Early doors...

They were talking about the German Equestrian European, World & new Olympic champion on radio, Michael Young, and I decided that, given our paucity of gold thusfar, I'd adopt him. Then I read his name - it's actually Jung! Can't really claim him as one of our own anymore.

HOWEVER, the Lithuanian swimmer who won gold in the 100m breastroke is at school in Plymouth: take a bow, honorary team GB adoptee, Ruta Meilutyte!

I know it's only day 4 but there seems to be an air of panic beginning to permeate - where will that first Gold come from. To be fair to Great Britain, the only one we've missed out on so far is Cav, and that was never the banker the hype led people to believe. Daley & Waterfield may have hoped to win a medal but one cock up cost them - I don't think they could have beaten the Chinese anyway. David Florence in the canoe slalom would also have hoped for better.

There's still more cycling, velodrome, rowing to come, the sailing (though Ainslie struggling a bit at the mo), modern pentathlon, triathlon, canoeing, athletics, boxing, more gym - there'll be Gold in there somewhere for sure. Especially in the sitting down sports!

It's way too early to be writing off this team as being unable to deliver under the pressure of being the host nation!

Wise words...?

There's something in this, from Jeremy Wilson in the Telegraph, but I still think they should have had a plan B of some description (namely someone in the break):

"...As is very often the case in road race cycling (and as has been the case in many of the Tour de France stages that Cavendish did not win in recent years), he was simply the victim of circumstance. Indeed, the perverse truth was that, in coming so close to controlling a 160 mile race on their own, Cavendish’s four team-mates – Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, David Millar and Ian Stannard – actually delivered one of the greatest performances of their lives.

In time, and once the disappointment has settled, it may also be remembered as one of the most stirring moments of these entire Olympics. Few in cycling can ever remember such a small team being able to ride on the front to such effect.

For almost six hours, on what was a very challenging course, just four men were being forced to match an entire peloton of riders who, collectively, were clearly terrified of the race ending in a sprint finish for Cavendish.

In its own way, the performance by Wiggins and Froome was as heroic and ambitious as their exploits in the Tour de France. It was also a reminder that success in sport cannot always be measured or rewarded by medals."

Day 3, Monday 30th July: Gym'll fix it!

Well, THAT was exciting! Superb performance from the lads to win the first medal for the men's team since 1912. And as if the bronze wasn't enough, a Japanese cock-up led to a silver for a few minutes before the judges rightly upheld the enquiry, and it was back to bronze. When tearful commentators & summarisers say they never thought they'd see this day, you know it's a huge performance, delivered under incredible pressure.

Take a bow Max Whitlock, Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Louis Smith and Sam Oldham!

Here's how not to do it!

Day 2, Sunday 29th July: And we're off!

What a great race that was! I was at the Beach Volleyball yesterday but followed the tension of the chasing peloton on the radio. Today it was the opposite emotion as I was willing them to stay away.

It was a really exciting tactical race, with the Dutch repeatedly attacking off the front in an attempt to splinter the peloton, all marked by Emma Pooley who did a great job today, but no one got away on the two laps of Box Hill, and the break finally came as they went over it for the last time and started heading back.

The weather was diabolical as they approached town, with 4 riders in the break working together, and no one helping the Germans bring them back until it was too late- how ya liking that karma?! Then, disaster for the American rider in the break! Jonathan Vaughters, boss of Garmin & an American:

Man, what a pisser getting a flat tire while in the winning break at the Olympics. That kinda crap doesn't happen in swimming and ping pong

Well quite.

Anyway, it did happen, so 4 became 3 as they surged on, and the tension rose: could they stay upright in the weather, could they maintain the pace, would the peloton get organised, would they start playing cat & mouse too soon? I don't think we ever really thought Lizzie Armitstead would get past Marianne Vos - she's been compared to Eddie Merckx, and is the best rider by a mile in the womens game - won just about everything across multiple disciplines over the last 3 years. Armitstead sat on her wheel at the right time, but she couldn't get past when Vos jumped - I think the result would have been the same if she'd tried to jump first - and she didn't quite have the legs. She said afterwards she couldn't feel them anyway, it was that cold & wet!

So an enormously creditable silver for GB! Well done Lizzie Armitstead.

