Teams & Riders Mark Cavendish Discussion Thread

[logeardaddy]

Don't retire, Sir Cav! You need 7 more MSR victories!

 

[tobydawq]

Which is what I thought you were looking for since I don’t know why you’d look for the median. That’s random.


But their post said only counting the Tours Cavendish has won.

Well, the original post said median, so it would be more random to have calculated the mean.

Now we need to find the geometric mean.

 

[Bolder]

In the past few years I've sort of dismissed win totals from pure sprinters like Cav, Petacchi, Greipel etc as just sort of farming victories that "real" riders weren't even contesting, only working in the last 400 meters etc...but I think the TdF win record is fabulous. We go on and on about how cycling is so competitive these days vs Merckx's era, but think about it: 98 percent of pros would kill for just one TdF stage victory, even on a day when the break is allowed to win.

But Cav has won 35 (!!) stages, all contested. No one "allowed" him to win, and by the nature of sprinting, they were often full-contact scrums. So much respect to him for a great career that includes a WC, a monument and ofc a hell of a lot of wins.

 

[Scarponi]

It’s actually scary to think without some of the injuries he could have won “more” (obviously who knows how long he would have ridden if his career didn’t get derailed by mono and injuries)

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Snippet from David Walsh's piece. I know it's stating the obvious to say pro cyclists spend a lot of time away from home, but the mention of 19 days at home this year and training camps last December are a reminder of what "one more year" really meant, at this stage of his life.

link (paywalled)

Cavendish has always been an emotional man, in touch with how he’s feeling and unafraid to show us. Taking him one win ahead of the great Eddy Merckx, the 35th victory should have brought euphoria but that is to imagine he’s like every other superstar. After hugging his kids, kissing his wife, embracing his team-mates and having been touched on the shoulder by pretty much every rider in this Tour, he turned to a TV interviewer and softly said: “I don’t know how I’m feeling. I’m ecstatic but I don’t feel I’m bouncing off the walls. Almost like a relief, like a weight’s been lifted. I’ve had 19 days at home [this year] but we’ve got this year and then we [his family] have got all the time in the world. I’m sorry I’m not bouncing.”

Perhaps this was nothing more than a mature and heartfelt response to what he’s been through. After four stage victories at the 2016 Tour, things went wrong for Cavendish and he wouldn’t win at the Tour for another five years. Early in 2017 he contracted the Epstein-Barr virus and he crashed out of that year’s Tour. The year after he failed to make the time cut on stage 11 and wasn’t even selected by his team for the 2019 Tour. Through this period he suffered from depression and he learnt about life.

We spoke over a coffee in a bar near Alicante last December when he was immersed in another training camp, a week before Christmas. And he said something so profound that he’s the only athlete who could have said it. “You see with a lot of sportspeople who become successful very young, they’re never told ‘no’ or they’re wrong. And it’s usually from people who have something to gain from them. Once things aren’t going their way, then these people kind of f*** off and people who actually matter, who were the ones saying ‘no’ before but weren’t listened to, they are the ones that are still there.”

 

[samhocking]

It’s actually scary to think without some of the injuries he could have won “more” (obviously who knows how long he would have ridden if his career didn’t get derailed by mono and injuries)

This is true, but without the illness wiping out some wins, Merckx record would simply have been surpassed in an everyday race win rather than being a project 35 as such. In many ways, Cav did it in the toughest, most-pressured way it could be done and that imo makes it even sweeter.

 

[shadowrider]

Well done Cav. Just a shame about who your manager is !

But it's the same with Pogacar and his "entourage". And what about some teams (f.i. UAE) sponsored by criminal regimes....

 

[shadowrider]

What is special about Cav winning his 35th stage in the Tour, is that he is already 39. It's extremely difficult to win a stage in the cycling topevent of the year. But as a sprinter..... !? Especially at that age. Explosiveness and speed is what diminishes first and fastest after the age of 30. With vigorous training you can maintain endurance and resistance for quite a long time, or at least as much as possible. But explosiveness ? Chapeau, Cav !

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Well, the original post said median, so it would be more random to have calculated the mean.

Now we need to find the geometric mean.

2.993, for what it's worth.

 

[rallybanana]

4+6+5+5+3+2+1+4+4+1=35/10=3.5
They then rounded up to get the mean of 4.

Order from lowest to highest and the median becomes obvious
1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

 

[Gigs_98]

I had a dream today that Felix Großschartner would win the Tour of Austria and the not yet existing Felix Großschartner thread would become a sticky thread too. I think I'm spending too much time on this forum.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

I had a dream today that Felix Großschartner would win the Tour of Austria and the not yet existing Felix Großschartner thread would become a sticky thread too. I think I'm spending too much time on this forum.

I may be open to bribes...

 

[dazaau]

View: https://youtu.be/YvzdbhYKukQ?t=7s


Just watch the interview at the start no results, no contract. What a journey.

 

[topcat]

Time to bump this thread.

 

[RobertCrawley]

 

[tobydawq]

A misunderstanding? Cannonball versus cannibal?

 

[RobertCrawley]

A misunderstanding? Cannonball versus cannibal?

I thought that was interesting that they included Eddie's nickname. They are not making a mistake. The note below the picture says the British sprinter beat the mythic record of Eddie Merckx, nicknamed "the Cannibal."

 

[SHAD0W93]

Well, the original post said median, so it would be more random to have calculated the mean.

Now we need to find the geometric mean.

Because that’s what I thought they were looking for. While we’re at it, the mode is 4 as well just off the Tours Cav won in.

 

[proffate]

Which is what I thought you were looking for since I don’t know why you’d look for the median. That’s random.

Since you inquired: the median is not skewed by outliers. It's the "typical" value. "Average" in the non-technical sense. When do you think median is an appropriate metric?

 

[proffate]

But Mark has a few 0, right?

I stipulated that we'd ignore zeros, since he already got one. When he's on, he's on.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Order from lowest to highest and the median becomes obvious
1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6

Thanks but I can do it in my head. The mode is also 4 but neither are as good as the mean.

 

[SHAD0W93]

Since you inquired: the median is not skewed by outliers. It's the "typical" value. "Average" in the non-technical sense. When do you think median is an appropriate metric?

When talking about someone’s income.

 

[scribers]

A place to stand in between road lanes

 

[SHAD0W93]

Stage 1: vomiting, suffering in the heat, fighting time limit in a TTT
Stage 2: dropping and doing a TTT
Stage 3: stuck behind a crash
Stage 4: nice leisurely ride
Stage 5: win
Stage 6: warning, mechanical, and starts car surfing that would make Nibali and Vino proud but resulted in a fine

What does stage 7 hold?

 

[FroomeWagon]

Stage 1: vomiting, suffering in the heat, fighting time limit in a TTT
Stage 2: dropping and doing a TTT
Stage 3: stuck behind a crash
Stage 4: nice leisurely ride
Stage 5: win
Stage 6: warning, mechanical, and starts car surfing that would make Nibali and Vino proud but resulted in a fine

What does stage 7 hold?

For all practical purposes, a day off.