2016 TdF, Stage 6: Arpajon-sur-Cère → Montauban (191km)

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

At etixx Cav hasn't been that fast, especially in 2014 and 2015. But now he really seems back, back on track on breaking the record for the most stage wins.

Assuming he won't stay in this Tour to the end (which would be uncharacteristic for him, but the Olympics seem to be really important to him personally), he would still need at least two more really good years or one great one, we will see.

I find the Olympic track focus extremely annoying. Cavendish is from a country that's overflowing with cycling nobodies with a track medal or two.

One could say that is why he wants an Olympic medal, because his lack of one while a lot of other lesser riders have one shames him. You kind of answer your own question. You could also say: he was the best of his own generation, he's now beating the guys who came after, like Kittel, and at the Olympics he has a chance to beat Gaviria.

I'd suggest that it's mostly a marketing decision, based on his endorsement potential and post-cycling fame in a country where the general public absurdly overestimate the significance of track medals.

I don't think he was so cut up about his failure to win Gold in the madison with Wiggins in 08 that they didn't speak to each other for months/years because of the loss of marketing opportunities. I'd also point out he won the Sports Personality of the Year Award - essentially best British sportsman award - in 2011 on the back of his WC and green jersey. The other cyclists to win it have been Tom Simpson, Chris Hoy and Wiggins (in 2012) - ie 3/4 of the cyclists ever voted best British sportsman were voted as such because of their exploits on the road. Chris Froome tweeted about going for a training ride a few weeks ago, and hundreds of people went to meet him. I wonder if Steven Burke would have the same luck.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

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Arguably, most cycling fans absurdly underestimate the importance of Olympic track medals.

But it'll be difficult to prise him away from the tour on this form.

Nope, I love watching track, but it's a backwater of the sport of cycling as a whole, ranking behind not just the road but cross, mountainbiking and even BMX. It has no audience of its own, just the same borrowed Olympic audience that other sports nobody cares about also borrow. And it is taken remotely seriously by precisely two countries, both of which use it as an easy way to buy Olympic medals in a multi-discipline ultra-low competition sport. It was a very clever investment by the British and Australian cycling authorities, but as a consequence of Olympic hype some British people in particular have got very confused about the relevance of track.

Chris Hoy is a less significant figure in the sport of cycling than any Tour de l'Avenir winner.

 

[Andy262]

He's Baaaaaccccckkkk!

Must confess I thought Cav's days as top dog were over.

 

[Vasilis]

Isn't it a little ironic that with all this talk about safety and crazy leadouts, this is the first Tour ever (as I heard) where no one pulled out after stage 6? Just sayin'.

 

[Tank Engine]

Re:

I've enjoyed the sprint finishes because the sprint trains have disappeared - Hoping this trend continues forever.

Yes, the sprints have been all been pretty close and train free. Long may it last.

Anyone else think they missed an opportunity by not dropping the worst sprinters on the final cat 3.

Why waste energy dropping the WORST sprinters?

And seriously, no, there was plenty of time for the worst climbing sprinter to get back.

 

[Warhawk]

Re:

Isn't it a little ironic that with all this talk about safety and crazy leadouts, this is the first Tour ever (as I heard) where no one pulled out after stage 6? Just sayin'.

Yeah, everyone's always complaining about flat sprint stages being dangerous at the end and that they risk a GC contender crashing out early, and that's largely true, but the classics-esque stages we've had the last few years haven't exactly been rainbows and butterflies for the peloton either.

Granted, we've been pretty damn lucky this year in respect to relative non-seriousness of the crashes we HAVE had, but still.