Why do so many people hate Cav

Gotte

I know you're going to say "because he's arrogant." But every time I've seen him post win, he always thanks his team, always gives them as much credit as possible. Compare this to Wiggins, who, it seems to me, always says something like "Yeah, it was a brilliant ride," or "yeah, I did really well."
Cav may be young, and may shoot off at the mouth when he's frustrated, but after a win he always seems very humble to me.

mididoctors

him and his team acted like a greedy twats..

but he apologized

so that's alright

andyp

I find Columbia a hard team to like, they are too smug by far.

k2rider

i dont, i think hes great, its about time we actually had a rider that was good enough and confident enough to actually win things. winners arent nice, winners need to be arrogant.

gradiric

I think Cav and his team are superb - the only team that really chased the spints at the beginning of the Tour. And then when others started to contest, they can still pull out the winning combination. Awesome teamwork - they have a strategy, they know their strengths and what each individual has to do, they execute it to perfection and they get the result. They have a right to be pleased with themselves, yet individually I think they are relatively humble about it in interviews, praising the team without ego. Cav even apologised to Thor after the stage today about what went on before in the stage he was docked points. Cav is young, he's no media-savvy genius yet, but speaks with reasonable sense and perspective when a microphone is thrust in his face and leading questions are asked seconds after a heated battle for the line. Chapeau!

tayaste

cav is cav i s'pose

Tusher

Cav is perfect!!


The world would be a very boring place without sprinters.

SteppenHerring

He's a young lad who is blessed with the fastest sprinting speed in the world. I think he's grown up a lot in the last few days. Today, when he stayed with it over the climb and made the sprint with limited support, that was his best win so far.

I think he's also learned that it takes more than being the fastest sprinter to win green. Here's hoping he comes back next year with a bit more all-round ability and a bit more humility.

gkerr4

I'm not a fan I have to say - i wish him on to win as it is nice to have a british 'winner' for a change but I can't be doing with him personally.

appreciate he is young and undoubtedly the best sprinter in the world - but he must learn to deal with the press better and work on taming that temper.

AndyRubio

Cav doesn't have much charisma, Wiggins is much more likeable. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

paulcuthbert

Didn't like him last year. He seemed smug and arrogant and cocky, and I didn't like it. But I've really warmed to him this year. He seems a lot more mature in interviews, and very gracious.

I feel sorry for him that he's not going to win the points competition because of a bad decision by the race officials. But it'd be great if he won on the Champs Elysses!

k2rider

why should he deal with his `temper`, once you start doing that you might as well say `oh well i lost` sod that! get angry when you dont win. got to say though Thor doesnt really deserve the green this year cos all he has done apart from that 1 stage over the mountains is follow in cavs wheel in every sprint. ok he won the sprint into barcelona but thats only one.

afx237vi

Anyone else notice that Wiggo gives FAR shittier interviews to Eurosport than he does to ITV? Each day Eurosport sends some unidentified female reporter to interview him outside the Garmin bus, and no matter what she asks him, his answer is always: "yeah, whatever, we'll see how it goes." It's like trying to get blood out of a stone. In fact, on occasion, he's been downright rude.

Then with Ned on ITV, answering the same mundane questions he suddenly turns into Mr Charisma. I think Braddo and Neddy have a bromance going on.

k2rider

ssshush otherwise he will end up being labled as arrogant and no one will like him just like cav.

georgee

I just pray that article I just read about him thinking of joining Radioshack was utter sh*te, any sensible man should realise the mistake of joining that knobber.

Anywho, Wiggins is very easy to hate just because of his insistence to grow sideburns when he clearly can't. Shave them, or at best cover up the ginger, have your weetabix then go ride tomorrow.

knedlicky

Maybe because he’s simple? Same sort of thing about Rooney in his earlier days when he was less industrious and more spectacular.
Both great at their element in their sport, but both thinking they don’t need to do more than their speciality, and both coming over with a mix of slight arrogance and as if all their brains are only in their legs.
Rooney’s improved partly because, after the initial glamour, he’s learnt it doesn’t always go the way he wanted and as a team member he needs to work harder. This might come with Cav too.

mmitchell88

AndyRubio wrote:

Cav doesn't have much charisma, Wiggins is much more likeable. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

It's funny isn't it - I'm completely the opposite. I think Wiggins did a PHENOMENAL job in the mountains, but when I see and listen to Cavendish, I think there's an absolute honesty and immediacy in what he says. (EDIT: Think about when he was asked if he thought he'd lost the battle for the green jersey, the day after his DQ. There was no 'prepped' answer there - you got a guy fully realising the consequences of his actions, and realising he had to acknowledge it publicly). You get the 'moment' with Cav. And then...when all is done and dusted ...he's prepared to think about what he's said and apologise if need be.

