If it is, it's been a long time coming. Crash injuries and Glandular fever robbed him of his twilight years, sadly.
In my view, he is the best male road cyclist GB has produced.Dunno about the best, but he was bloody good. It is a bit saddening that he couldn't have gone out on a high note but it was gob-smackingly wonderful to watch him repeatedly leaving the field for dead when he was at his peak.
Quote from: drgannetIn my view, he is the best male road cyclist GB has produced.Dunno about the best, but he was bloody good. It is a bit saddening that he couldn't have gone out on a high note but it was gob-smackingly wonderful to watch him repeatedly leaving the field for dead when he was at his peak.
What I liked about Cav at his peak was that in post-race interviews, when he had won he almost always spent most of the interview giving credit to his team members for getting him there and when he lost he almost always took full responsibility for 'letting them down'.I know a couple of people who saw him at the Tour of Oman who remarked that he was less than
I used to work near where he lived/lives. Missed meeting him by seconds once but the guys who I worked with who did said he was a bloody top bloke. From what I've seen of his interviews he seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve so reckon if he had a bad day he probably could be a grumpy arse but can't we all.Suppose so.
The sight of the HTC leadout train working for him was awesome. I guess teams have adjusted tactics now, you just don't get the same finishes now.Like this : -
Will he have the fitness to compete as a sprinter in the top races, or will he be the wise old hand advising the next generation?Lead-out man for Sam Bennett.
At one point didn't they have Bert Grabsch, Bradley Wiggins and Tony Martin in his lead-out? A sort of Sky-for-sprinting... With the advantage that none of them had to ride up mountains at Sky pace.The sight of the HTC leadout train working for him was awesome. I guess teams have adjusted tactics now, you just don't get the same finishes now.Like this : -
(https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Sport/Pix/pictures/2011/7/22/1311355878265/The-HTC-Highroad-team-of--007.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=beacc87dffe34960d08b81d500a244b0)
<cough>
La Tropicale Amissa Bongo. Heard of it?
We'll soon find out how good Cav is because he has a TdF call up.
We'll soon find out how good Cav is because he has a TdF call up.
In place of an injured Sam Bennett. Crazy P Sagan or Trentin for the green jersey?
We'll soon find out how good Cav is because he has a TdF call up.
In place of an injured Sam Bennett. Crazy P Sagan or Trentin for the green jersey?
Is he really injured or just afraid of failure? (https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lefevere-cast-doubts-on-the-severity-of-sam-bennetts-knee-issue/)
Now that his TdF stage wins record is safe, I guess Eddy Merckx can take the pins out of his Cavendish voodoo doll. :demon:What's the betting Eddy's scrabbling around in his sock drawer looking for it again? :)
<cough>
Some perspective(click to show/hide)
This tweet aged badly ;D
chapeau<cough>
Some perspective(click to show/hide)
This tweet aged badly ;D
<cough>
Some perspective(click to show/hide)
This tweet aged badly ;D
Well yes, I had noticed that, but...you know...sour grapes and all that. I'm delighted for him. Quite humbling to see his humility too.
With myMystic MegFlatus hat on, I predict that he won't win another stage this year.(click to show/hide)
With myMystic MegFlatus hat on, I predict that he won't win another stage this year.(click to show/hide)
Don’t tell us, tell Cav :)
My prediction is that he won't finish the tour
I'm not saying he'll leave by choice, I'm thinking that it is a long time since he has raced at this level...let alone for 3 weeks. If he makes it to Paris I will be delighted, but I'm not expecting it.
Has he got his ticket for the Autobus?All the sprinters have.
Thing is, he's got Alaphillipe pulling for him. He's got Sagan off form, and the three best sprinters (Groenewegen, Bennett, and Caleb Ewen) aren't there. Under those circumstances he may bag another one as long as this weekend's mountains don't destroy him.Thats the thing isn’t it. He’s destroying those last 100m or so, and no one is able to touch him. But he’s under,no illusion that he’s only in a position to do that because the people around him are making sure he’s there. And he’s happy to acknowledge that publicly which means the people around him are more likely to make the effort again to put him in that position tomorrow.
It's great to watch him, though, and an absolute delight to see not only his joy, but his humility.
Thing is, he's got Alaphillipe pulling for him.
Ha! You lot are still coming out with predictions. I do hope you're not betting types as you've not been very successful so far!
