RIO DE JANEIRO -- Olympic road cycling races promise to be a grueling, 6-hour showcase featuring everything from the sun-splashed beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema to the squalor of the nearby slums.Theres the backdrop of historic Fort Copacabana, and the long, fast flats along the brilliant blue waters of the Atlantic. There are the harrowing climbs and brutal descents on slick roads twisting through jungle, and the jarring cobblestone sections that add a little spice and a lot of bumps.Yes, the route itself could be the star of these Summer Games.Its the hardest course Ive seen in a single-day race, said American rider Megan Guarnier, who made a special trip to Brazil just to scout the course. It has everything in it.Even stray dogs, which have scampered out of the favelas during training rides and led U.S. rider Brent Bookwalter to describe his first Olympic experience as wild.Its legit. Its a fully diverse course, he said. The route is spectacular.Which is precisely the point. The road race has always been a showpiece of cycling, positioned first in the program and rolling off the morning after the opening ceremony.The race at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 sent riders past the iconic Temple of Heaven, Tiananmen Square and portions of the Great Wall of China. Like the course in Rio, it then sent riders off into the countryside, though the elevation changes were nothing like they will face in Brazil.Four years ago, the London Olympics course started and ended with the spectacular setting of Buckingham Palace. More than a million people lined the route, packing the climb of Box Hill in the green Surrey countryside, in a nod to cycling fever that gripped the country in the days after Bradley Wiggins won Britain its first Tour de France.Now, it is Rio de Janeiros opportunity to shine.Im surprised someone signed off on a course this hard, New Zealands George Bennett said. Its hectic, its dangerous. There are slippery roads, patches of oil, difficult corners. It could send you home early. But its the kind of racing I like. I like the chaos.The chaos begins when the men roll off from the century-old fort Saturday morning. They will cover 236 kilometers (146 miles), more than any single stage of the Tour, and climb 3,600 meters (11,800 feet), on par with hard one-day races such as Liege-Bastogne-Liege.The Olympic road race should be relatively quiet along the coast, then begin to shake out on the first of two circuits, a lumpy 25-kilometer loop the men will tackle four times. Riders then head back to Rio and begin the second sets of circuits, two-and-a-half laps dealing with the Vista Chinesa climb and its 10 percent gradient, before a fast finish near Copacabana Beach.The womens course is identical but with fewer laps of the two circuits.The upshot of such an arduous layout is this: Some names even the most casual of cycling fans will recognize should have a rare opportunity to chase Olympic glory.Thats because the difficulty of the course lends itself to riders who can handle the climbing of a three-week Grand Tour, rather than an unpredictable wild-card that often springs from nowhere on flatter layouts. So, count Kenyan-born Tour de France champion Chris Froome of Britain among the contenders, even though hes had scant success in other one-day races.You have to give it all on the day. You have to be willing to gamble and take your chances, Froome said. The Tour is over and of course I am happy that I won, but now Im here to think about the Olympics. The goal is to try to get a medal for Great Britain.Froome pointed to the Colombian contingent headlined by Esteban Chaves and Rigoberto Uran, Spanish star Alejandro Valverde and former Tour champion Vincenzo Nibali of Italy as favorites.Other riders who excel on hard courses include Dan Martin of Ireland and Rui Costa of Portugal.The quartet of Americans is expected to pace the womens race Sunday with Guarnier joined by Evelyn Stevens, Mara Abbott and Kristin Armstrong. But the Dutch squad of Anna Van Der Breggen and reigning gold medalist Marianne Vos should factor, along with world champion Lizzie Armitstead of Britain.Considering what they must traverse, whoever stands on the podium likely will have earned it.Weve never seen a course like this, Bennett said, and probably wont see one like it again.Custom Nike Baseball Jerseys Outlet . A knee to the thigh might have stung him the most, but his sixth straight double-double made up for the brief burst of pain. 