Cav gets the Rainbow Jersey. What about the rest of the Team?

[giropaul]

I don't get it.
The GB team put on a great exhibition, but in the end all they did was ensure a sprint finish, which was obviously going to be favourable to Cavendish.  They didn't lead him out, and in fact he very sensibly made his own choice of a strong back wheel to follow (not a GB one).

But that was the plan - it wasn't a finish for a train - no country had one. It was all about getting Cavendish to the last 200 metres with no breakaway. Cavendish is incredibly intuitive, and had in any case planned a series of scenarios, together with Rod Ellingworth, around a large group, but not a train. A train doesn't function well up hill.

This was 2years plus in the planning, if a train was best - there would have been a train.

I've just learnt that at the first meeting of the riders - 2years ago, Rod borrowed Simpson's rainbow jersey from the Tom Simpson museum, and displayed it. The team work started then - if only organisations could share common visions in the same way!

[andrew_s]

There was an attempt at a GB leadout, but it didn't work.
Just before the last corner, the Australians had the front of the peloton, and Stannard, G and Cav were moving up to the front between the Aussies and the barriers, One of the Aussies saw Stannard come past and  moved over immediately behind G to block Cav.
Having been blocked, Cav just got on Goss' wheel. Stannard and G got round the corner, realised that Cav wasn't there to lead out, and hesitated to look for him.

[Rhys W]

3 years of planning, on the day they controlled the race to perfection for 5 hours... but they ballsed it up in the last 200 metres! 

Luckily, Cav knows how to get on a good wheel and sprint. 

[David Martin]

I wouldn't suggest that they ballsed it up. It would be one alternative out of many strategies. The key thing was the 266km beforehand where they laid the foundations for a bunch sprint. The uphill drag was never going to be a leadout train speciality, and especically not when they have done so much work on the front. There was a bit of a kerfuffle with about 2k to go, that was the only real slip but they coped and got the result.

[LEE]

3 years of planning, on the day they controlled the race to perfection for 5 hours... but they ballsed it up in the last 200 metres! 

Luckily, Cav knows how to get on a good wheel and sprint. 

Cav won so the tactics worked.

[AndyH]

Cav proved on the Champs Elysee last year (after Mark Renshaw was kicked out of the tour) that if he's delivered to the last 500m he'll find his own way after that.

The plan worked.

[giropaul]

Friends of mine who were there told me about the finish - it was a pretty sharp uphill apparently - certainly not a finish for a train, which only works really at high speeds and where they can swing off at speed.
Do you recall MC winning some pretty uphill gallops in the Tour this year - not his signature finishes really? Nothing with MC or Sky/Team GB is left to chance, that was preparation, practice and confidence building.