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2012 Tour of Britain (9th - 16th September)

Page 21 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Derrick said:
I wonder what it's like to be world champion and be distanced on what are in reality quite modest climbs by youth team riders. Don't imagine van Looy or Maertens in the same position do you?

Anyone can be gapped by anyone who won't stay ahead of them until the finish line. As far as I'm aware, Cavendish was not aiming for KoM points, so who raches a hilltop ahead of him doesn't matter to him. He was, however, hoping for a stage win, so he was concerned about all the people ahead of him at the end of the stage.

Or would have been had there been any.
 
May 4, 2010
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You completely miss the point. To wear the jersey and be distanced by the youth squad is to be humiliated whether one is aiming for victory or not.

I have often wondered how the newly enthusiastic British cycling fans come to terms with a world champion who comes in 10 minutes down on 50% of stages. It's like Manchester United getting beaten by the Joe Soap X1 every other Saturday.
 
Jul 30, 2009
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Derrick said:
You completely miss the point. To wear the jersey and be distanced by the youth squad is to be humiliated whether one is aiming for victory or not.

I have often wondered how the newly enthusiastic British cycling fans come to terms with a world champion who comes in 10 minutes down on 50% of stages. It's like Manchester United getting beaten by the Joe Soap X1 every other Saturday.

So what you're saying is the World Champion has to win all the races he enters.
 
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Cav's last win in the hallowed jersey..

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Final GC podium..

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Jul 16, 2012
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Derrick said:
You completely miss the point. To wear the jersey and be distanced by the youth squad is to be humiliated whether one is aiming for victory or not.

I have often wondered how the newly enthusiastic British cycling fans come to terms with a world champion who comes in 10 minutes down on 50% of stages. It's like Manchester United getting beaten by the Joe Soap X1 every other Saturday.

What absolute nonsense. Would it be better to have someone wearing the jersey who was there or thereabouts, but never, or rarely, won? Someone safely in the pack? Give me someone who gets distanced in certain races, but who also gets to cross the line first, showing off the jersey, in high profile races as much if not more often than any other rider out there.
 
It has been a good week actually. Variable weather, nice countryside, picturesque villages and I think the parcour worked out pretty well - gave a chance to different types of riders.

I particularly liked the wins for De Maar and Urtusan, and it was good to see JTL pick up another win even if it wasn't against anybody that good. I just hope the national media don't go doolally and start building him up too much and then wondering why he does crap at the Worlds. Has he even ever ridden 250+ km?

The commentary picked up immeasurably as well once Mr. Porter had cleared off. The Irish guy they had in after him seemed really good, though maybe that's just relative to Hugh. It just seemed a surprise to hear them actually having reasonable discussions about cycling and not having to hear the words Cav/SKY/Brad repeated ad nauseum.
 
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Leadbelly said:
It has been a good week actually. Variable weather, nice countryside, picturesque villages and I think the parcour worked out pretty well - gave a chance to different types of riders.

I particularly liked the wins for De Maar and Urtusan, and it was good to see JTL pick up another win even if it wasn't against anybody that good. I just hope the national media don't go doolally and start building him up too much and then wondering why he does crap at the Worlds. Has he even ever ridden 250+ km?

The commentary picked up immeasurably as well once Mr. Porter had cleared off. The Irish guy they had in after him seemed really good, though maybe that's just relative to Hugh. It just seemed a surprise to hear them actually having reasonable discussions about cycling and not having to hear the words Cav/SKY/Brad repeated ad nauseum.

Yeah, not sure who he was, but it was a MASSIVE improvement.
 
Mar 11, 2012
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Yes, Declan Quigley was an overdue breath of fresh air. He was intelligent, aware, informed and drew more than platitudes out of Rob Hayles. Hayles chose not to respond to the cheeky Austin, Texas remark.

