Cavendish

andyp

ratsbeyfus wrote:

I agree... I loved the side on shots of the sprint. It'll be great if they get minicams attached to the bikes for some images of what it's like from the rider's perspective. Although there'd be a weight gain there'd be huge benefits for the sponsors. HTC-Columbia were riding with mobiles strapped to their seats to keep their sponsors happy... perhaps Sky could have a 'Bradley-cam' next year.

They did this in the Giro in the 1990s.

teticio

Gingerflash wrote:

I can apprciate that the sprint is an incredible athletic effort, dangerous and there's a lot of teamwork, tactics and preparation involved. I also see that Cav is the best in the world.

However, am I the only person who finds sprints a bit dull? I'm always disappointed when a race or stage comes down to a mass sprint and really couldn't care less who wins.

Someone above compared Cav to Lineker - a good finisher. I realise it's a lot more involved than that, but it does seem a little like goal-hanging.

The out and out sprinters are some of the slowest riders in the peloton over the difficult terrain, get helped along by their team-mates and, because they're fastest over the last few hundred metres, get all the glory.

Sprinting is incredibly fast and dangerous, but I find myself much less impressed by it than by say Cancellara at Flanders and Roubaix, or the climbers in the high mountains.

+1

its a great party trick but its not really what the tour is all about is it? on the track, now that's another thing. any of these guys get my utmost respect but if we are talking about who our "heroes" are, i'd go for contador or cancellara before cavendish. on the continent, its true, he doesn't seem to get much of a mention.

rockmount

teticio wrote:

Gingerflash wrote:

I can apprciate that the sprint is an incredible athletic effort, dangerous and there's a lot of teamwork, tactics and preparation involved. I also see that Cav is the best in the world.

However, am I the only person who finds sprints a bit dull? I'm always disappointed when a race or stage comes down to a mass sprint and really couldn't care less who wins.

Someone above compared Cav to Lineker - a good finisher. I realise it's a lot more involved than that, but it does seem a little like goal-hanging.

The out and out sprinters are some of the slowest riders in the peloton over the difficult terrain, get helped along by their team-mates and, because they're fastest over the last few hundred metres, get all the glory.

Sprinting is incredibly fast and dangerous, but I find myself much less impressed by it than by say Cancellara at Flanders and Roubaix, or the climbers in the high mountains.

+1

its a great party trick but its not really what the tour is all about is it? on the track, now that's another thing. any of these guys get my utmost respect but if we are talking about who our "heroes" are, i'd go for contador or cancellara before cavendish. on the continent, its true, he doesn't seem to get much of a mention.

Hey maybe you should tell the sprinter teams, they obviously don't realise the money they are wasting. Contador, sure he won the thing without managing to get a stage, now that is boring !!

Will L

tomb8555 wrote:

To be honest, I'm not that interested to see an inside view of the autobus.

Tom BB wrote:

Still, be good to see what goes on in the 'grupetto'!

Interesting how quick sports fans can be to put the knife in.

Gotte

Sorry, I've not had chance to read all the posts, so if I'm repeating someone,apologies.
Personally, I've never understood why people don;t like Cav. I know he has a reputation for being arrogant, but from what I've seen of his interviews after the races, he always seems very gracious, in that he always, always gives full credit to his team.
Lat year, when Bradley Wiggins was getting equal limelight, he struck me as quite arrogant, in that it was always about how good he had been and nothing to do with his team.
For some reason Cav seems to rub some people up the wrong way.
Personally, I think there is a certain puritan element in cycling who see anything which is in anyway mainstream and, god forbid, entertaining, as spawned by the devil himself.

