Cav surely a shoo-in for BBC Sports Personality of Year?

[sublimit]

The thing is, a "designated sprinter" can include a lot of riders with very disparate characteristics. Roman Feillu, Edvald Boasson Hagen, José Joaquín Rojas and even Peter Sagan can be called 'designated sprinters' at times. They will no doubt be asked to do things other than just sprint at some point. Even Greipel and Petacchi have got on the front for leaders, whether they be classics men (Greipel) or GT contenders (Petacchi) when asked. Cavendish is too good as a sprinter, and has thus far been in a team too focused on the sprint, to ask him to expend his energy doing that, so we simply don't know whether he can or not.

Yeah but they are more like talented allrounders with a very fast sprint(well apart from Petacchi who is a full on sprinter) and Cav cant match them on the climbs or closing gaps unless its in a short burst. What Cav has is the top end horsepower at the end of a race where he races head to head with other top line sprinters. Probably what he should stick to doing IMO, he's done a couple of leadouts but I dont think thats his game at all.

Cipo never got slaughtered for being a one trick pony, he had all the adulation from fans because he stuck to what he was good at .. IE finishing off a sprint.

 

[Mambo95]

Criticising Cavendish for not getting in breakaways is like criticising Jimi Hendrix for not playing the clarinet.

It's better to be great at one thing than very average at several things.

 

[will10]

Why is it naïve to expect a designated sprinter to do something other than sprint? Most designated sprinters aren't as one-trick as Cavendish (mainly because that one trick is so good that the others need to develop other tricks to compete). Riders like Hushovd have whole other sides to them for the Classics; Abdoujaparov won his final TDF stage on a medium mountain stage by attacking his breakmates on a complex uphill finish. Freire won his first Worlds by going solo in the last km from a select group and even had a break-of-the-day solo escapade in California this year. Even Cipo soloed across to groups in Gent-Wevelgem. Cavendish isn't the complete klutz when it comes to non-flat racing that people sometimes say (the win into Aubenas in 2009 proves that), but realistically we learnt more about him as a cyclist in the Commonwealth Games RR than we did when he won the Worlds, because we already knew he could do everything he did at the Worlds.

The thing is, a "designated sprinter" can include a lot of riders with very disparate characteristics. Roman Feillu, Edvald Boasson Hagen, José Joaquín Rojas and even Peter Sagan can be called 'designated sprinters' at times. They will no doubt be asked to do things other than just sprint at some point. Even Greipel and Petacchi have got on the front for leaders, whether they be classics men (Greipel) or GT contenders (Petacchi) when asked. Cavendish is too good as a sprinter, and has thus far been in a team too focused on the sprint, to ask him to expend his energy doing that, so we simply don't know whether he can or not.

Agree with much of the above. Cav is the nearest to a sure thing on a sprint stage of all the top sprinters, so why shouldn't his team strangle the life out of the race and make sure he gets opportunity to do what he does best. You'd never see Lampre for Petacchi, or Movistar for Rojas, for example, setting a high pace all day, never giving the break any room, because they are not "nailed on" winners. You don't want to work all day for 5th.

At the moment there's no reason for Cav to change his approach to transition stages etc. Early in his career - particularly as a T-Mobile stagiare - he was quite regularly in the break looking to finish it off if they stayed away. Ultimately his sprint will decay, and he'll no longer be the fastest guy in the bunch, and might have to try something else a lá Hushovd to win stages. But for now, he's the best at what he does, however boring viewing that might lead to.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Cipo never got slaughtered for being a one trick pony, he had all the adulation from fans because he stuck to what he was good at .. IE finishing off a sprint.

Don't bring him in to it - I've got a bad enough headache without hearing about GW 1 more ****ing time.

 

[El Pistolero]

Cheers.

lol is it also restricted to non gt riders?

Well Cav said he was named Belgian overseas personality of the year twice. Struck me as a bit weird.

Guess it must have been this.

I think it is. Flandrien is a term coined for one day racers who ride their guts out in the Flemish races.

Come to think of it, I have no clue why Cavendish won that award. I guess because he won Milan-San Remo and the WC... This year it was probably a choice between Oliver Zaugg and Mark Cavendish because all other big one day races were won by Belgians. It would be more interesting for the newspaper sponsoring this event to pick a big name like Cavendish over someone like Oliver Zaugg. That's my 2 cents.

Though, it's not a very prestigious award here in Belgium in my opinion. Just a little side award for the big thing: the Flandrien award.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

At the moment there's no reason for Cav to change his approach to transition stages etc. Early in his career - particularly as a T-Mobile stagiare - he was quite regularly in the break looking to finish it off if they stayed away. Ultimately his sprint will decay, and he'll no longer be the fastest guy in the bunch, and might have to try something else a lá Hushovd to win stages. But for now, he's the best at what he does, however boring viewing that might lead to.

Well, precisely. There is no reason to ask him to do anything different at the moment (except maybe follow doctor's orders next time he considers any cosmetics). I was disagreeing that it's naïve to expect a designated sprinter to have any other feathers to their bow - many designated sprinters NEED to have other feathers to their bow. Cavendish, of course, at least for the time being, doesn't, so isn't asked to do anything else, and yes that means that an awful lot of races are inestimably boring as a result. But other sprinters are asked to do those jobs, and do them.

 

[sublimit]

Don't bring him in to it - I've got a bad enough headache without hearing about GW 1 more ****ing time.

Sorry about that. Anyway I voted Petacchi as best ever sprinter rightly or wrongly on the other poll thread along with ACF.

 

[ferryman]

Don't bring him in to it - I've got a bad enough headache without hearing about GW 1 more ****ing time.

Hey WS, you made me laugh out loud

 

[Jaunty Monty]

given that it's british sport isn't that appropriate?

Its an evening to celebrate the sporting achievements of the year with an emphasis on British performances for sure. I don't see where I suggested that shouldn't be the case.

The problems are that firstly the show is dominated by the ten nominees for the main award and the award presentations themselves. Secondly even the profiles of the nominees feature very little in the way of highlights.

The show used to be a more rounded review of the year.

I seem to recall in the year Kelly Holmes won they included unedited clips of the final few hundred metres of both her Gold winning finals. If it had been this year all you would have seen is five seconds of her crossing the line with some music providing the soundtrack rather than the original commentary.

The shows over produced nowadays. Its made by people who don't seem to realise that sport doesn't always need a soundtrack or voiceover to touch people emotionally.