I beg to disagree with those of you saying that the conditions were a reason for not racing. The first hour which TVNZ covered and I got to see was on the flat.

Thats pretty safe even in those conditions. And those conditions, everyone is worried about a slippery road and that is precisely WHY we should have seen attacks going in. Wind or rain make ideal conditions to make a break away, and then attempt to hold it.

Trek, you are right. You absolutely do not want to be in the bunch or at the back in those conditions. And that is why it is such a good reason to break it up, get away from the main group... ride safe and fast with just a handful of other women. That would be the safe thing to do.

I think you are too generous and kind Hawk... someone needs to be hard on them... these gals were supposed to be the best of the best... they didn't ride like it most of the time... and many of didn't even race at all.

If any of you who have replied or even just read this thread... wouldn't you, if you had the chance to be there, wouldn't you want to ride for gold? Wouldn't you want to maximise opportunity? Would you really sit in and think about how you don't want to crash, or would you notice that everyone else was so worried that you could seize the opportunity to take advantage of their fear and ride hard, ride your heart out, ride to WIN the gold?

How sad to say "I rode in an Olympic race" rather than I RACED in the Olympics.