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Lurcher

highest avg rider

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52 minutes ago, Sidney the robin said:

Good point but you have to say the Americans had team spirit  in abundance.Just thought the Nielsen/ Gundersen saga was unnecessary and Olsen should of been impartial and he should of helped both.Maybe Hans  showed him that he had his own ideas and mind and said so glad  Hans/Erik get along i think they always did the respect for each other was immense.

team spirit helps, but probably secondary to having the best riders. England reportedly had great team spirit in 1980 (when they won), and rubbish in 81 (when they finished runners up). But was that the factor, or was the main difference that they rode in 81 without Lee and Collins, and with Jessup nowhere near the dominant force he was the year before. I'd tend much more towards the latter...

similarly the yanks won in 82, with great team spirit, but doidnt in subsequent years when i'm not sure their team spirit was any worse...they were just missing Penhall (and in subsequent years Siggy as well).

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I think it was ex Spurs and Scotland striker Steve Archibald who said something along the lines of....team spirit is something you glimpse when you win.

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5 hours ago, Sidney the robin said:

Good point but you have to say the Americans had team spirit  in abundance.Just thought the Nielsen/ Gundersen saga was unnecessary and Olsen should of been impartial and he should of helped both.Maybe Hans  showed him that he had his own ideas and mind and said so glad  Hans/Erik get along i think they always did the respect for each other was immense.

What was particularly galling was the occasion when both Hans and Erik were due to ride as a pair representing Denmark and Olsen had booked Erik into a seperate hotel together with himself. Now if that's not deemed undermining team spirit I don't know what is? When Erik retired he admitted that Olsen's influence was a conflict of interest and caused unease to say the least, not only with Nielsen, but within the Danish contingent. Trouble with Olsen is that he was/is a control freak as often highlighted by various sources.

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13 hours ago, Sidney the robin said:

Great post Grachan his final efforts in 1980/ 81/ 82  left alot to be desired and my opinion of him then would be that he would always come up short.How wrong was i as usual his move to Oxford did the trick he had a couple of years that he made mistakes in Finals and in 1986 he was lucky in the Knudsen incident but he got there.Hans reminds me of Jason in that respect he hung on in there and once he got his first title ( which is the hardest) he moved on to the second.Cerainly in the top five riders of alltime for hard to know where to place him but the frightening thing was he could of won 7/8 titles great rider also did not always get the backing of Ole along the way.

...also, Sid, I guess that we all base greatness on the number of individual world titles won (never mind the number of silver medals) which is understandable but one has to remember the appearances that Hans made for Denmark at Pairs and Team level when he was often the dominating rider plus his other achievements at club level where his influence, on and off the track, brought much success to Oxford. If I recall Hans began to believe in himself after the 1983 World Final when a dropped chain denied him a place on the rostrum and it was from then onwards his standing began to bare results individually although his efforts riding for Denmark prior to that can not be overlooked especially during the 1978 World Team Cup Final whilst still only a teenager.

Also in only his third season in Britain (1979) he averaged over ten points when the league still had the likes of World Class competitors Mauger, Olsen, Collins, Penhall, Lee, Jessup etc in competition so his career really spanned two eras before new antagonists began to emerge during the early middle/eighties and beyond as his own career reached new bounds and achievements.

Edited by steve roberts

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Peter Collins averaged a massive 10-98 (which included 19 maximums) from the more difficult No.3 position (if I recall Soren Sjosten and/or Chris Pusey rode at No.1?). Although probably the most challenging heat leader was those programmed to ride at No.5. I remember reading that Malcolm Simmons envied fellow "Star" Howard Cole riding at No.3 in the same team as he was programmed to ride with a reserve for three of his rides although like the No.5 was programmed to meet the oppostion No.1 twice during the meeting. However it still didn't stop Malcolm heading the team's averages in 1973 with a figure of 10.26.

Edited by steve roberts

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