Becky Adlington wasn't expected to win the 400m in Beijing and she came from 7th in the last 50m to win. So she came to London as defending champion, but talking her chances down for this one as the 800m is the one she's really expecting to win.

Qualification was slightly complicated, as she was in the first of the quicker heats so the subsequent girls were able to gauge their speed better, and Adlington ended up 8th and in the outside lane. This was spun as an advantage as she could then "swim her own race" whatever that means - don't they all?!

Anyway, the French favourite Camille Muffat duly lived up to her billing and won in an Olympic record. Adlington had a strong swim down in the 8th lane, swam faster than her Gold medal win in Beijing, and came out of it with a bronze - and she was thrilled about it!

Will someone please listen to the fans?!

So, a few years after the publication of the spectators' charter somewhere on these pages, Colin Moynihan, Head of the BOA, gets on board the 30 minute rule for the corporates!

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LET THE PEOPLE IN!

Day 1, Saturday 28th July: Disappointed but not surprised

Well, it proved to be one lap too many for Cav & the team. It was never the guaranteed gold so many thought it was - the non-cycling fans in the press peloton hyped it up, but maybe the team did a bit as well- were they victims of their own success? Having advertised their intentions it's hardly surprising that no one wanted to help get the break back so Cav could then win in a sprint. It does seem short-sighted though - but there is a slightly offbeat parallel with the Palio in Siena (the bareback horse ride around the square).

In Siena, the contradas (teams) are basically local neighbourhoods and the rivalry between them is immense. Even marriage between rival contradas is unusual. Sometimes in the Palio stopping your rival from winning is more important than winning yourself, even if you end up losing. There seems to have been something of the Palio mentality in the peloton today. It's a great shame but I suppose we should, as Cav suggests, take it as a compliment that the opposition is that afraid of us! I'd imagine Griepel & Goss might be a bit peeved with their teams lack of belief in their ability to beat Cav in a sprint - why didn't they chase?!

The lack of a plan B was disappointing but had been flagged by Dave B with his "Cav is plan A and the rest of the alphabet" comment. I said I wouldn't second guess him but I'm going to! If Cav was struggling sufficiently on the climb for Millar to slow the pace down, then why wasn't Froome sent up the road with the break? Unlike the tour, plan A wasn't working. There were too many great riders in the Cancellara break, and there was too much support available in that group - who worked brilliantly together to stay away. Cav must be so gutted, having changed the way he trains, rides, looks, just for this event.

Dave Brailsford said this:

"He had this 14-week plan that he'd worked on, his fitness and his climbing, and he was never in trouble. He did a brilliant job, so he deserves a lot of credit for that. If you want to win big, you've got to be prepared to lose big. On this occasion, it was a big loss, but if you're not willing to put yourself at risk in that sense then there's no point being in this kind of arena."

Wonder if Cav feels the same this morning?!

It was a hard course (damn us with our sense of fair play & level playing fields!), and I always felt uneasy about Cav's installation as redhot Gold - one day races are hard to control, especially when it's just 4 guys vs 150. They did their best, but gambling that they would have help was maybe naive. However, it was a huge effort and they gave it a brilliant shot. You wouldn't know this from the terrible piece on the bbc news which showed a complete lack of understanding about cycling, and was relentlessly negative & ignorant. Ask Boardman or Jill Douglas FFS, they know what happened - big fail in their duty to inform & educate the viewers - David Bond, this is you. It was clear from Twitter after the report that a few non-cycling fans didn't understand what had happened, and your explanation in that report was either non-existent or plain wrong. As for the "difficult" question about tiredness from the Tour de France, which got the response it deserved, - did you know the winner yesterday, and the vast majority of the rest of the riders, also rode the race? Vino was also attacking most days...

Stuart O'Grady, the experienced Aussie who broke away as they came out of Richmond Park (and the principal reason his team didn't chase) made some interesting comments about the breakaway and lack of radios, via cyclingnews.com

From the moment the breakaway left the uninterested peloton, O’Grady was seen talking with his companions, using his vast experience to ensure the pace was controlled and that everyone remained motivated for the task that lay ahead.

"I was telling the guys last night, 'without radios, most of those blokes are just sheep. They haven’t got a director telling them what to do.’ They are at the Olympics. I was using a bit of experience and keeping them motivated,"

I'm not convinced the lack of radios affected Millar et al, but the well-organised attack clearly did.