Ha! You lot are still coming out with predictions. I do hope you're not betting types as you've not been very successful so far!
Doesn't it come across then as "He only won cos ... crashed"
J
Doesn't it come across then as "He only won cos ... crashed"
I think he'll win tomorrow
Also he might have picked up a few stage wins in 2014, when he was still at the top of his game, but instead collided with Yorkshire on stage 1 and had to retire.
I think he'll win tomorrow
Doesn't it come across then as "He only won cos ... crashed"
J
As the old adage goes, ‘to finish first, first you must finish’. All 200 started at the same point and have ridden the same roads; those left standing get to share the spoils.
Doesn't it come across then as "He only won cos ... crashed"
J
Yeah Pog is only winning 'cos G crashed on stage 3, MVDP is practising his mountain biking and Roglichurt himself too bad. Yeah I like that analysis!!
We should be careful not to make another Walko out of this - Cav has the record as one of the most successful roadman-sprinters of all time and that is done by getting to the finish line first and upright, with whatever opposition is still upright and at the finish at the time!
I think it's fair to say that Cav is the most successful sprinter of all time.
Two different disciplines?I think it's fair to say that Cav is the most successful sprinter of all time.
Most successful road sprinter. There are a couple of trackies who would dispute the overall title.
I think it's fair to say that Cav is the most successful sprinter of all time.
Most successful road sprinter. There are a couple of trackies who would dispute the overall title.
Two different disciplines?I think it's fair to say that Cav is the most successful sprinter of all time.
Most successful road sprinter. There are a couple of trackies who would dispute the overall title.
Most successful road sprinter. There are a couple of trackies who would dispute the overall title.They could, if they wanted heavy mockery.
Two different disciplines?I think it's fair to say that Cav is the most successful sprinter of all time.
Most successful road sprinter. There are a couple of trackies who would dispute the overall title.
I was thinking of Koichi Nakano as possibly the most successful pure track sprinter. A decade straight of professional Sprint World Championships and heaps of Japanese keirins is nothing to be sneezed at.
https://www.uci.org/news/2017/koichi-nakano---emperor-of-the-sprint-182122
Patrick Sercu has an argument for being the best all-round cycling sprinter. Two Sprint World Championships, Olympic kilo, 88 x six day wins plus 6 x Tour stages and 11 x Giro stages.
https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk/index.php/features/short-reads/103-remembering-patrick-sercu
Two different disciplines?I think it's fair to say that Cav is the most successful sprinter of all time.
Most successful road sprinter. There are a couple of trackies who would dispute the overall title.
I was thinking of Koichi Nakano as possibly the most successful pure track sprinter. A decade straight of professional Sprint World Championships and heaps of Japanese keirins is nothing to be sneezed at.
https://www.uci.org/news/2017/koichi-nakano---emperor-of-the-sprint-182122
Patrick Sercu has an argument for being the best all-round cycling sprinter. Two Sprint World Championships, Olympic kilo, 88 x six day wins plus 6 x Tour stages and 11 x Giro stages.
https://www.cyclinglegends.co.uk/index.php/features/short-reads/103-remembering-patrick-sercu
^^^ I had forgotten all about Patrick Sercu. He was still racing when I started getting interested in club cycling. I remember an article on him in Cycling in which he said that after a belgian six he would be coughing up black tar for a fortnight from all the tobacco smoke pulled into his lungs on the bankings.
If one starts going into the track stars of his epoc there are quite a few impressive records that we forget about now!
Possibly best forgotten given the prevalent nature of [“Fruit” - ed] power back then
That is why Sercu is so impressive. Winning sprints at the very highest level in all disciplines from 1km on the velodrome to >200km stages in the middle of three week stage races. Not as many wins in any specific discipline as either Hoy or Cavendish but a palmares covering every sprinting discipline and the most six day wins on the planet.
Cavendish is the best road sprinter ever without doubt but the best ever sprinter should be able to show their winning ways in every possible venue. Sercu did exactly that.
Um...
J
Um...
J
?
Back t o Cav. I think the answer to the question in the thread header is a fairly firm, "NoNot today." :)
I think the answer is "yes". If he "gets the record", I wouldn't be at all surprised if he retired at the end of the season. If you've established a pretty-well unbeatable list of palmares, why go on risking your life at work, especially when you already have health issues? Why have the press asking you inane questions every time you are at work?
