A World Champion who does NOT ride the classics

[bladerunner]

I do like Cavendish as a rider and he won the world championship fair & square.
But really, out of all of the classics this Spring, we will not see him finish ANY of the Classics [i.e. Milan-San-Remo, Tour-of-Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel-Gold and Liege-Bastogne-Liege]. On come on, he should have at least showed up and give Sky some publicity in Belgium, France and Holland. How can it be acceptable that the Road World Champion does not even show up at the Classics? I know specialisation is important these days and the Tour is everything BUT I can think of many worthy World-Champs-Legends [i.e. the likes of Merckx, Hinault, Lemond, Armstrong, Boonen, Friere .. and many others] who did show up at most, if not all, of the Classics. The real champions knew that some of the Classics did not suit their style but they raced because they respected the races and they showed honour riding in their rainbow jersey. How can the UCI just sit there and allow this to happen? What a shame that all the fans missed seeing the rainbow jersey in all these Classics.

 

[Richeypen]

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You have already posted this thread.

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=16663

 

[Cult Classics]

I do like Cavendish as a rider and he won the world championship fair & square.
But really, out of all of the classics this Spring, we will not see him finish ANY of the Classics [i.e. Milan-San-Remo, Tour-of-Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel-Gold and Liege-Bastogne-Liege]. On come on, he should have at least showed up and give Sky some publicity in Belgium, France and Holland. How can it be acceptable that the Road World Champion does not even show up at the Classics? I know specialisation is important these days and the Tour is everything BUT I can think of many worthy World-Champs-Legends [i.e. the likes of Merckx, Hinault, Lemond, Armstrong, Boonen, Friere .. and many others] who did show up at most, if not all, of the Classics. The real champions knew that some of the Classics did not suit their style but they raced because they respected the races and they showed honour riding in their rainbow jersey. How can the UCI just sit there and allow this to happen? What a shame that all the fans missed seeing the rainbow jersey in all these Classics.

Cavendish is a British rider. Sky is a British team. Did you see the bit on the news in Britain where they showed highlights of and talked about the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix? Cos I didn't. The very sad fact is that nobody even knows those races exist in Sky's market, let alone cares about them (and I say that as someone whose two favourite races are Flanders and Roubaix). here might be some interest were a Brit to win the race (that's usually how things work in Britain, especially in Olympics year) but clearly Cavendish has no chance in such races, or Liege, or Lombardy. Once San Remo and G-W were done, it's all about building up to the Tour for Cavendish. A single stage win at the Tour will be worth more publicity to Sky in its home market than probably even the hypothethical Flanders-Roubaix double that will never happen. So leave those races to the riders who are good at them and leave Cavendish to what he's good at. There's no obligation on a world champion to ride anything he doesn't want to.

And besides, World Champions are determined by the course they happen to race on in these days of super specialism. Cavendish didn't win on a course remotely resembling Liege or Amstel, so it's hardly a surprise he's not there. I shan't be getting irate when this year's champion doesn't show up at Roubaix 2013.

On a wider point, I think the term 'classics specialist' is largely redundant now, give or take a few riders. Gilbert is about the closest of the big names, I guess. Some do cobbles, some do sprinter-friendly ones, some do the hillier ones and there's a bit of overlap, but if you were to take the top 10-12 one day races I don't think anyone would do them all and very few would even do 75%. Great to see a rider who can do well at San Remo, Roubaix and Liege, but sadly those days seem to have gone.

 

[therealtimshady]

What's the point riding races you have no chance of getting in the top 10 let alone winning? Cav is a winner - he has no chance in the hilly classics or paris Roubais so why bother taking part?

Its the same reason why the gc riders in grand tours dont give a s*it about the world championships as they rarely have a chance of winning

 

[DominicDecoco]

This thead will end well.

 

[bobbins]

He's just had a kid and is taking time out for that. Fair play to him. He's maturing and wants to spend time with his kid before he wins an Olympic gold medal.

The last bit was a joke

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Did Super Mario do anything more than just Sanremo and his DQ at Gent-Wevelgem in 2003 in the stripes?

Cavendish at least won KBK, even if his Sanremo performance was poor (it may have been somewhat better if he hadn't been unwell, as he was in decent form at that point) and raced G-W.

