Whole Giro / half a tour. Cav theory.

tremayne

I know some will be tired by another Cav thread. I make no apology!!!!

I expected him to bail on the Giro last night. Hasn't happened and am just thinking... Is it possible that he's promised himself to end his Tour early, miss out on a possible 2nd Green jersey - and is going for Giro Red as a consolation prize? If he's getting increased 'chatter' from DB on the need to support Brad in France this year, might make the choice even easier.

Does anyone have any opinion on whether he can make it round the rest of the giro without falling foul of the time cuts?

On the scale of things, it could make sense. With a giro points jersey won - it should take some of the pain generated by an early bath in France.

He must surely be aiming on finishing - can see no other reason for the effort on intermediates?

clanton

Currently my thinking too. Don't really see him bailing out whilst in red, and cannot see any other reason for sprinting for intermediate points. It would make sense too - give him a better chance of Olympic gold. Maybe a trade off - he gives up the green of the tour for the gold of the Olympics, Wiggo gets shot at tour yellow in exchange for massive support at Olympics.

inkyfingers

I think that may be the plan.

His chances of winning the points jersey will hinge on how Pozzovivo and J Rod do in the final week and whether he can win the the last sprint stage. I think he'll suffer but probably still make the time cuts...he's not a great climber but there are worse and he knows how to survive through the big mountain stages.

takethehighroad

FAO Rick - I'll do it

MARK CAVENDISH WON'T WIN THE OLYMPICS ROAD RACE THIS YEAR!!!!!

Cheers

inkyfingers

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

FAO Rick - I'll do it

MARK CAVENDISH WON'T WIN THE OLYMPICS ROAD RACE THIS YEAR!!!!!

Cheers

I'd be inclined to agree, but that won't stop him trying. The Green jersey will be there next year.

greasedscotsman

Posted this yesterday...

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-c ... o-to-milan

Cavendish wrote:

When I came to this Giro, I planned 100 percent on going to Milan and I really planned on winning the maglia rossa

It's got nothing to do with him not wanting to leave the race whilst leading the points competition, cos he's such a great guy, he was always going to stay in the race.

Think he will struggle with the route in the final week, not only with the elemination times, but because the Giro awards the same points for mountain stages as flat stages, you could see someone like J-Rod finishing the race with more points.

Tusher

Dumb question, but if a climber wins the Points Jersey, and also the overall, then doesn't his Points Jersey go to second best?

(thinks)


or is it possible to have 4 different podium ceremonies- overall, points, K of M, best young rider?

(Was Merckx the only rider to have close to this in the Tour, except they didn't have a best young rider then?)

RichN95.

Tusher wrote:

Dumb question, but if a climber wins the Points Jersey, and also the overall, then doesn't his Points Jersey go to second best?

(thinks)


or is it possible to have 4 different podium ceremonies- overall, points, K of M, best young rider?

(Was Merckx the only rider to have close to this in the Tour, except they didn't have a best young rider then?)

They have different ceremonies - each one for the person actually leading the competition, not the person who's going to wear the jersey tomorrow.

Here's Contador getting the points jersey at the end of last year's Giro

inkyfingers

Tusher wrote:

Dumb question, but if a climber wins the Points Jersey, and also the overall, then doesn't his Points Jersey go to second best?

(thinks)


or is it possible to have 4 different podium ceremonies- overall, points, K of M, best young rider?

(Was Merckx the only rider to have close to this in the Tour, except they didn't have a best young rider then?)

The second placed rider in the points competition only wears the points jersey during the race if the leader of that competition is also leading the GC. At the end of the race the guy with the most points will still win the points jersey even if it's been "leant" to somebody else to wear during the race. Earlier this year Wiggins won both the GC and the points jersey at Paris-Nice.

hammerite

Are there many intermediates to go for? Might get himself in some breaks to pick up some points early on to try and stop J-Rod and Pozzovivo

inkyfingers

hammerite wrote:

Are there many intermediates to go for? Might get himself in some breaks to pick up some points early on to try and stop J-Rod and Pozzovivo

It's unlikely as there aren't as many intermediate points available in the Giro as there are in the tour and personally i think that Cavendish will be too busy trying to survive to even think about getting in a break.

Tusher

Sky have an interest in Italy- even if he wanted to take a flight home right now (and I genuinely believe that he does want to continue) DB will make him carry on- splendid publicity, plucky little Brit struggling heroically up mountains to beat the time cut.

It'll probably bring them more publicity than if he got into a breakaway.

rick_chasey

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

FAO Rick - I'll do it

MARK CAVENDISH WON'T WIN THE OLYMPICS ROAD RACE THIS YEAR!!!!!

Cheers

Good man.

rick_chasey

Surprised he's doing the full shebang. He'll be very tired come August.

