Hushovd deserving wearer of green jersey

[mr. tibbs]

I like Cav and this is one of the reasons why. He is honest. He sings the praises of his team, and he will give credit where credit is due. Yes, he is arrogant. But why not? He is by far and away the strongest sprinter in the peloton and he is young. Sprinting is a volatile game and most sprinters have the temperament to match. I still think he needs some media training. Other than that, he and Thor have moved on and perhaps we should to!

But I can't! I'm stuck at work all day with the DVR recording the Tour, so I have to obsess about what's happened in previous days to keep myself from following the current stage until I get home at night and watch it!!

I NEED THIS!!!!

 

[elapid]

But I can't! I'm stuck at work all day with the DVR recording the Tour, so I have to obsess about what's happened in previous days to keep myself from following the current stage until I get home at night and watch it!!

I NEED THIS!!!!

I hear you. I watched the end of yesterday's stage over breakfast this morning to find out what all the fuss was about with Contador and his attack. Damn work, gets in the way of the good things in life!

 

[cycledp]

Firstly, stage 10 win for CAV he had his nose in the wind for far more than 100 meters and still no one could pass him, stage 11 he outsprinted Thor on the uphill.
This is his first tour where he is trying to make it over the mountains & into Paris. As he has never done this before, i am sure he is trying to be conservative with his energy expenditure in the mountains. Why go for intermediate sprints when they are not an efficient use of your energy?
Thor has been through this before CAV has not. Thor had no choice but to go for the intermediate points. I doubt in future tours CAV will bother with them either he will just continue to spank all the other sprinters for more stage wins
4 stage wins and second in the green jersey would be pretty impressive for anyone on their first trip into Paris.
As far as the laughing group, Zabel & McEwen spent plenty of time there
but that does not seem to correspond to your reality.

I think Thor deserves the jersey, but CAV 's relegation was too harsh a penalty from what was involved. He was never warned in any previous sprints here, a warning and a fine would have been a much more appropriate penalty.

For all u haters, there have always been leadout trains, Cipolini had the best and it made the finishes much safer. There is also nothing preventing other teams from doing leadouts but they are a bunch of whiners, Garmin in particular. You have one of the few riders to outsprint CAV & you just fold up your tent on the sprint finishes?
Oh but wait, they did work on the run in for 13th place once, but Tyler was nowhere to be found, hmmmmmmmmm.... why were they doing that? oh yes time gaps.
You can't do a leadout for one of the fastest sprinters in the world but you can chase like crazy if it'll keep another american out of yellow. losers
Hope Thor & CAV duke it out in Paris they are both good riders & good guys

Obviously there have always been trains. Cipolini did have the best, but he never finshed the Tour de France. Got to give credit Cavendish for doing that this year.

 

[morganbelford]

What goes around comes around

I think Cavendish has proved that 'what goes around, comes around'.

He claimed in the Giro that Garmin was disrespecting the race because they were focused on the TTT.

He trash-talked other riders in the TdF, calling them junior cyclists, getting junior results.

Yet in fact he was the one who disrespected the tour (de France) by trying to "slow the peleton" so George could feel better about his always-not-quite-good-enough self. And he was the one who made the junior cyclist mistake of moving off his line. The gods of cycling made sure Cavs knew that he needed payback for both of these things, and that -- hard for him to hear, I am sure -- the grand tours are not actually about Mark Cavendish.

He, George and the team director really need to man-up.

 

[wheels55]

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~aesop/aesop_fall94/palica/palica_t1.html

Nice one...couldn't agree more.

 

[wheels55]

Thor - SMASH! What an awesome ride.

Funny NYVelocity ThorSMASH commentary here. Was going to search for a Thor SMASH Toto cartoon there, but it's late.

Excerpt:

"Stage 17117k to go, and I tune in to the delightful sight of Thor SMASHing his way off the front of the race. Will this year's Tour ever stop enchanting me?"

Thanks for the link...too funny. Especially like this part:

"81k to go. Whoooooa! Thor SMASH almost Schlecks it on the wet descent! He leaves a divot on the road where he put his foot down – which he will have to go back and replace, bike racing is like golf in that way.

The break gets to Thor's SMASH divot and guys hit the deck, Menchov falls, as does Txurruka – making a noise with his bike that sounds like his name?"

 

[saxe_coburg_gotha]

Oh no he doesnt, Cav deserves it.
Boring scandies should just take part to make up le numbers.
I am sure Thor is good at somethings but beating Cav in a sprint aint one of them.

 

[tigerboy]

Oh no he doesnt, Cav deserves it.
Boring scandies should just take part to make up le numbers.
I am sure Thor is good at somethings but beating Cav in a sprint aint one of them.

Well he is better at getting top 10 finishes ( 10 to 8) and thus at the consistency the winning of the Green jersey demands. So yes he is good at something and that is winning the most coveted points jersey in racing....again.