TommyEss

Gotte wrote:

Sorry, I've not had chance to read all the posts, so if I'm repeating someone,apologies.
Personally, I've never understood why people don;t like Cav. I know he has a reputation for being arrogant, but from what I've seen of his interviews after the races, he always seems very gracious, in that he always, always gives full credit to his team.
Lat year, when Bradley Wiggins was getting equal limelight, he struck me as quite arrogant, in that it was always about how good he had been and nothing to do with his team.
For some reason Cav seems to rub some people up the wrong way.
Personally, I think there is a certain puritan element in cycling who see anything which is in anyway mainstream and, god forbid, entertaining, as spawned by the devil himself.

Fair points re. Cav - but last year when Wiggins was keeping in touch with the rest of the GC contenders in the high mountains he was a long way from (most) of his team mates (I think he had Vandevelde for some of them... correct me if I'm wrong - 2009 seems a long time ago!)

My point being - he didn't use his team the same way as Cav does to a) chase the breakaways down and b) get him to the front, fight for space and fire him at the line at the speed of light(ish!)

mroli

Tom BB wrote:

ratsbeyfus wrote:

mroli wrote:

perhaps Sky could have a 'Bradley-cam' next year.

The view of shattered dreams! Still, be good to see what goes on in the 'grupetto'!

I didn't say that. That's false quoting that is....

Tom BB

Yeah sorry about that mroli-typing fail!

Will-it was a joke mate...although he has rode round in the bus from an alarming amount of mountain stages in GT's this year considering he is a supposed GC contender!

As for Cav and Sports Personality of the year-got to be in with a fair shout hasnt he-best see who wins the F1 title yet though!

stagehopper

teticio wrote:

its a great party trick but its not really what the tour is all about is it?

Road cycling is about a hell of a lot more than just the GC battle at the Tour de France.

Pross

Tom BB wrote:

Yeah sorry about that mroli-typing fail!

Will-it was a joke mate...although he has rode round in the bus from an alarming amount of mountain stages in GT's this year considering he is a supposed GC contender!

As for Cav and Sports Personality of the year-got to be in with a fair shout hasnt he-best see who wins the F1 title yet though!

Did he? He was getting drop on the decisive final climbs aand losing a few minutes before the final week. He only really came in with the bus on the last mountain stage as far as I can recall and was, by his own admission, knackered by then. I thought he may have been holding back to win the TT but his performance in that showed that he really was burned out.

Tom BB

Spent the last half of the Giro in the autobus too....preparing for the Tour :shock:

Will L

Tom BB - yes, he did. But he also said he was going to well before he did. Appreciate it was only a joke - but does seem that on the back of one tour that didn't live up to expectations, loads of people are suddenly dismissing him almost out of hand. It may turn out that last year was a one-off, but equally it might be that this year was. Suspect the answer is somewhere in between. Whilst at the older end age-wise, experience-wise he's still a bit of a novice, especially as a team leader (and I don't think the team management helped by putting all eggs in one basket)

Pross - I don't think that TT was one by somebody burned out. The wind had picked up quite a bit by the time he rode, and pretty much all of the riders who beat him were in and finished before he even started. In even conditions across the whole TT, I reckon he might well have been in the mix for the top 4 - Cancellara, Martin, BW and Menchov.
(The whole reporting of the TT was, to my mind, a bit awry. Sanchez according to commentators had a bad one, whilst Schleck was brilliant - yet Sanchez was the quicker. Sanchez's problem was that Menchov rode particularly well.)

Tom BB

Well said Will....

ratsbeyfus

mroli wrote:

Tom BB wrote:

ratsbeyfus wrote:

mroli wrote:

perhaps Sky could have a 'Bradley-cam' next year.

The view of shattered dreams! Still, be good to see what goes on in the 'grupetto'!

I didn't say that. That's false quoting that is....

And I didn't say that mroli! Desist forthwith from such slander... or... or... or I'll get my mum on you!

ratsbeyfus

Will L wrote:

ratsbeyfus wrote:

To be honest, I'm not that interested to see an inside view of the autobus.

Interesting how quick sports fans can be to put the knife in.

