Mambo95 said:
If you'd been accused of being a reckless sprinter, would you then go and tell the press that you 'won't hesitate' to deliberately block another rider (an illegal move)?
HTC may muscle and shove others, but there's an acceptable line which the teams all know. They all give as good as they get.
It's not smart to say such things. He's basically confirming what Cav said. The rest of the top sprinters will side with Cav on this point - there's a certain trust between them. Feillu is more likely to see himself blocked out than doing any blocking himself.
It will be interesting to see. I'm not so sure everybody will side with Cav because Cavendish has done his fair share of making himself unpopular, but I don't think it's smart from Feillu to announce it publicly.
As for "giving as good as they get", who else gave as good as Mark Renshaw gave Julian Dean and Tyler Farrar last year? HTC are the best sprinters' train, because they have the best engines, and they're willing to do the dirty work and play by the edge of the rules if they have to.
Other people have to play by the edge of the rules if they want to compete. Cav is a sore loser and deserves to be called out on it, but Feillu isn't being very clever here.
If he's successful in his ploy and gets called out on it, Cavendish has a cry and a moan and his equally insufferable fans cry and moan with him.
If he's successful in his ploy and doesn't get called out on it, then he'll be the subject of some rough treatment himself, probably from Renshaw, since he tends to be the most hot-headed of HTC's guys in that respect, and it will open the door for all manner of tiresome conspiracy theories about the Frenchman getting away with ruining Cav's race.
If he fails in his ploy, he just looks like an idiot.