I've said it before - I'm a big fan of Cavendish. Not only as a superb cyclist but as a sportsman, flaws and all. Plus, he's a personality and by god, does sport need personalities.

k2rider

you arent seriously saying rooneys improved over the years as either a person or a footballer are you?? in my opinion he is worse now than what he was before he joined the scum! cav is a far better example of what a young sportsman should be looking at rather than the scouse shrek.

cougie

I like Cav - I've been following cycling for 30 years or now and at last Britain has come good - we're positively spoilt for talent these days.

Maybe its just the British way - we're not keen on winners ?

paulcuthbert

AndyRubio wrote:

Cav doesn't have much charisma, Wiggins is much more likeable. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Wiggins has about as much charisma as a platform announcement. He's dull!

Steven Martin

Cav is undoubtedly a prodigious talent, and today's stage was another where he stepped up another step (that was a long way out, and after a significant climb), but I'd love to know the sprint speed he makes compared to say Petacchi in 2003.
I am not that impressed with Cav's competition at the moment, so I hope that some other great talent turns up soon (maybe Bos?) to push Cav a bit more often.
He completely outclasses everyone else at the moment.

stagehopper

I think Cav is brilliant. However he's a great winner but a bad/bitter loser. And that hangs around for days as we've seen this week. He just needs to keep schtum when it hasn't gone his way.

mmitchell88

stagehopper wrote:

I think Cav is brilliant. However he's a great winner but a bad/bitter loser. And that hangs around for days as we've seen this week. He just needs to keep schtum when it hasn't gone his way.

...but when he does that, he gets labelled as being rude or arrogant again, doesn't he? He loses the green jersey, marches onto the bus, and all we see is a journo with a mic getting ignored. I'm just pleased that listening to Radio4 this evening, his amazing performance is being reported in news bulletins.

stagehopper

mmitchell88 wrote:

stagehopper wrote:

I think Cav is brilliant. However he's a great winner but a bad/bitter loser. And that hangs around for days as we've seen this week. He just needs to keep schtum when it hasn't gone his way.

...but when he does that, he gets labelled as being rude or arrogant again, doesn't he? He loses the green jersey, marches onto the bus, and all we see is a journo with a mic getting ignored. I'm just pleased that listening to Radio4 this evening, his amazing performance is being reported in news bulletins.

Keeping schtum doesn't mean omerta, it just means not articulating his true feelings. Always appear magnaminous, then express your true feelings in private.

knedlicky

k2rider wrote:

you arent seriously saying rooneys improved over the years as either a person or a footballer are you?? in my opinion he is worse now than what he was before he joined the scum! cav is a far better example of what a young sportsman should be looking at rather than the scouse shrek.

Experience has brought Rooney down a peg; he’s far less cocky than once. He’s not so sensationally effective because opposing teams know about him now, and because he uses a lot of energy on behalf of the team, which he didn’t do before. Maybe his marriage helped too. But from all that, he’s become a better team player, still occasionally sensational. And very likely a better person too.

I thought Cav’s DQ was good in that it hopefully took him a step along a similar way to more maturity, like the odd red card, whether justified or not, for Rooney probably did.

mmitchell88

stagehopper wrote:

Keeping schtum doesn't mean omerta, it just means not articulating his true feelings. Always appear magnaminous, then express your true feelings in private.

Define 'schtum' however you want, but if Cavendish only expressed his true feelings away from the camera, I think that would be a sad state of affairs. Formula 1 already has Lewis Hamilton - we don't Cav to start emulating him.

Bakunin

I have spent a fair bit of time defending him (my brother hates him), but I really didn't like the BS he pulled with Thor.

You have to wonder whether Hincapie missed yellow partly because of Cavendish's mouth.

RichN95.

stagehopper wrote:

I think Cav is brilliant. However he's a great winner but a bad/bitter loser. And that hangs around for days as we've seen this week. He just needs to keep schtum when it hasn't gone his way.

If he's half the competitor I think he is then the resentment will hang around for years. I'm not particularly competitive but I have residual resentment about some sporting defeats that were so long ago that I can't remember the details. (yes Northup Hall and Newcastle University, I'm looking at you)

Sourpuss Magee

It's difficult to like Cav because of those hissy-fits. The man is like a 15 year old girl.

REF123

Believe me, I've tried to like this guy.
He's a great winner but a very bad loser so he doesn't deserve my respect or attention.
Also not crazy about someone who shills products at the finish line.
Bad form.

AndyRubio

paulcuthbert wrote:

AndyRubio wrote:

Cav doesn't have much charisma, Wiggins is much more likeable. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Wiggins has about as much charisma as a platform announcement. He's dull!

Agreed! But compared to Cav he's got Obama amounts of charisma. And Wiggo's got shit taste in music. I notice too that he's started doing the arrogant Millar thing of looking everywhere except the interviewer, as if he's too cool to be there.

Yes Cav is honest, but that doesn't necessarily translate into charisma. Same with Nicole Cooke, one of our greatest athletes ever and as honest as the day is long, but she sure could do with some interview coaching.