By Anthony Tan
As part of Madrid's proposal to host the 2012 Olympic Games, organisers plan to stage the start/finish of Olympic road time trial inside the existing Olympic stadium.
International Cycling Union (UCI) executives Charly Mottet and Philippe Chevallier visited the Spanish capital last week, and have described the idea as 'brilliant' according to the Olympic bid news site, GamesBid.com. The stadium, which has a capacity to seat 70,000 people, is situated less than 10 kilometres east the city centre, en route to the main airport.
While Mottet and Chevallier were happy that the Olympic stadium - including the velodrome and BMX track - were all positioned with the parameters of the 'Olympic Ring', one fairly significant hurdle may present an issue: cars are not allowed inside the stadium. Should a rider puncture or experience a mechanical inside the stadium, they would be not able to receive assistance from a team car until outside of the facility, although a way around this would be to position team or a neutral spares personnel situated around the track, à la Paris-Roubaix.
Should Madrid host the 2012 Summer Games, both the men's and women's time trials would take place on the same day, August 12, with the athletics programme kicking off at the Olympic stadium the day after.
