Jens Voigt on Cavendish

[canarydan23]

I'm currently reading Jens Voigt's autobiography "Shut up Legs". Great read so far, but I was interested to see a reference to Cavendish in his book.

I'm at work, so cannot specify which stage of the Tour de France Jens was referring to, but he mentioned a stage where he had a bad crash and was struggling to get back to the gruppetto and to not get timed out.

He caught Robbie McEwen who told him that Cavendish was up the road with teammates and he should try and catch them. Sure enough, he was being marshaled by Eisel and Renshaw who saw him and said, "You look like s**t!". They were on a climb and said, "You go on up ahead and we'll catch up with you on the descent". Jens did as instructed and sure enough, they caught him on the way down and then slowed, allowing Voigt to stick with them and they towed him all the way back to the gruppetto. His words in the book were something like, "Here was this £2 million cyclist risking sacrificing his race to help someone he barely even knew. There were no television cameras around to catch this but it was a brilliant example of sportsmanship that happens in cycling but is rarely noticed".

I know Cavendish gets a fair bit of hate on these forums but as he is one of my favourites, I thought I'd promote this little anecdote from another legend of cycling! It doesn't really fit in with the narrative of Cav being this self-obsessed narcissist which several here opine.

 

[Akuryo]

I read Cav's book and even though he comes across as a *** most of the times, deep down he has a heart of gold. It's just the surface that most people (want to) see and that makes him look like a "self-obsessed narcissist".

 

[canarydan23]

Yeah I've read both of his book, great reads.

There was another story last year where Cav pulled up at the side of the road in London to help a stranger repair a puncture. I think his occasional obnoxiousness just comes from the fact that he is uber-competitive and detests losing. You can apply that to hundreds of high-achieving athletes across dozens of sport. John McEnroe is the first that comes to mind.

 

[loge1884]

Re:

I think his occasional obnoxiousness just comes from the fact that he is uber-competitive and detests losing. You can apply that to hundreds of high-achieving athletes across dozens of sport. John McEnroe is the first that comes to mind.

in addition to that: most of the quotes of riders stem from interviews right after a race, which is certainly not the time they would be best prepared for any philosophical discussion .....

 

[Billie]

lol Voigt forgot to mention the part where Cavendish was holding on to the car on the climb