Ultimately, those races don't suit him. If he showed up and just made the numbers up, we'd see the rainbow jersey going off the back and people would be attacking Sky for wasting a roster slot on him at those races when they could better support Flecha or Boasson Hagen with somebody else. If he doesn't show up, they get attacked as showing he's not worthy of the stripes. What is the upside for Cav in riding Roubaix? He isn't going to be competitive and he runs the risk of getting injured. Why take that risk when you have clear and definable goals later in the year?

Personally, I always feel that the Worlds is like a 6th monument. Any type of rider has a monument they can win, from the pure sprinters (Sanremo) to the pure climbers (Lombardia), as long as they're good enough. Hence we shouldn't have a flatter Worlds than Sanremo, and we shouldn't have a harder worlds than Lombardia (relatively speaking). However, we can't change the past, and it's not Cavendish's fault they approved a bid on an absolutely woeful parcours (that might have been marginally less woeful had they not placed the feedzone on top of the only "climb" in the race).

 

[Afrank]

I do like Cavendish as a rider and he won the world championship fair & square.
But really, out of all of the classics this Spring, we will not see him finish ANY of the Classics [i.e. Milan-San-Remo, Tour-of-Flanders, Paris-Roubaix, Amstel-Gold and Liege-Bastogne-Liege]. On come on, he should have at least showed up and give Sky some publicity in Belgium, France and Holland. How can it be acceptable that the Road World Champion does not even show up at the Classics? I know specialisation is important these days and the Tour is everything BUT I can think of many worthy World-Champs-Legends [i.e. the likes of Merckx, Hinault, Lemond, Armstrong, Boonen, Friere .. and many others] who did show up at most, if not all, of the Classics. The real champions knew that some of the Classics did not suit their style but they raced because they respected the races and they showed honour riding in their rainbow jersey. How can the UCI just sit there and allow this to happen? What a shame that all the fans missed seeing the rainbow jersey in all these Classics.

What are you saying, the UCI should determine a world champions race schedule?

competing in the classics where he doesn't have a chance of winning would be pointless for cavendish and it would fill up a spot in the team roster where they could put a good support rider instead. Plus it wouldn't help him prepare for the races he wants to do well in.

 

[William H]

It might not be a "Classic", but Cavendish is putting focus on a major one day race this year - the Olympics. Though I guess he won't be wearing his rainbow jersey for it.

 

[williamp78]

The guy just became a dad for the first time! World champion or not his daughter is more important than bike racing

 

[karlboss]

If a sprinter manages to be World Champ, then he should compete in the sprinters classics, I think the only one Cav missed was unfortunately the big one Scheldeprijs, for the birth of his daughter, I'll forgive him
Why would anyone expect a winner to turn up to races they can't win?

 

[crapna]

Cavendish is a sprinterist. Sprinterism is an ideology hostile to climbing, cobblestones, time trialing and break aways. Only sprinting, wheelsucking and hanging in the team car is accepted for the sprinterists.

 

[Cancellator]

Cavendish is a sprinterist. Sprinterism is an ideology hostile to climbing, cobblestones, time trialing and break aways. Only sprinting, wheelsucking and hanging in the team car is accepted for the sprinterists.

Is that a word? My spell check disagrees...

 

[spalco]

yaaaaaaawn.

 

[MrMaillot]

Did Super Mario do anything more than just Sanremo and his DQ at Gent-Wevelgem in 2003 in the stripes?

Yes, he left the Vuelta after the Prologue. Makes Cav missing the classics look almost saintlike.

 

[Mellow Velo]

This season, Cav has ridden one and a half more classics than ex-WC, Cadel Evans.
Evans only rode 2 classics, last season, too.
So, I guess that makes him an even more unworthy WC, right?

 

[El Pistolero]

This season, Cav has ridden one and a half more classics than ex-WC, Cadel Evans.
Evans only rode 2 classics, last season, too.
So, I guess that makes him an even more unworthy WC, right?

Yet he rode all the Ardennes classics when he was in the rainbow jersey and did good in all 3 of them making your point invalid.

The OP has it wrong anyway. It's not a question whether or not Cavendish should start classics, but whether we need a dead flat parcours for the WC.