As for our winner, Vino is a very charismatic rider - I remember him bursting out of the front of the peloton on the Champs Elysees, taking the sprinters by surprise & winning the final stage. I remember him breaking away along the route followed by my brother on his first etape, before being kicked out for doping. I remember him riding almost entirely swathed in bandages after a bad crash, then another bad crash a year ago which left him with a broken leg. He's an attacking rider, pretty maverick, rides as he wants & ignores team orders. He has panache! He's also served his time - though wouldn't it have been nice if his discovery & ban had been followed with an acknowledgement, an apology, a Millaresque epiphany & some kind of repentance to go with his redemption.

Of course I'd have preferred a Cav or GB victory, or someone without Vino's past, but if you're going to let the dopers back in, this can happen. Last word to Seb Coe - he's eligible to ride.

Opening Ceremony - initial thoughts

Quick thoughts on the opening ceremony, jotted down as I watched it.

• Nimrod in the build up, always beautiful, always dusty.
• The film from the Source of the Thames - I "got" it when the theme from the South Bank show played (so not that fast then!)
• Bursting the balloons in the countdown


• Wiggo ringing the bell!! So pleased he was able to be involved, given he had a big race ahead of him.

• The children singing, both from their own corner of these Isles, and the choir of deaf kids, who gave us one of the most uplifiting versions of our dirge-like anthem I've heard
• The whole Industrial Revolution piece, forging & raising the rings (WOW!), the drumming - love a bit of drumming!


• James Bond meets the ACTUAL QUEEN!
  

  And then she ACTUALLY jumps out of a helicopter! I'd love to see more of her sense of humour - she's been boss for 60 years now, time for her to stop being Phil's straight man.


• Mr Bean & the Chariots of Fire sequence - possibly the only sop to the global audience.
• Tim Berners-Lee getting global recognition at the end of that fantastic song & dance routine (which included the Brookside lesbian kiss in the kiss montage!). Apparently the US commentators didn't know who he was - so a co-commentator suggested googling him! Brilliant!
• The NHS bit went on too long and lost me, until the Mary Poppinses flew in and it perked up again. I need to rewatch this.

• Mike Oldfield!! In Dulci Jubilo a favourite carol anyway, so it was real goosebump time!
• Finishing with a beautiful rendition of Abide with me, to remember the unspecified departed. I hope others were thinking of the 11 Israeli athletes & coaches murdered at Munich in 1972, even though the IOC has refused any kind of memorial or moment of silence in the 40 years since it happened.

More great photos from Sports Illustrated.

Torch Relay

What an AMAZING start to the day!

Swimsong

This is great!

US Swim Team have a sing-song

the anticipation is killing me...!

I'm so excited! I'm so excited I'm going to get up at 6am so that I can get to work early and go down to the river to follow the flame as it starts its journey along from Hampton Court to Tower Bridge.

Then I'm going to ring my bike bell and mobile ringtone for 3 minutes at 0812, a rather stylish celebration, coming 12 hours before 2012 - see what they did there?

After a bacon buttie somewhere I shall go to work for the day and then leave around 1730 to go to our lovely friend Giules's beautiful house (she's got an amazing Ostrich side-table thing I'm looking forward to seeing), to watch the Opening Ceremony on telly.

The big question of course is who is going to light the flame. Seb Coe claims the decision is in the hands of Danny Boyle, not sure I entirely believe that. My favourite flame lighting was probably the archer in Barcelona, that was really cool.

My instant reaction when we won it was that it had to be Steve Redgrave - 5 Golds in 5 Games is epic, and he is one of our Greatest Olympians. The never shy Daley Thompson has been pushing himself forward. One of the dames would be worthy as well, Mary Peters or Kellie Holmes. Tanni? Or even Seb. How about Her Maj, in this year of her jubilee? Even Beckham has been mentioned but that would be a travesty.

One of the most interesting ideas I've heard would be to have a kid who was born on the day we won the bid. That would fit in with the theme of the bid which was one of legacy & youth, and you could have one of the above helping them with the flame. You'd have to have a pretty composed 7 year old kid to pull that off.

I still think it should be an Olympian though. I'd be inclined to get David Bond, the only Gold medallist still alive from the 48 games, involved in some way. Maybe Roger Bannister - his breaking of the 4 minute mile record stands out as one of the finest achievements in athletics.

