Cav as World-Champ should be riding Omloop AND K-B-K this weekend!!!!

[El Pistolero]

For someone with so little going for him, he does alright for himself.

That's modern cycling for you: easier races. He wouldn't have won anything back in the seventies or eighties when races were still being raced hard.

Cav just doesn't have panache, style or a big engine. Whatever you want to call it. He wins races where practically no one gets dropped unless a crash had something to do with it. His Milan-San Remo win in 2009 was nice though, still his most impressive year.

 

[Froome19]

Of course he shouldn't do that, the point is: he can't.

So are you having a go at all purish sprinters?

 

[El Pistolero]

So are you having a go at all purish sprinters?

Yeah, basically. Man versus man racing is what I like best. Cav only wins because of his team(and I'm not just talking about a lead-out).

 

[Richeypen]

Cav rides like that because he can, and with great success. He was very impressive in the Commonwealth Games Road Race, responding to attack after Aussie attack before he finally cracked in the final few KMs. Thats pretty much the only time he has ever had to ride without a team and he did it very well.


Oh and his stage 19 win in the 2009 Tour was easily better than his San Remo win.

 

[ferryman]

Yeah, he should knacker himself riding loads of races he'll have no chance in. Forget all his ambitions for the year and win nothing. Then we can honour the Rainbow Jersey by having a thread entitled "does the World Champion's curse really exist?"

Abo****ely not. The armchair WC should continue to get towed for (insert X number of Ks) and then show in the last 200 metres for a glorious win. Honour the jersey that way. Patronise your teammates. pick up your mega bucks pay check and move on to the next tow in. God forbid a Road WC should acrtually have any road talent apart from being able to stay hidden in the vacume that is the peleton to emerge in sniffing difference of the line.

 

[hatcher]

Yeah, basically. Man versus man racing is what I like best. Cav only wins because of his team(and I'm not just talking about a lead-out).

Is Cav not even the fastest over the last 250 metres?

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Abo****ely not. The armchair WC should continue to get towed for (insert X number of Ks) and then show in the last 200 metres for a glorious win. Honour the jersey that way. Patronise your teammates. pick up your mega bucks pay check and move on to the next tow in. God forbid a Road WC should acrtually have any road talent apart from being able to stay hidden in the vacume that is the peleton to emerge in sniffing difference of the line.

Being the fastest road sprinter in the world doesn't count as having "any road talent". Jesus.

 

[ferryman]

Being the fastest road sprinter in the world doesn't count as having "any road talent". Jesus.

Yep. If you think road talent extends to what Cav does, we have a vastly different idea of what road racing means/is. And your profanity couldn't even start to describe what I think about the difference.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Let me say, yet again, that Cav ONLY EVER does what his DS asks him to do. No more, no less.

I, like every DS in the pro peloton, would only ever have him ride into the wind for the last 200m of a race. He has an unbelievable talent. Why would you ever compromise that?

Patronise your team mates? Goodness me.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Being the fastest road sprinter in the world doesn't count as having "any road talent". Jesus.

Of course it does.

 

[cineteq]

Being the fastest road sprinter in the world doesn't count as having "any road talent". Jesus.

Of course it counts....it counts if the road is only 250m.

 

[pmcg76]

I think of all the various talents a cyclist may have, sprinting is the one that is most looked down upon. In the modern era in particular where lead out trains are concerned, it makes sprinting seem even more easy. Maybe because a lot of us have raced and we hated that guy who would sit on, do little or no work and then re-appear to take the victory. A little bit of envy perhaps.

I also think people see cycling as a sport where hard work and commitment are rewarded and I guess people just feel that someone hiding in the peloton until the final 200m is just not very worthy of admiration. Whether you are a climber, a TT, a rouleur, a cobbles specialist or even a puncheur, you usually have to put your irons in the fire a lot earlier than the final 200 so there is more of an obvious respect for having "earned" a victory.

