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Teams & Riders Mark Cavendish Discussion Thread

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Quick question for those knowledgeable about sprinters ... is anyone surprised that Cav is still in the Giro? Can a sprinter ride a complete Giro and then be fresh for the TDF? Seems like his entire season's success will be judged on whether he can win a sprint in the TDF. I assumed he would ride the Giro for a week or so and then abandon.

Could this be related to Astana having a terrible season and needing UCI points?
 
Quick question for those knowledgeable about sprinters ... is anyone surprised that Cav is still in the Giro? Can a sprinter ride a complete Giro and then be fresh for the TDF? Seems like his entire season's success will be judged on whether he can win a sprint in the TDF. I assumed he would ride the Giro for a week or so and then abandon.

Could this be related to Astana having a terrible season and needing UCI points?
I’m honestly surprised that he is still present, on top of believing he could have won a stage or two(I hoped for four). It is good he has still finished inside the time limit. But I think his chance of winning was the first two sprint stages. In regards to the Tour if everyone is present, I think the best chance is in the first week when he is fresher. There was the report he could ride all the GTs this year, which I thought was crazy, but if he is retiring I could see him having a swan song in each. Hopefully he can win a stage in each of it does occur but that’s looking more and more unlikely.

Cav needs one more win to break out of his tie with Cipo on career wins and based of 2021 I thought he’d do it with ease. Same with catching up and passing Cipo on total GT stage wins but I thought his Giro would go a lot better last year with 5 wins and the points classification. I don’t know how completely factual it is but he’s also tied with Cipo on 15 years since first and last GT win which he could beat. I know Merckx and Hinault don’t reach that mark but unsure of past riders since I’m sure there might be a bigger gap due to WW2.

I’m also happy that he had the rebirth at Quickstep and didn’t retire on the extreme low points of 2017-2020. If all ends as it is currently, as a fan I’m a little disappointed since I think he could have won more GT stages and points classifications with a better head on his shoulders but with more success maybe he retires earlier after 2017’s mishaps started.
 
Quick question for those knowledgeable about sprinters ... is anyone surprised that Cav is still in the Giro? Can a sprinter ride a complete Giro and then be fresh for the TDF? Seems like his entire season's success will be judged on whether he can win a sprint in the TDF. I assumed he would ride the Giro for a week or so and then abandon.

Could this be related to Astana having a terrible season and needing UCI points?

He finished the Giro in 2012 and 2013 and still won multiple stages in the Tour. But that was obviously a long time ago.
 
It was a good move today, but its a tall order to out do MvdP dropping JP (the fastest sprinter in the platoon for now) off. Some are saying that he went too early, but if he waits any longer its too late against JP. Maybe his best bet would be to come off of JP's wheel, but ehh, who can come off of his wheel and beat him right now?

EDIT: Maybe at least start his sprint a little closer to the front?