 

[pmcg76]

Yet he rode all the Ardennes classics when he was in the rainbow jersey and did good in all 3 of them making your point invalid.

The OP has it wrong anyway. It's not a question whether or not Cavendish should start classics, but whether we need a dead flat parcours for the WC.

I would agree that the problem is that such a rider can become world champion.

This is Barry Hoban's take on Cavendish.

'If your job is ‘professional road racing cyclist’ then you have to be able to climb'
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=10242

 

[hatcher]

It would be disrespecting the races to turn up with a weakened team.

It's been a whole week since this was last discussed.

 

[42x16ss]

Did Super Mario do anything more than just Sanremo and his DQ at Gent-Wevelgem in 2003 in the stripes?

Cavendish at least won KBK, even if his Sanremo performance was poor (it may have been somewhat better if he hadn't been unwell, as he was in decent form at that point) and raced G-W.

Ultimately, those races don't suit him. If he showed up and just made the numbers up, we'd see the rainbow jersey going off the back and people would be attacking Sky for wasting a roster slot on him at those races when they could better support Flecha or Boasson Hagen with somebody else. If he doesn't show up, they get attacked as showing he's not worthy of the stripes. What is the upside for Cav in riding Roubaix? He isn't going to be competitive and he runs the risk of getting injured. Why take that risk when you have clear and definable goals later in the year?

Personally, I always feel that the Worlds is like a 6th monument. Any type of rider has a monument they can win, from the pure sprinters (Sanremo) to the pure climbers (Lombardia), as long as they're good enough. Hence we shouldn't have a flatter Worlds than Sanremo, and we shouldn't have a harder worlds than Lombardia (relatively speaking). However, we can't change the past, and it's not Cavendish's fault they approved a bid on an absolutely woeful parcours (that might have been marginally less woeful had they not placed the feedzone on top of the only "climb" in the race).

This

567890

 

[Caruut]

I would agree that the problem is that such a rider can become world champion.

This is Barry Hoban's take on Cavendish.

'If your job is ‘professional road racing cyclist’ then you have to be able to climb'
http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=10242

I think the the UCI ought to make some kind of official or semi-official rotation policy for the WCs, such as:

Year 1: Flattish
Year 2: Hilly
Year 3: Maybe slightly cobbly with a few hills
Year 4: Rolling
Year 5: Very hilly-slightly mountainous

Then they're saying, look, this is what we want to achieve, anyone who is WC is a worthy WC, having won during that cycle, not the recipient of a lucky course.

 

[Caruut]

Also, loving how the OP glosses over the fact that Cav did race MSR. You think he did badly there, you should see him try and take on RVV, PR or LBL, that'd give new meaning to the word "dropped".

Cancellara and Gilbert are the only cyclists we've had in a long time who can even think about being a real factor at 4 monuments and the WC, and both would need to lose some of their edge in the ones they're currently good at to have a chance at diversifying.

What do you want Cavendish to do? Start races that he has no chance of either winning or helping his teammates, just to show off the stripes, or spend the winter after his WC win trying to make himself a classics specialist? It's got to be one or the other, and given how his career is doing right now, both would be monumentally stupid.

Maybe if another guy comes along or he loses his outright speed, then he tries to emulate Freire and see whether he could be a factor at other races without losing too much more speed. Until that time, he has no reason to want to turn himself from possibly the best sprinter ever to a 2nd-rate classics man (not that Freire is that, but Cav would be) who has to just hope that it bunches together at the finish.

 

[dlwssonic]

He did ride MSR but just sucked in it.
It will be funny if he was riding RVV or PR. He would be dropped really easily.
Sucked at GW too.
Would be dropped in the ardennes in the first km anyway so whats the point.

 

[Richeypen]

He did ride MSR but just sucked in it.
It will be funny if he was riding RVV or PR. He would be dropped really easily.
Sucked at GW too.
Would be dropped in the ardennes in the first km anyway so whats the point.

How exactly. Was strong that day but the peleton split on a descent and he was just the wrong side of it.

 

[El Pistolero]

How exactly. Was strong that day but the peleton split on a descent and he was just the wrong side of it.

Ergo he sucked too much because he did not make the split. Strongest man won that race