Hopefully Dutch baggage handlers can now mislay Hugh Porter, Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwen on a luggage carousel somewhere so that they can comment over-excitedly as they go round and round and round.
 
gooner said:
Declan Quigley is an excellent commentator. He has written in the past about cycling over here and used to commentate and report on Formula 1 on Irish TV. Has a big knowledge of cycling and have seen him talking about it before on Setanta Sports. Would love to see him do a bit on Eurosport instead of Kirby.

He also did ITV4's Halfords Tour Series earlier in the season, so has a very good up-to-date insight into the British continental squads, though they were more to the fore ironically on the days he didn't do. I got the impression listening to Hugh Porter this week that for all his past pedigree in the sport and experience as a commentator, he doesn't follow road racing that closely.
 
I have been very impressed with the tour this week. The crowds have been superb and I really enjoyed watching the race around Stoke on Thursday. Even though there were probably double the amount of people in Trentham Gardens than last year when I was there!

It was great to hear some of the foreign riders compliment the huge turnout and compare the crowds to Grand tour level. It can only be a good thing for future Tours. Hopefully it will lead to even more of the pro teams turning up future years having seen the success of this event. The stages were well organised and the parcours produced good racing nearly every day.

Was very happy to see JTL take the win and its obviously great to see Cav pick up his share of stages too. I hope the new fans continue to be enthusiastic about cycling and this event can be an even more prestigous late summer stage race.
 
May 4, 2010
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To answer my critics regarding the" humiliation of the champions jersey" post.Firstly Andy 99. No Andy I don't expect the champion to win everything but I do think it would be nice if he wasn't shot out the back by the youth team and the bread and butter riders. And to Levione, I don't care where the jersey holder finishes providing he's given his best and value for money. What I want to see is good racing. Now I fully appreciate that what Mark Cavendish does is exactly what he's paid for and he's good at it . It fits in exactly with the way racing is done today. Unfortunately it gives us the most boring and predictable racing I can ever remember. Of course there will be exciting highlights occasionally but in general it's dull stuff.

Armchair Cyclist, as I don't know you I wouldn't dream of classing you as a recent convert or an old hand.

Now to open another can of worms. Mark Cavendish only gets the support he does on the forum ,not because he's the best bunch sprinter, which he undoubtedly is, but because this forum seems to have a predominately British input and Mark is British and therefore "is one of ours". If he were Danish or from Luxembourg ninety per cent of contributors wouldn't give a monkey's.
 
Derrick said:
To answer my critics regarding the" humiliation of the champions jersey" post.Firstly Andy 99. No Andy I don't expect the champion to win everything but I do think it would be nice if he wasn't shot out the back by the youth team and the bread and butter riders. And to Levione, I don't care where the jersey holder finishes providing he's given his best and value for money. What I want to see is good racing. Now I fully appreciate that what Mark Cavendish does is exactly what he's paid for and he's good at it . It fits in exactly with the way racing is done today. Unfortunately it gives us the most boring and predictable racing I can ever remember. Of course there will be exciting highlights occasionally but in general it's dull stuff.

Armchair Cyclist, as I don't know you I wouldn't dream of classing you as a recent convert or an old hand.

Now to open another can of worms. Mark Cavendish only gets the support he does on the forum ,not because he's the best bunch sprinter, which he undoubtedly is, but because this forum seems to have a predominately British input and Mark is British and therefore "is one of ours". If he were Danish or from Luxembourg ninety per cent of contributors wouldn't give a monkey's.

The reality of the World Championships is that sometimes they throw up lucky winners. Sometimes that is lesser lights taking advantages of tactical situations or amazingly once in a life-time form. Both Cavendish and Cipollini took advantage of the fact that they had team's dedicated to them who were able to control things on ****-poor circuits. Even on flat circuits, they probably wouldnt have won without their teams.

I agree that it is sad to have a World Champion that is seemingly unable to compete in most of the great one day races. Winning sprint's is fine but in reality I think most people view sprints as the equivilant of the Carling Cup/Europa league in pro cycling. Something worthy of winning but not where we see the greats of the sport.
 

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