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The team also has yet to decide on the future of Doug Berry, who began the season as a consultant to the head coach but took over the offensive co-ordinators duties in July.H2K Gaming can still reach the 2016 World Championship despite its loss against Splyce in the semifinals. For that to happen, it has to prevail against the Unicorns of Love in the third-place match, and have G2 Esports beat Splyce in the finals. If G2 wins, and if H2K clinch third place, it will go to Worlds with a point differential over Splyce.However, H2K may have to achieve that feat without its starting AD carry, Ales Freeze Knezinek, as he nurses the tendonitis in his right wrist. The timetable for recovery is usually six weeks, but because he aggravated it throughout the season, it may take up to two months or more.Freeze noticed the first warning signs before the summer split started, and booked a series of appointments with a doctor in Berlin. At the first appointment, the doctor told him that the tiredness in his hand was a result of his grueling schedule practicing in front of the computer. The hand was getting tired after playing 10 hours a day, Freeze said. But 10 hours was normal for a professional gamer.Things changed at the second appointment when Freeze started noticing pain, rather than tiredness.The second game [in the EU LCS], I could only play six [or] seven games because the hand started hurting, Freeze recalled. I would have to force myself to play more, which I obviously did because I wanted to practice harder. In the end, [that] wasnt the greatest idea.Freezes doctor ordered an X-ray and MRI to follow up. The X-ray showed nothing, but Freeze had to wait more than a month and a half for the MRI, which meant the pain in his wrist progressively intensified as he continued practicing and playing. In the meantime, he had taken matters in his own hands, visiting a physiotherapist daily at 8 a.m., a time that many players in esports might consider too early (most professional gamers stay up late to practice, which means their schedules can start as late as 1 p.m.).In the end, Freezes hand was overwhelmed by the stress.I did everything I could -- exercises, everything -- but nothing was helping, he said. Nothing was improving the situation. It kept getting worse to the point where I couldnt play anymore. At that point, I had to step down, which was very stressful for me.Freeze also endured stress from his performance slumps, which is customary with injuries. As time went on, he also cut down his practice and playing time drastically. Ten hours of practice, scrimmages and solo queue winded down to fivve, and that meant less time to work on mechanics and widening his champion pool.dddddddddddd. Alas, as is customary with slumping professional players, the vocal minorities on reddit and social media criticized him louder than ever before.It took him five weeks to overcome the noise his detractors made on social media, and it was no easy feat. Everything that happened to the team was basically my fault, which was a very big hit because everyones literally blaming me for everything, so I got to experience how that feels, he stated pensively. In the end, I managed to look for the constructive criticism and not the flaming, so that helped me. It took me four or five weeks, though, to get over it.In the process, he also discerned between fans and haters. When a player plays well, everyone says he plays well, stated Freeze, before thanking his fans. But when he is in a slump and struggle, then he realizes how [many] true fans he has because only true fans will keep supporting him even though he has been slumping.His mental toughness improved, but his hand did not. As the end of the split neared, he abstained from playing solo queue and focused solely on scrims. However unlikely, setbacks can unveil breakthroughs, and Freezes practice habits benefited heavily. Rather than grinding the ladder, he watched games from other regions and noted things he could improve. What made Bae Bang Jun-sik stand out in South Korea? What about Gu imp Seung-bin in China?Its a very different approach of learning and improving if you start watching five different players, [the] best AD carries, Freeze said. Then you start connecting the play styles and take the best from each and try to implement that into your own play.Despite the silver lining, he still ranks this split as his hardest. It was difficult enough that he opted to sideline himself starting in the ninth week of the EU LCS summer split. But it has improved his efficiency as a professional gamer for the long term.You never know when certain things are going to happen to you and youre just going to get over the obstacle and struggle. It definitely made me stronger, he said. Even though Im sad how it went, Im glad for it as well because it made me approach the game differently and made me realize how inefficient I was with my practice and the way I played. ' ' '