There is also an obvious difference between sprinters like Maertens, Kelly, Vanderarden, Freire, Ludwig, Zabel who could also contest "tough" classics and the more pure sprinters like Van Poppel, Abdu, Cipo and Cavendish. I respect pure sprinters for what they are but like most people, I view them as the lowest "breed" of talent in the cycling hierachy chain and the idea of them being World Champion makes me cringe.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I think it's more that the races they win tend to be the easiest to miss, the ones where you can watch 30 seconds and have seen everything that happened in the stage. As a result the races are (often correctly) dismissed as boring. After all, we as cycling fans watch a race in order to be entertained, and if we have an hour or two of coverage and could see everything we need to see in 30 seconds, we don't consider we've got much bang for our buck.

Also, these are the guys that get the most chances - by far - out of anybody to get wins. Much of the calendar descends down to races built around the sprints; a race like Langkawi is 10 stages long, but could feasibly come down to 8 bunch gallops. So if the stage leading to the sprint contains no action (especially if the chasing team are strong enough that they don't even allow any suspense of the chase to build up, as per HTC much of the time, who wouldn't let the break get more than 3'30 up the road, but hold them there all day), then we feel like the sprint should at least be entertaining; so when a particular sprinter or team train is dominant it's pretty frustrating because we're denied the unpredictability of that final 30 seconds that's supposed to make the hour of tedium before that worthwhile.

 

[pmcg76]

Cav was actually in that mini-break of 8 or so that formed when Greipel attacked.

Yeah, you are right but then that was because he was sat on Eisels wheel who towed him everywhere. I actually thought Cav rode well today in general, always near the front but until he wins a classic by doing things himself as opposed to using his team, he just wont get the credit.

Cipo earend big credit when he put in that amazing performance to win G-W so Cav needs to do something similar.

 

[Velo_vicar]

El pistolero can I ask a favour. Could I ask you not to make any comments about Cav. Your anti Cav biased is very very boring. You complain about the Brits bias in his favour but your hatred of him makes any comment about him completely lack credibility. As a Brit I am hugely bias towards Cav because what he is doing for cycling in the uk is massive. One of the great things about the wonderful sport we love is that there is a place for all sorts of athletes all with things to admire. So a mountain boy from Columbia can excel in the sport alongside a monster from Norway and even a short scallywag from the Isle of man. Your hatred of sprints is purely subjective and what counts as talent or proper has no way of measuring except how road cycling has evolved to measure these things and that is by wins. In 100 years of professional racing it has evolved into the sport we have with wonderful variety and room for different talents. It would be very sad if the only people who could ever be 'proper' cyclists were 10 stone skeletons. Isn't it great that the sport we love allows for different kinds of athletes involved. So please if you could keep your quiet about Cav that would be great or at least acknowledge your bias about him and the fact that you don't appreciate the breadth of the sport. I don't know what you expect him to do except to do the thing he is most talented at. By the way Did you know your avatar is one of Cav's best mates?

 

[Velo_vicar]

By the way what makes a great bike rider. A sprinter has to show great bike handling. While a climber just has to convert oxygen. The best cyclists/bike riders are sprinters

 

[LugHugger]

Abo****ely not. The armchair WC should continue to get towed for (insert X number of Ks) and then show in the last 200 metres for a glorious win. Honour the jersey that way. Patronise your teammates. pick up your mega bucks pay check and move on to the next tow in. God forbid a Road WC should acrtually have any road talent apart from being able to stay hidden in the vacume that is the peleton to emerge in sniffing difference of the line.

Not a fan of sprinters, eh? Because you've made no argument that bears any relevance to wearing the WC jersey

 

[Libertine Seguros]

El pistolero can I ask a favour. Could I ask you not to make any comments about Cav. Your anti Cav biased is very very boring. You complain about the Brits bias in his favour but your hatred of him makes any comment about him completely lack credibility. As a Brit I am hugely bias towards Cav because what he is doing for cycling in the uk is massive. One of the great things about the wonderful sport we love is that there is a place for all sorts of athletes all with things to admire. So a mountain boy from Columbia can excel in the sport alongside a monster from Norway and even a short scallywag from the Isle of man. Your hatred of sprints is purely subjective and what counts as talent or proper has no way of measuring except how road cycling has evolved to measure these things and that is by wins. In 100 years of professional racing it has evolved into the sport we have with wonderful variety and room for different talents. It would be very sad if the only people who could ever be 'proper' cyclists were 10 stone skeletons. Isn't it great that the sport we love allows for different kinds of athletes involved. So please if you could keep your quiet about Cav that would be great or at least acknowledge your bias about him and the fact that you don't appreciate the breadth of the sport. I don't know what you expect him to do except to do the thing he is most talented at. By the way Did you know your avatar is one of Cav's best mates?