I didn't say that either... fwiw I still like wiggo...

stagehopper

Wiggins rode the fastest TT out of the top 50 on GC - says all you need to know about the switch in wind.

luckao

Whooooosh

Abdoujaparov

stagehopper wrote:

Wiggins rode the fastest TT out of the top 50 on GC - says all you need to know about the switch in wind.

+1 Wiggins rode an excellent TT, even beating Menchov who said later he'd ridden the best TT of his life (yes, even better than his cinque terre demolition of the field in the giro last year).

And what's the problem with sprints? I reckon they're great fun - the sprint into Bordeaux was a great antidote to all the marking we'd seen in the mountains. Don't get me wrong, I love mountain stages, but sprints mix it up nicely.

magicrhodes

Abdoujaparov wrote:

stagehopper wrote:

Wiggins rode the fastest TT out of the top 50 on GC - says all you need to know about the switch in wind.

+1 Wiggins rode an excellent TT, even beating Menchov who said later he'd ridden the best TT of his life (yes, even better than his cinque terre demolition of the field in the giro last year).

And what's the problem with sprints? I reckon they're great fun - the sprint into Bordeaux was a great antidote to all the marking we'd seen in the mountains. Don't get me wrong, I love mountain stages, but sprints mix it up nicely.

Spot on Abdu! Vivre La Difference!

@Luckao Woosh is about right! All said was whoa look at him go!

Will L

ratsbeyfus wrote:

Will L wrote:

ratsbeyfus wrote:

To be honest, I'm not that interested to see an inside view of the autobus.

Interesting how quick sports fans can be to put the knife in.

I didn't say that either... fwiw I still like wiggo...

Sorry ratsbeyfus - it's now edited to correct the attribution!

Abdoujaparov

Cav is a bit of ledge.

No-one gets close to his aero position - you wonder why there's such a discrepancy. Ok, Cav's got that track background, but getting seriously aero and still getting the power out is something you can learn, surely...

edster99

Cav gets my vote! Including for Sports Personality. Personally I think to up the british record number of stage wins in the tour from 8 to 15 is impressive. Thats sporting achievement, and he does have personality! His (somewhat early @ 25) autobiography is an interesting read and you can see why he sometimes comes across like he does when he annoys people... He could have a few years yet - go Cav!

paulcuthbert

edster99 wrote:

Cav gets my vote! Including for Sports Personality. Personally I think to up the british record number of stage wins in the tour from 8 to 15 is impressive

+1

And he's far from done yet. Can't believe he's beaten Zabel's record. I remember Zabel being like THE man to beat a few years ago when I first started watching the Tour. He seemed unstoppable.

Just shows you how phenomenal Cav's sprinting is. By the time he retires, his records will be feckin hard to beat!

teticio

rockmount wrote:

Hey maybe you should tell the sprinter teams, they obviously don't realise the money they are wasting. Contador, sure he won the thing without managing to get a stage, now that is boring !!

<<dons sarcasm repellent suit>>

ah, now that's a good point. the thing is, there's a difference between what makes money (i.e., getting your sponsors on the podium) and what is interesting to me. again, his sprinting abilities are unparalleled, especially after slogging it out for hours - noone is putting that into question. but it reminds me of those races we did as kids "beat you to that lamp post". that's to say, you draft off the others and then - and timing is the key - suddenly jump out and make a break for the line. you don't get a prize for the fastest bike leg in a triathlon...

i can't help wondering... if cavendish were spanish and contador were english, would we even be having this discussion?

redddraggon

teticio wrote:

you don't get a prize for the fastest bike leg in a triathlon...

I thought you did?

Pross

Wasn't aware of the change in wind - British ES coverage was rubbish! When I saw his finish time against that of Canc I thought he was going to finish well down but in the end gaps at the top were huge.

Good point about Sanchez v Schleck, I think the issue is Schleck was being compared to Bertie who also rode quite a slow TT (didn't he win last year?) whilst Sanchez was being compared to Menchov who did a decent time.