I’m a paid professional. This is not a f****** hobby!

Doobz
Doobz Posts: 2,800
edited April 2010 in Pro race
Paul Kimmage Interviews Cavendish.. Good read..


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/cycling/article7101041.ece
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Comments

  • takethehighroad
    takethehighroad Posts: 6,821
    I must say I've warmed to Kimmage, ever since he stopped banging on about how tainted cycling is and switched focus to rider profile type pieces.

    He's a good writer, and the way he writes makes cycling more accessible to the wider sporting community, which can only be a good thing.
  • fastercyclist
    fastercyclist Posts: 396
    Well, it's a hobby for me Mark. :D

    Maybe next year I'll make winning stages in the TDF a hobby too. :wink:
    The British Empire never died, it just moved to the Velodrome
  • Bakunin
    Bakunin Posts: 868
    Cavendish sounds like a jerk.
  • warrior4life
    warrior4life Posts: 925
    I think Cav seems very honest (as usual)

    I hope he gets his form back and has a succesfull season as he really is a talented cyclist..
    Everyone has relationships that break up and there are also times when we dont want to talk to people for whatever reason..

    Great interview....
  • nickwill
    nickwill Posts: 2,735
    Ithink he comes across as very human, honest and aware of his own faults. How refreshing to come across a sportsman that hasn't succumbed to the PR training and drivel that is the current norm.
    I wish him well for the rest of the season.
    http://lakescyclist.wordpress.com/
  • bobtbuilder
    bobtbuilder Posts: 1,537
    That is one of the best interviews I have read fro ages.

    Cav comes across as spectacularly honest IMO. I wish more sportsmen could be as self-critical.
  • r0bh
    r0bh Posts: 2,437
    And he was slumming it with the rest of us out training on the Cat and Fiddle yesterday
  • antfly
    antfly Posts: 3,276
    Cav comes across as a cold, selfish bastard to me. I suppose a lot of successful athletes are.
    Smarter than the average bear.
  • brakelever
    brakelever Posts: 158
    read the kimmage piece in the times , brillant warts and all , so his is no angel so what ? would have thought once you get to that level you must have a dark streak , just hope his form comes back , would love to see how some of the anti - cavendish brigade would get on in his place , youcan chose your friends ,but not your family . :roll:
  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    Wait, there's an anti-Cavendish brigade now? Is there a limit to the number of brigades you can join, because I'm already a paid-in member of the ALB (even though I never received my membership badge) and I think I inadvertently started the anti-Kroon brigade this week... I just don't have time for all the weekly meetings!
  • Abdoujaparov
    Abdoujaparov Posts: 642
    Great interview - Kimmage did brilliantly to get him talking about his brother in that way.

    That Guardian journo must feel embarrassed when her interview with him last week only gave her the bog standard 'Cav is nicer than you think' story that people have been trotting out for a while now.

    Kimmage's interview is much more intense.
  • miffed
    miffed Posts: 469
    I love Cav and hope his poor start to the season is a blessing. Worlds looks like a sprinters corse and hopefully he wont be as knackered as he was last year.

    On the interview, hes honest so an easy target for warts and all stories.
    Puke washes out, Glory lasts forever
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Anyone worried he'll do a Baden Cooke?
    _
  • deejay
    deejay Posts: 3,138
    afx237vi wrote:
    Wait, there's an anti-Cavendish brigade now? Is there a limit to the number of brigades you can join, because I'm already a paid-in member of the ALB (even though I never received my membership badge)
    If ALB (Light Brigade ??) is what I think it is, then I must be a Founder member from a casual dislike during 1992 and a firm dislike from August 1993 to an absolute dislike this weekend 1994.


    With what little I've read, then Cavendish sounds a very worried man.
    Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 1972
  • flattythehurdler
    flattythehurdler Posts: 2,314
    antfly wrote:
    Cav comes across as a cold, selfish bastard to me. I suppose a lot of successful athletes are.
    Probably in good company with kimmage then
    Dan
  • antfly
    antfly Posts: 3,276
    I bet even Kimmage wouldn`t snub his own parents.
    Smarter than the average bear.
  • csp
    csp Posts: 777
    He does sound very troubled, I think he's seriously depressed. Remember the interview with Rassmussen a few weeks ago? This may not be as bad but it's close. I think you should give it a thought before you call him a "jerk" or a "selfish bastard".
  • Brian B
    Brian B Posts: 2,071
    Bakunin wrote:
    Cavendish sounds like a jerk.

    He is a jerk :lol: And he looks like Bingo from the Banana Splits :twisted:
    Brian B.
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    The thing is, Cav is honest. As honest as ...um....a very honest thing, which is why he's a dream from a journalistic point of view - they know they'll get a good story out of him. Ricco apparently once sat and smirked his way through a press conference (2008 Giro, I think) whilst texting. Can you imagine Cav ever doing that?

    And he's respectful to his team, completely. Gives them full acknowledgment to the press after a race, and feels rotten when he doesn't win a race because he feels he's let them down.

    Kimmage has written an insightful piece- he knows he could so easily have wound him up and got all the quotes he needed, but he didn't.
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Tusher wrote:
    The thing is, Cav is honest. As honest as ...um....a very honest thing, which is why he's a dream from a journalistic point of view - they know they'll get a good story out of him. Ricco apparently once sat and smirked his way through a press conference (2008 Giro, I think) whilst texting. Can you imagine Cav ever doing that?

    The problem with this is you can end up excusing unpleasantness with "oh, he's just honest"

    Someone like David Millar offers much more insight but Cav has this bitchy / unpleasant but slightly funny thing going on. Which as you say, makes him quotable.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • tlw1
    tlw1 Posts: 22,154
    good write up, but he has let his brother down
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    matthew h wrote:
    good write up, but he has let his brother down

    Why?
    _
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    matthew h wrote:
    good write up, but he has let his brother down

    Why?

    Didn't lend him a suit dude :wink:
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • tlw1
    tlw1 Posts: 22,154
    couldn't be bothered to ring him back when he needed something. Would have taken bugger all time to send a text saying help yourself to a suit
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    matthew h wrote:
    couldn't be bothered to ring him back when he needed something. Would have taken bugger all time to send a text saying help yourself to a suit

    You don't know anything about their relationship or their history.

    There could have been a number of reasonable or unreasonable reasons why that didn't happen.

    I can think of plenty.
    _
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    I would crawl through fire to help my wee brother.

    I wouldn't lend my sister 10p.


    Every family's different.
  • Arkibal
    Arkibal Posts: 850
    Cav ruined his start of the season because of his teeth? :roll:
    when did smile matter in cycling?
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    From what he said, it's been a long term thing, and he would have had cosmetic dentistry whether he'd been a baker, cyclist or candlestickmaker.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,253
    Arkibal wrote:
    Cav ruined his start of the season because of his teeth? :roll:
    when did smile matter in cycling?

    Having a clean bum doesn't make any difference to my job, but I still wipe it.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • Tusher
    Tusher Posts: 2,762
    Well, thank goodness for that, Richard.

    :)

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