I suppose we'll know soon enough, it's only 24 hours away, but I can barely contain my excitement!

MIDNIGHT UPDATE

It's today!!!

It's all over the front page, you give me road race...

Good to see the teams training on Box Hill today.

Here's one of Brad training for the post medal beers, taken by teammate David Millar

Here's one of Cav, hopefully coming up to lap the others rather than getting dropped:

Ah, this is more like it Cav!

I do worry that he has the expectation of the nation on his shoulders. He can certainly handle it, and rarely disappoints, but it's a tough race to control and it could be won by a breakaway. I don't think the Olympic road race has ever come down to a bunch sprint. But we are talking Cav, and Dave Brailsford, and an immense team of Wiggo, Millar & Stannard, so I'm not going to second guess anyone.

Meanwhile, the girls team are all smiles, despite the problems they had at the World Champs last year. Their race is tough to call, but Nicole could get away, or Lizzie Armistead could do something if it comes to a sprint. It'll probably be The German Judith Arndt though.

In Beijing, Emma Pooley put huge turn in for Nicole and then got the life squeezed out of her at the end by a delighted winner. She might be a better bet for the time trial.

This morning, Cav tweeted this pic of Brad - maybe in revenge for the head & shoulders gag yesterday!

Oops

So we're up & running then, and Our Girls got the victory!

Unfortunate flag mix up for the North Koreans - who do we blame for that one, the Scots? LOCOG? IOC? And of all the flags to pick...

Our Boys start their efforts tonight - I'm intrigued to see how Gareth Bale & Spurs will explain away scoring in a friendly while being too injured to play for Our Boys. Even Gary Lineker weighed in on Twitter, rather echoing my own view: "Once in a lifetime opportunity thrown away #baffled"

Sure, in the greater scheme of things the Olympics is not a great prize, but try telling that to Brazil, who have never won it and are DESPERATE to!

The thing the armchair sportsman like me doesn't understand is why WOULDN'T you want to be part of the greatest sporting show on Earth, in your own country, an event which simply won't happen again in your sporting lifetime and probably not your natural one either? Just being at the ceremonies, living in the village, getting the kit, having the credentials, being able to say "I am an Olympian". It makes no sense. Same thing goes for the young lad Adam Gemili who qualified at the trials yet prioritised the junior world champs or something. Luckily he saw sense but a big FFS goes out to him as well.

Linkage

PRINT MEDIA (if you can still call it that!)

I've really enjoyed The Guardian's 50 Stunning Olympic Moments series, available here

Full Guardian coverage here

The Daily Telegraph always has excellent sports coverage. Their Olympic coverage.

The Independent is here, but unfortunately, as The Times in behind a paywall, then their wisdom will have reamin a mystery...

ONLINE

Yahoo has some good memorable moments as well.

The BBC's full coverage is here including Barry Davies, that doyen of commentators, remebering his 10 most noteworthy Olympic Moments.

More links as we have them - please send me your favourites too!

Anyone care to predict the subject of the obligatory photo of an athlete inside a red phone box?

Starlisteny

Jonathan from work gets interviewed on Radio Jackie, SW London's finest radio station!

He's about 40 seconds in, and is sooooo excited!

Jonathan's appalled teenage daughter commented "OMG Dad, it's so cringe"

Getting into the Olympic spirit (1)

Proudly wearing an Olympic rosette!

Flaming 'eck...

So, there was a bit more excitement than usual when I got off the train in Kingston this morning - the Olympic Torch was passing by!

I think we all could have done without the 3 advertising floats "from our sponsors" which went first, but the kids liked it and they dished out stuff to wave.

Now, I know the naysayers like to nay say, and inform us that the torch relay first started in the Berlin games of 1936 - but you know what? Bollocks to them. It was great, loads of people lining the streets, all ages, really enjoying the atmosphere & their chance to get close to the torch. I joined a bicycle peloton following the police van at the back of the parade.

I bumped into my brother David, and we nipped around the back streets and came out at a handover point, where we got a good close up look.

As if the Tour de France, pathetic loss to South Africa and the not very teasing teaser tweets from another brother at the rehearsal for the opening ceremony weren't enough, then this has certainly got the old Olympic juices flowing...ROLL ON FRIDAY!