I think he will go on for another year, perhaps two and then retire without changing teams again.
I suppose it's possible that a very exciting, not to say irresistible contract might be offered. Does Mark already live in Monaco? Pogacar does and he's only 11.
It's well known that Bennet is leaving Quickstep - it was announced a few weeks before the tour.
It's well known that Bennet is leaving Quickstep ....Hmm. Wonder if that had any additional bearing on the decision to select Cav. rather than Bennett?
It's well known that Bennet is leaving Quickstep - it was announced a few weeks before the tour.
I didn’t realise that was confirmed, the announcement had passed me by. Interesting!
Sam Bennett will leave the Deceuninck-QuickStep team at the end of the 2021 season, team manager Patrick Lefevere has revealed, as the Belgian team prepares to change its lead sprinter yet again apparently after opting not to match significant offers from rivals teams.
According to well-informed La Gazzetta dello Sport journalist Ciro Scognamiglio, Bennett could return to Bora-Hansgrohe, where he raced between 2014-2019. The Irishman would fill the sprinter’s slot of Pascal Ackermann, who could in turn, move to UAE Team Emirates. Peter Sagan is widely expected to leave Bora-Hansgrohe and has been linked to Deceuninck-QuickStep, but the loss of Bennett could leave the team without a big-name pure sprinter.
...
Under UCI rules riders and teams are not allowed to announce new signings until August 1. However, Lefevere has kicked off the transfer season by revealing that Bennett will leave Deceuninck-QuickStep. Lefevere has already said that João Almeida will also leave despite the Portuguese rider co-leading the team at the Giro d’Italia.
Wasn't Bennett injured (I'm not super sure)?
It's well known that Bennet is leaving Quickstep ....Hmm. Wonder if that had any additional bearing on the decision to select Cav. rather than Bennett?
After the selection of the Deceuninck-Quickstep squad for the 2021 Tour de France and the surprise replacement of last year's green jersey winner Sam Bennett with Mark Cavendish, the Belgian team's manager has called into question the severity of the Irishman's knee injury.
Bennett hit his knee on the handlebars while training and sat out the Baloise Belgium Tour due to the pain. Cavendish stepped in for him in that race, winning the final stage in Beringen. However, it was widely anticipated that Bennett would be back in shape for the Tour de France until Monday's announcement.
Lefevere expressed some resentment that Bennett was not in the Tour team, telling Sporza: "I can't prove he doesn't have knee pain, but I'm starting to think more and more that it's more fear of failure than just pain."
The Belgian also told Het Laatste Nieuws: "We thought Bennett was on the right track. Then it turns out that he has told us anything but the truth. He said three different things to three different people on the squad. That's not the way it's played.
Zigackly. That's the sort of thing I had in mind. The injury line is being used as a way of saving face by both sides. Lefevere has a choice between Bennett who may, or may not, be up to riding the tour physically but is no longer committed to the team and Cavendish who *is* driven and committed to the team and has shown he's in good form in other races. Looked at that way I don't think it would have been an especially hard decision to make. Risky, yes, but not difficult and "Bennett was injured" provides cover if Cav. didn't deliver.Quote from: TheLurkerQuote from: DuncanMIt's well known that Bennet is leaving Quickstep ....Hmm. Wonder if that had any additional bearing on the decision to select Cav. rather than Bennett?
Bennett banged his knee on the handlebars while training, but it seems that there's a difference of opinion between him and Patrick Lefevere about the severity of the injury...
<truffles through Cycling news archives>
Cheque arrived today. I'll bank it on Monday.The non-sequitur thread is… not here.
My response was that he knows he can't hit the deck on Zwift :)
Cav has/had a house out Ongar way, I knew his neighbours gardener and he came into where I worked at the time
Please just one more TdF stage win before he retires. Even if just to shut Eddy Merckx up.What has Merckx said to get you upset?
,, justification for being crowned the greatest road sprinter,I wouldn't be surprised if this conversation was taking place on Italian, Belgium and Irish hosted
Cavendish wins stage two of Tour of Oman for first victory of 2022 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/60337553)
Clever work by another team’s leadout man neutralised Cavendish at a Tour of Oman stage without triggering the commissaires.
,,, but the current fashion is to only allow sprints as if they are racing in a pool, everybody in their own lane.Rider safety?
