The Mighty Cav?

Bikr23

at this rate will he even bother to finish Le Tour? Perhaps he can go lead out Griepel at La Vuelta

gethmetal

Probably not. I'm waiting for him to blame a mechanical for today's failure, rather than being humble enough to admit it is possible to beat him.

giant_man

Fantastic Petacchi - experience and strength beats immaturity and youth! Great win!

redddraggon

Cav'll bounce back

redddraggon

Cav'll bounce back

giant_man

Hopefully not .....

squired

He said that people have been writing him off without realising that he had aimed to be good for the Tour and the World Championships. Right now I'm not seeing any sign of that plan. His sprinting speed relative to the other riders seems to be way down compared to last year. Any bets on him moving teams at the end of the season?

gethmetal

squired wrote:

He said that people have been writing him off without realising that he had aimed to be good for the Tour and the World Championships. Right now I'm not seeing any sign of that plan. His sprinting speed relative to the other riders seems to be way down compared to last year. Any bets on him moving teams at the end of the season?

I agree, he was talking carp all along.
If you're right about the move, I hope it's not to Sky...
All the best to him if he sorts his performances out and learns some humility, until then he can pout and throw his bikes as much as he likes. Not the behaviour of a champion.

cougie

Don't think he's finishedjust yet !

ms_tree

Wouldn't he have got a few points to add to his tally if he'd hung in there?

warrior4life

It just seemed he didnt have the power or speed... I think his early season has took the edge off.
He may get a stage late on... He may just put everything into the last stay.

I would like him to move to sky next year.. I'd put a bet on cav for green now next year!

RichN95.

Ms Tree wrote:

Wouldn't he have got a few points to add to his tally if he'd hung in there?

He still managed to pick up a few. He was only three places behind Hushovd - and no-one's saying he's finished.

Tim Farr

On Eurosport they reckon that there are only six stages that the sprinters can win - and today's finishing in Reims was number three. So Cav can't win the Green jersey unless Hushod and McEwan and Petacchi pack. But he'll win again - and I'll be pleased for him and so should every British cycling fan.

dulldave

gethmetal wrote:

Probably not. I'm waiting for him to blame a mechanical for today's failure, rather than being humble enough to admit it is possible to beat him.

Not him but...
https://twitter.com/39teeth/status/17969523168

Pross

He had a bad day and seemed to blow a bit. Doesn't mean he's finished. I think Petacchi has worked out he can beat him if he goes early. Also, the other teams have sorted out disrupting the HTC train or the train is weaker for some riders leaving. Be interesting to see if he gets through the mountains. Ultimately I think getting beaten regularly could help him in the long term.

Bikr23

I agree that Cav is a great talent and will continue to be very successful in years to come. He is now learning lessons of humility which will benifit him in the future. That is unless this is all a way to blame Columbia for HIS failings so he can use it as a reason to go to
Sky :roll:

rockmount

Tim Farr wrote:

On Eurosport they reckon that there are only six stages that the sprinters can win - and today's finishing in Reims was number three. So Cav can't win the Green jersey unless Hushod and McEwen and Petacchi pack. But he'll win again - and I'll be pleased for him and so should every British cycling fan.

+1 Thor got it wrong today too ..

finchy

Hopefully he'll bounce back, but his dental job must now be considered the most expensive in the history of the entire human race.

Homer J

Early days to write him off

Anonymous

I think this is doing him the world of good. It'll make him realise that it's not going to be as easy in future and hopefully give him a kick to the next level. There was always going to be a comedown from his amazing performances.

I also think his dip is doing the sprints a world of good! Today's build up was really exciting!

Tusher

He'll be just fine. Probably no bad thing that he's been beaten/had mechanicals/been unlucky so far. He'll learn from it and move on.

And, IIRC, there were moans last year that the sprints were becoming boring. Not any more they're not.

Richrd2205

What is it that irritates folk so much about Cav? Is the entire opinion based on post-race interviews & media speculation? I really don't get it...
Any fiercely proud, fiercely competitive person would behave like he does. The difference is that he shows some insight into it.....
I don't like excessively proud people, nor do I like competitive people, so Cav isn't on my Christmas card list, but FFS, he's no different from a bunch of other pro cyclist, except for being less guarded in post race interviews.
Furthermore, a wee 20-something from the Isle of Man suddenly finds himself the centre of world cycling media attention. Can anyone tell me that they wouldn't have an ego the size of a house in the same situation? Can anyone tell me that they would be able to deconstruct & understand that?
Cav has the former, but can answer "yes" to the latter. The former is a given, the latter an extreme rarity.
I hate feeling like I have to defend him 'cos I really don't like him....
As I said, FFS, when Vino can win races & get fewer negative things said than when Cav doesn't win races we all might want to WTFU & think about what we're saying.
(If anyone wants to point out where Vino apologised, I'd love to see it).
I would almost certainly despise Cav if I met him & I'm defending him on here... You go do the math(s)!
Sorry, I get really pissed off when individuals get targeted because of what amounts to bad PR.....

oldwelshman

Cant believe some of the crapwritten here.
The difference between these guys at the top is very small, even if the gaps Cav was winning by last year looked big, the actual differences are small so given his problems this year for variety of reasons he is definately not on peak form which is hardly a surprise.
Cav is the fastest sprinter out there for sure, but he needs to be at his peak for it to show.
Petachi has peaked for sure he looked good today.
I dont think Cav blew and his leadout train was ok and he has shown before he can win without it.
It is just he is not on form yet but to think he wont get it back is nuts, I bet he is churning up inside as he is so competative
I dont think it helped that I think the green jersey had already realistically gone away from him before today so I dont think he was interested in rolling in in 4th or 5th.
I think he may get fitter and faster throughout the tour and expect him to go well for the worlds.

