting.
As to whether or not BMX and MTB should be there - I don't see why not really. They require fitness and great skill, just like the track. They don't have quite as much history, but that doesn't make them unworthy of the olympics. I can't really see what Liggett is arguing - he hasn't really said anything except that he doesn't really like them.
What a load of bollox. He's living in the past.
I didn't understand what this bit was trying to say - it is ambiguous:
"He said disciplines like BMX and mountain biking simply should never be in the Olympics, given they were not the pinnacle of their sport."
Tbh couldn't agree more
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