Sure, if the guys who are anti-Cav have to shut up then the guys who are pro-Cav should as well, though, in the interest of fairness, which would have the knock-on effect of leaving us with a handful of unbiased people (myself not included) who can just speak in very non-committal vocabulary about him.

 

[Richeypen]

Sure, if the guys who are anti-Cav have to shut up then the guys who are pro-Cav should as well, though, in the interest of fairness, which would have the knock-on effect of leaving us with a handful of unbiased people (myself not included) who can just speak in very non-committal vocabulary about him.

Would be nice if it wasnt the same debate taking place whenever Cav win/doesnt win a race though.

 

[Mambo95]

If attacking riders could sprint like Mark Cavendish then they wouldn't attack. But they can't so they try to win the best way they can.

If that's not your thing and you prefer other riders then that's fair enough, but to call Cavendish untalented or unworthy is the stuff that boneheads are made of.

 

[Velo_vicar]

That is why i make my request the same people saying the same things. Can we just assume those who have stated they don't like Cav and you don't like sprints still don't like them and leave threads on sprint finishes to those who like them and want to talk about the ins and out of that specific sprint or Cav win. Do we have to hear the same subjective statements again and again.

 

[Richeypen]

That is why i make my request the same people saying the same things. Can we just assume those who have stated they don't like Cav and you don't like sprints still don't like them and leave threads on sprint finishes to those who like them and want to talk about the ins and out of that specific sprint or Cav win. Do we have to hear the same subjective statements again and again.

Yes sadly.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

That is why i make my request the same people saying the same things. Can we just assume those who have stated they don't like Cav and you don't like sprints still don't like them and leave threads on sprint finishes to those who like them and want to talk about the ins and out of that specific sprint or Cav win. Do we have to hear the same subjective statements again and again.

If the threads consisted of nothing but a love-in, it would quickly get just as boring as the "debates. "I love Cav! He's awesome!" "Look how great Cav was today" "Yea he was great!" "I thought he was double great" "Yah boo Greipel is terrible. Cav told me so!" is no less boring than "Cav sucks" "this stage is boring" "Unworthy winner of awful race" etc.

If the threads were just about the sprint finishes I might be a more positive contributor. Unfortunately the threads tend to be about the stage or race in general, hence why my negativity shines through.

If a guy is as successful as Cavendish is, then there will always be talking points (it also helps if the guy spews out ammunition for both sides in his interviews and behaviour too). And as long as there are always talking points, then the guy will always be talked about. And as long as the guy is always being talked about, there will be people who think he can do no wrong, and people who think he can do no right.

Both sets of people are wrong.

 

[Velo_vicar]

I don't think everyone should like sprints or Cav but I think it needs to be acknowledged that they are part of the sport as it has evolved and therefore a valid part and there are some people who excell at it and should be acknowledged as playing there part in this great sport.

 

[El Pistolero]

Let me say, yet again, that Cav ONLY EVER does what his DS asks him to do. No more, no less.

I, like every DS in the pro peloton, would only ever have him ride into the wind for the last 200m of a race. He has an unbelievable talent. Why would you ever compromise that?

Patronise your team mates? Goodness me.

So you're saying Cav can win Ronde van Vlaanderen, Paris-Roubaix, Gent-Wevelgem(this year's edition, not last year's farce), Omloop, E3 Prijs Vlaanderen, etc, but doesn't do it because his DS says so?

What an idiot if true.

Ps: Cav is a very talented cyclist, that I will never deny. What I said is that he isn't talented enough to win the hard one day races. His talent(s) lay elsewhere.