Matt the Tester

NapoleonD wrote:

I think this is doing him the world of good. It'll make him realise that it's not going to be as easy in future and hopefully give him a kick to the next level. There was always going to be a comedown from his amazing performances.

I also think his dip is doing the sprints a world of good! Today's build up was really exciting!

yeah!! i was waiting for him to explode!! no joke but my heart was beating sooo fast!

shisaa

It was always going to be difficult to match the last couple of years, particularly last year. He made winning look too easy maybe.
There are other sprinters who will be disappointed though. What about Farrar? And who thought Petacchi would win two of the first four stages before the tour started?

fudbeer

I like Cav and his book is a great insight into his personality.

However I do think he makes himself very unpopular with other riders and teams with some of the things he says and does.

I think this may work against him in the long term.

Hopefully he will realise this with all the problems he has had this year.

RichN95.

While many are writing Cav's career obituary, no-one has mentioned one of the causes of his defeat today - namely really well worked tactics by Lampre.

Have a look at the last 2km again. At about 1500m, a couple of Lampre riders, most notably Hondo, come over the top of the three man HTC train. This causes HTC's lead man (Eisel?) to deviate from the plan and up the pace. This tires him and leaves Cav with just Renshaw and still just over a kilo to go - too much for Renshaw to do.

So Renshaw tucks into a slipstream, thus losing control, but still has to hit the front earlier than he would like. Combined with a slight incline (1%) this means Renshaw can't go at his customary pace.

Tucked in behind the two top sprinters (Cav and Hushovd) is Petacchi. He's got the capability to go for a long sprint and therefore goes relatively early and takes his sprint quite wide. He's caught Cav out with an early sprint before (stage 1 - 2009 Giro). By the time Cav, still behind Renshaw, sees Ale-Jet (Hushovd is also slow to react), he's at top speed and two or three metres ahead of Cav, leaving the Manxman with too much to do - even if he was on for. Cav realizes this and decides to save it for tomorrow.

I'm not Cosmo Catalano, but that was how the race was won.

guv001

Rob Hale had nothing but praise for Cav's off camera personality on Eurosport the other day.

Pross

RichN95 wrote:

While many are writing Cav's career obituary, no-one has mentioned one of the causes of his defeat today - namely really well worked tactics by Lampre.

Have a look at the last 2km again. At about 1500m, a couple of Lampre riders, most notably Hondo, come over the top of the three man HTC train. This causes HTC's lead man (Eisel?) to deviate from the plan and up the pace. This tires him and leaves Cav with just Renshaw and still just over a kilo to go - too much for Renshaw to do.

So Renshaw tucks into a slipstream, thus losing control, but still has to hit the front earlier than he would like. Combined with a slight incline (1%) this means Renshaw can't go at his customary pace.

Tucked in behind the two top sprinters (Cav and Hushovd) is Petacchi. He's got the capability to go for a long sprint and therefore goes relatively early and takes his sprint quite wide. He's caught Cav out with an early sprint before (stage 1 - 2009 Giro). By the time Cav, still behind Renshaw, sees Ale-Jet (Hushovd is also slow to react), he's at top speed and two or three metres ahead of Cav, leaving the Manxman with too much to do - even if he was on for. Cav realizes this and decides to save it for tomorrow.

I'm not Cosmo Catalano, but that was how the race was won.

Good analysis. I picked up on Petacchi going early and getting a gap but only reading that did I remember the lead out when Eisel ended up on the right and the rest of the train had to go left. As for Cav's character, as he said himself people judge him by his comments immediately after a race but none of them actually know him.

pedro118118

Agree with ^^^^

Lampre & Pettachi just rode a very smart finale and blew the lead-out trains apart.
Cervelo, Garmin and HTC were all caught out and burned far too much energy far to early, which meant that once Pettachi jumped away for a long one, Cav, Thor et al were left with far too much to do.

So what? Put that one down to experience and move on.
For people to expect Cav to win half a dozen Tour stages every year is ridiculous.

I suppose the worrying thing is that the HTC train has been 'found out', but they're still formidable and assuming they put Cav in the right place at the right time, I'm sure he'll leave the race with a stage win (in Paris?).

Green jersey's gone now though, unless something drastic happens to Pettachi or Thor, as both a better climbers.

Bikerbaboon

Pross wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

By the time Cav, still behind Renshaw, sees Ale-Jet (Hushovd is also slow to react), he's at top speed and two or three metres ahead of Cav, leaving the Manxman with too much to do - even if he was on for. Cav realizes this and decides to save it for tomorrow.

I'm not Cosmo Catalano, but that was how the race was won.

Good analysis. I picked up on Petacchi going early and getting a gap but only reading that did I remember the lead out when Eisel ended up on the right and the rest of the train had to go left. As for Cav's character, as he said himself people judge him by his comments immediately after a race but none of them actually know him.

I dont get why cav just sat up. He was in 4th and able to get good points for the green ( his aim for this year) but he just sat up. I know you are saying its to save himself for tomorrow, but to get the green you need to finish well over alot of days and not just go for the win.