Cav a contender for the Paris-Roubaix?

cougie

zormik wrote:

Cavendish is the best sprinter i've ever seen, but that's all i've ever seen from him.

Isnt this a bit like 'Yeah - but what have the Romans ever done for us ?'

dave_1

did Masskant, the Garmin rider have much history on cobbles re 08 PR? Huge gears turned at slow cadences the way, pave 5 minutes each...Cavendish may struggle with positioning, but his power, track endurance efforts that replicate the repeated sprints that are PR, his lack of need for a team to deliver him to the line lead me to think-top 3 if no crashes or punctures

nick hanson

cougie wrote:

zormik wrote:

Cavendish is the best sprinter i've ever seen, but that's all i've ever seen from him.

Isnt this a bit like 'Yeah - but what have the Romans ever done for us ?'

Sure hope Cav can do something,i'm going for the weekend,taking the family for the evening in Paris,then hope to see the start,possibly see an early cobbled section,then up to Carrefour de l'arbre for a picnic,weather permitting,& see the carnage.Just treated myself to a new camera that shoots at 40 frames per second,so hoping even an incompetant like me can get some passable pics,fingers crossed :?

camerone

zormic - i will tell you whats going to happen. Hincapie will tow the speedy englishman to the finish and he will gallop past the playboy coke snorting ex-sprinter.

seriously - whilst i dont expect much this year he has already shown that to underestimate is silly - MSR shows that. one day Cav will win Roubaix of that I am sure.

LangerDan

Looks like this thread is an academic exercise - for 2009 in any case

Cavendish will travel from Gent-Wevelgem to France this year with the Paris-Roubaix team. He plans to preview the parcours with the eight-man squad.

"If I did not put so much into Sanremo and Gent-Wevelgem then may be it would have been okay for Paris-Roubaix. I sacrificed a hell of a lot for Sanremo: I was so careful with my training and my diet, I had never been so careful before. That concentration took a lot of energy out of me, and it is the same for Gent-Wevelgem.

"I will miss Roubaix, which is a shame. I want to ride it because I love these types of races."

frenchfighter

Thanks for the update. It is pretty shameful of him really especailly when he kept going on about how he wanted to ride it so much (and was promised he could - CycleSport interview). His recovery must be pretty poor that after riding MSR he is still not fit enough for Roubaix, especially when we have riders doing Flanders, Roubaix and G-W all in the space of a week! Surely he could simply not ride G-W which would give him the energy for Roubaix?

cougie

FF - I dont think its about his recovery at all. Most of us think he's not going to win it - why would he ride a race to not win ?

Concentrating on the ones he is more suited to - thats the sensible approach - rather than the scatter gun - ride every race and keep your fingers crossed.

pb21

By the sounds of that comment he peaked big time for MSR, so he probably knows hes not in top shape which he would have to be to win.

He could 'ride' though just for the experience, as others have said this is pretty important for the cobbled races such as Roubaix.

teagar

pb21 wrote:

By the sounds of that comment he peaked big time for MSR, so he probably knows hes not in top shape which he would have to be to win.

He could 'ride' though just for the experience, as others have said this is pretty important for the cobbled races such as Roubaix.

I'd venture riding roubaix without good/peak form is not going to teach you very much about the important end of the race. It's a special one roubaix.