The iti's I'm who run the cafe where I'm watching are surprised he's there for what it's worth. They all love pozzato. Bizarre.

greasedscotsman

Rick Chasey wrote:

Surprised he's doing the full shebang. He'll be very tired come August.

Think he could be very tired coming out of the Giro, if he rides all the way to the finish. Contador wasn't so hot at the Tour after winning the Giro last year, we could see the same thing happening to Cavendish.

Tusher

Rick Chasey wrote:

Surprised he's doing the full shebang. He'll be very tired come August.

If he falls into bed with a gold medal, he'll not care. He can sleep until Christmas.

inkyfingers

According to CN he's going to finish the Giro but skip the Tour de Suisse....he'll still have packed in quite a bit of racing before he gets to the tour though.

TMR

inkyfingers wrote:

According to CN he's going to finish the Giro but skip the Tour de Suisse....he'll still have packed in quite a bit of racing before he gets to the tour though.

But he'll still be fast enough to destroy any pretenders in the sprint stages.

sherer

not sure what his tour plans are but it def looks like he's going to finish the giro. The fact he's still going for sprints is a good sign.

Don't like people using grand tours as training so fair play to him for entering and not just going through the motions

frenchfighter

Have you noticed that he is scooping points at the intermediate sprints where there are points on offer.

yourpaceormine

He has always talked with reverence about the Giro; remember the 'I don't really want to go to the TOC but my sponsor says I have to' comments a year or so back?

Cavendish must surely want a full set of points jerseys, this is the only one he hasn't won. (Anyone else won all 3 grand tour points jerseys?)

I wouldn't be surprised if he rode the Giro then pulled out of the Tour; would he be totally happy pulling out of the Tour for a stab at an Olympic gold? He did it for Beijing and came away empty handed, and was very unhappy that he was the only British track cyclist not to win a medal. Is that a bit of extra fire power for the Mall on the 28th? Or will his respect for the sport's history see him to Paris only to be burnt out for London?

If he manages all 3 (red, green and gold - cue for a song?) I would be surprised, outside chance.

RichN95.

yourpaceormine wrote:

Cavendish must surely want a full set of points jerseys, this is the only one he hasn't won. (Anyone else won all 3 grand tour points jerseys?)

Merckx, Abdoujaparov, Jalabert and Petacchi

yourpaceormine

Thank you

brettjmcc

RichN95 wrote:

Merckx, Abdoujaparov, Jalabert and Petacchi

of which I believe only Merckx has won all 3 and the Worlds... maybe he wants to make it two people to acheive that. Then he can focus on getting 35 stage wins at the Tour 8)

Anonymous

RichN95 wrote:

yourpaceormine wrote:

Cavendish must surely want a full set of points jerseys, this is the only one he hasn't won. (Anyone else won all 3 grand tour points jerseys?)

Merckx, Abdoujaparov, Jalabert and Petacchi

I wondered this myself last night & googled it. Chapeau if you didn't need google & relevant wiki page.

RichN95.

FlipFlopper wrote:

Chapeau if you didn't need google & relevant wiki page.

No, I looked it up a few days ago.

From here: http://www.cyclinghalloffame.com/races/ ... _tours.txt

mroli

I am told that Cav won't finish the TdF and he'll go off halfway through to prepare for the Olympics, but I dunno. I don't think he's particularly fussed about fighting for green now he's got it - but 4 times in a row on the Champs D'Elysee.... I think he would want that real bad...

Anonymous

mroli wrote:

I am told that Cav won't finish the TdF and he'll go off halfway through to prepare for the Olympics, but I dunno. I don't think he's particularly fussed about fighting for green now he's got it - but 4 times in a row on the Champs D'Elysee.... I think he would want that real bad...

Yeah, but he also wants a gold medal, this is his last chance. If pulling out of Tour early means Wiggo will work for him in Olympics Chipper rather than the TT focus, then it's an easier decision for him.

If Cav doesn't get red at Giro, his rumoured plan won't look as sensible.

No_Ta_Doctor

FlipFlopper wrote:

If Cav doesn't get red at Giro, his rumoured plan won't look as sensible.

I'm astounded by the fact that we now have a British rider whose basic success criteria for the season includes taking home at least one GT points jersey as well as six or seven GT stage wins and having a crack at the Olympic gold. Anything less will be failure. Incredible.

Not necessarily disagreeing, but if you'd told me that 10 years ago I'd have laughed at you.

Tusher

If you'd told me that 5 years ago, I'd have laughed.

mroli

@ no tA - don't forget that for some, his season is already a failure because he didn't win Milan San Remo!

You could add in that, that we also have a rider that is expected to medal in the Olympic TT race, win a couple of decent week long stage races and podium (possibly win) at the Tour. Anything less will be a failure.

The world has gone mad I tells ya.