To wonder why there have been so many crashes in the velodrome this olympics?

[NeonJellyBaby]

Having watched the track cycling avidly in the last two Olympics I don’t ever remember there being so many crashes, if any at all. But this time around there have been so many really painful looking ones, including one just now that has made me wince and I’m amazed the rider hasn’t been seriously hurt. Can anyone with a bit more knowledge explain what’s going on? It never used to look so brutal.

Also a track cycling fan though I’ve not tried it yet, the other half is a competent track cyclist. He has theories… The women’s madison crashes are likely because it’s the first time there has been a women’s madison. The GB team who won by a country like said they only started training for it a few months ago and it took them a while to gel, add in potentially less experienced teams (relative of course) plus tiredness. One crash was the two Belgians mucking up a changeover and it looked like carnage with a strung out group and riders trying to come in and out.

I also think they have crammed some events together, possibly ‘because Covid’ but not sure why. Omnium is usually over 2 days but this time over 3 hours, so again possibly tiredness.

Add in technical advancements that maximise every ounce of speed plus Olympic nerves and a potential year of reduced training/racing and I’d say crash chances would multiply.

That’s interesting @lampygirl the commentators have mentioned tiredness a lot this time around I’ve noticed so I suppose it’s the obvious explanation. One rider this morning also fell off their bike, he didn’t crash, he just came right off it. In the past in awe of them for not crashing or falling off, so it’s really noticeable that it keeps happening,