Let’s paint parallel lines on the road for the last kilometre and tell each rider to pick one lane and not to enter another. Much safer!
Let’s paint parallel lines on the road for the last kilometre and tell each rider to pick one lane and not to enter another. Much safer!
It was the final stage today, so a DQ doesn’t mean too much for a professional doing leadouts.
Things are heading further in your preferred direction each year, so you will eventually get your wish.Don't shoot the messenger FFS. Just sayin' that no one wants dangerous sprints where riders
Less about the sprint but about how the lead train creates space for the sprint - that Cavendish/Renshaw 1-2 was due to when and where Hincapie swung off, at the btm of the Champs Elysees. He knew exactly what he was doing, and didn't disrupt the "sprint" at all. But that was with a full on sprint team, much harder to control things without that.
Well, he's just won Milan-Torino! He only needs another six of those to catch Merckx*! He's definitely a fighter; there are some good scalps in there for a 38 year-old - or anybody..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/60769895 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cycling/60769895)
* Oops, sorry, that's Milan-San Remo, which he's also won once.
I'm really pleased that Mark Cavendish won. It was a lovely race in a beautiful place. Does anyone think Hayter might have been denied by team orders, because Ineos had a man up the road? He looked very strong. I can just about see team orders being used in stage races but it seems a bit silly in a one-off. Perhaps he really had tired himself with that lap out front on his own?
I'm really pleased that Mark Cavendish won. It was a lovely race in a beautiful place. Does anyone think Hayter might have been denied by team orders, because Ineos had a man up the road? He looked very strong. I can just about see team orders being used in stage races but it seems a bit silly in a one-off. Perhaps he really had tired himself with that lap out front on his own?
I don’t think that race radio is allowed in National Championships.
Cavendish is an absolute master tactician though.
Its not a merger... Soudal are leaving lotto, I believe they have another sponsor. This has been reported onI wonder if they'll lose some of their star riders? A bit like footballers leaving a team when it has
local media here in NL/B - As i understand it Lotto will be relegated from the world tour as it stands.
And whence Jakobsen if S-D are going for GC - he'll be like Cav at Sky.
Its not a merger... Soudal are leaving lotto, I believe they have another sponsor. This has been reported onI wonder if they'll lose some of their star riders? A bit like footballers leaving a team when it has
local media here in NL/B - As i understand it Lotto will be relegated from the world tour as it stands.
been relegated from the premier league and them asking their agents to hook them up with a team in the top flight of soccer.
They basically announced they weren't renewing his contract around the point where they left him out of the Tour. Don't think he would stick around if no chance of the Tour and they are always struggling a little with budget, so he's better off going elsewhere to chase that one last stage win...
Still no news on Cav's proposed new team. So would assume from the radio silence that sponsorship has not been forthcoming.
Awesome :thumbsup: They have the best drugs.
Awesome :thumbsup: They have the best drugs.
They all have the same drugs, just different ways of avoiding getting caught.
On of the regrets of my life is that I never got to try one of those, although I was on that ride.Awesome :thumbsup: They have the best drugs.
They all have the same drugs, just different ways of avoiding getting caught.
Only one team has Dr Ferrari’s Astana BeansTM thobut :demon:
I wonder if he's contracted with them for a guaranteed TdeF start? - that's how I would have played it.
... the official line was "win a Giro stage and we'll take you to the Tour"...tick
Yes, he has his ticket to the Tour now. I think many will suspect a conspiracy of Brits won him this stage, but it also seemed to me that a great many potential rivals sat back and let it happen! The 5-length win just wasn't credible without more info...It looked credible to me. Gaviria started his sprint too early, at about 400m, trying to emulate his last win, at Romandie. Cavendish was the only one to take his wheel and had a free ride to 200m when Gaviria started to fade. Milan had gone the other way and been baulked slightly by his Bahrain teammate, and then tired in the wind. No-one had veered far enough left to stay in his wheel to come round. The crash probably didn't make a difference to the result but it might have been closer. Some of the top sprinters who might have challenged were already home (Pederson, Groves). Cav was well-positioned, for once, at the bend, and he had the best lead-out (Sanchez, Thomas and Gaviria). He'll be lucky if it pans out in a similar way on any of the stages in the Tour.
Unlike Chris Horner, I am a Cav fan!