 

[everybodypanic]

Oh no he doesnt, Cav deserves it.
Boring scandies should just take part to make up le numbers.
I am sure Thor is good at somethings but beating Cav in a sprint aint one of them.

Except that it's not a SPRINT JERSEY - it's the POINTS JERSEY. So Cav can follow a train of yellow and white arses the last 500 meters to the line.. fantastic. He still can't climb for intermediate points to save his life.

 

[ladyvader]

Except that it's not a SPRINT JERSEY - it's the POINTS JERSEY. So Cav can follow a train of yellow and white arses the last 500 meters to the line.. fantastic. He still can't climb for intermediate points to save his life.

Your so right. Cav can't climb. Which is why he won stage 19, because that stage didn't have any climbs in it. Or Milano-San Remo for that matter.

If Cav had not lost the 13 points because of the whinning of Thor, Hushovd would not have won the green jersey.

In my view, he need to win by 14 point and Thor only won by 10. Which means to me Cav would have won the green jersey if he had not lost 13 points.

 

[palmerq]

if thor had not been as far ahead in the final sprint I am think he would have placed higher in the final sprint and still won :S but of course if ifs and buts were candy and nuts....i dont know the rest, but thor certainly deserved the green. Cavendish sort of lost the 13 points because the judges decided this, I doubt there is osme conspiracy or that they were scared of thor for some reason.

 

[badboyberty]

Cavendish won the most sprints but Team Columbia lost him the jersey.

Does anyone remember the formulaic first two weeks where the first break that tried to get away on the flat stage was allowed to get away? Imagine if Columbia had actually controlled things till at least the first intermediate sprint on a couple of those stages. Imagine if George Hincapie kept on hindering and attacking the breakaway on Stage 8 after Cadel dropped off but while Thor was still there. Imagine if in Stage 14, George Hincapie didn't **** around and concentrated on gaining time instead of trying to have his cake and eat it to, allowing his team to run into the sprint at a safe speed.

Cavendish had the speed to win the Green jersey, but it seems his team (particularly the "road captain") didn't want him to have it.

 

[ladyvader]

if thor had not been as far ahead in the final sprint I am think he would have placed higher in the final sprint and still won :S but of course if ifs and buts were candy and nuts....i dont know the rest, but thor certainly deserved the green. Cavendish sort of lost the 13 points because the judges decided this, I doubt there is osme conspiracy or that they were scared of thor for some reason.

That is a valid point, but think about this. Would have Hushovd gone after the sprint points on stage 17 if Cavendish hadn't made a comment about Hushovd's complaining to the race officals?

 

[Danilot]

Well, actually it is quite clear. The margin by which Thor won is smaller than the margin he got by whinging, so there's no question where he won the jersey.

 

[idiort]

thor was playing safe on stage 21.. if cav was not disqualified,i'm sure things would happened differently for sure... who knows cav might get green or thor will still win green...

 

[stephen-48]

Cavenish relegation

The judge who relegated Cavendish on stage 14 was Martin Bruin. Bruin has been a controversial judge in the past. In one Tour two riders had broken clear from a break, and sprinted it out for the victory. They were kn*ckered and gradually wandered towards each other in the sprint finally making contact and leaning on each other. At the speed they were sprinting at the episode was more humerous than dangerous. Cue Martin Bruin, according to him it was a disgraceful display of dangerous sprinting and both were relegated. Bernard Thevenet and the other French commentators were incredulous. They ran and re-ran the video tape and couldn't see anything other than a minor incident where no one was to blame, and no one disadvantaged. The rider who rode in third minutes later was stunned to find he'd won the stage. After the Cavendish incident Bruin was happy to explain that Columbia couldn't appeal against the judgement as he was the only one that could appeal to and he wouldn't accept an appeal! He should be pensioned off.

 

[balkou]

Bruin's decision was right. Even Cav in his conferences admitted that there was the barriers that came slight inside. What he didn't say was that he knew Thor was there and that he hadn't anyone from the leftside that wouldn't allow him to follow perpendicularly this abnormally of the barriers' layout. I mean you don't want the other racer to crash, you don't want to provoke this.
Anyway if there weren't the green jersey at stake we wouldn't have had any controversy. And I'm positive that Cav is going to win at least 2 of these jersey's himself

 

[workingclasshero]

Well, actually it is quite clear. The margin by which Thor won is smaller than the margin he got by whinging, so there's no question where he won the jersey.

ffs

let's get this one cleared up once and for all:

the judge(s) relegated cavendish on their/his own initiative. hushovd intended to make a complaint but didn't get it in before cav's points were taken off him

 

[Danilot]

ffs

let's get this one cleared up once and for all:

the judge(s) relegated cavendish on their/his own initiative. hushovd intended to make a complaint but didn't get it in before cav's points were taken off him

Ref please?

 

[idiort]

nevertheless cav know its his mistake and he moved on.. lets move on shall we?

no doubt cav will be an even better rider in future,i'm sure he can win a few green jersey in future...