The New World Champion! Appreciation

[ksmith]

He got stuck behind a crash that also saw the end of Thor Hushovd.

To bloody bad, Cav still won. He didnt get caught behind a crash. If he did would you point it out as well?

You dont like him, leave it at that.

 

[usedtobefast]

We should probably wait to see how good he is now that his dog has died (Di Luca has hardly looked like The Killer of 2009 this year), but your point is still correct.....as I prepare for a barrage from Valverde lovers.

fwiw, Team GB deserved the win (on a boring course).....and personally I'd like to thank the silly bookie who gave 10-1 on Cav earlier this week, easiest $1000 I've ever earned, cheers.

nice on that.Cav was the favorite coming in,and big pressure on that entire team
to win the race. they did, and so sorry for all others...
i liked that Phinney got 24th in his first chance at that level.
Petacchi should have been there.

 

[Anonymous]

Great ride by Cav. He did all he needed to do, and GB did a fantastic job delivering him to the line and controlling the race. Well deserved win, and a worthy champion. Kudos!

 

[ericfalcon]

In my opinion the Worlds RR should not be won in a skinsuit with 3/4 arms and an aero helmet cover. But thats just me.

 

[ozerulz]

To all the haters (I'm one of them) maybe the WC jersey curse will befall him in 2012. Here's hoping. I have to be nice inside my own house because he's my daughters favorite rider.

 

[auscyclefan94]

very nicely done . Did you have those comments stored up or just quick on the search.

it took a quick search to call all that up.

 

[greenedge]

He was the best in the sprint. Riders like Gilbert had no inclination to attack ( maybe put off by Wiggins' awesome ride ). Congrats to Cav at least he will get quite a few wins next year and might want to give a good showing in the classics. He prepared well for the race with the ToB and his extra 30km rides after each stage.

 

[greenedge]

I thought the 2011 Tour de France route was a pathetic sham and have said as much on many occasions. Doesn't stop me congratulating Cadel for being the best on the day. And the same goes for Cavendish. I have praised his team especially, who were brilliant today. But it doesn't stop me thinking the route was awful and unacceptable for a World Championship.

The route was not that bad. It had a winner who rode on the front ( TSF ) and who had a weaker team than Leopard.

 

[greenedge]

The race was crappy but Cav is still world champion. HAHA. All the haters should just suck it up and get on with it. Cavs sprint was awesome, the GB team were totally dominant. All the moaners need to ask why their countries didnt do more. Italy and Netherlands were rubbish. On the road Aussies are just a second class GB team. I normally stay out of all the petty nationalist rubbish on here but today I am going to enjoy it.

This is a GREAT day for UK cycling, capping of a great year.

As for the Aussies, really strop moaning, go back and relearn how to play cricket, how to play Rugby and how to Swim. If it wasnt for Cuddles Aussie sport would really suck.

(Although I do think ull clean up on the track at Olympics )

Well just like you have Cav we have Cadel. Your year could have been better if you let Froome ride as the GC rider at the Vuelta.. And you have failed in most of the races this year.

 

[auscyclefan94]

You Brits are hilarious!!!

Apart from Hitch you guys are so blinded by Cav winning you just can't grasp the point

If Cav wasn't British you would all be saying the same thing as eveyone else. Wake up! The parcours was SOOOOOOOO boring and unworthy of a WC it was ridiculous.

Cav unleashed an awesome sprint, was a worthy winner and GB controlled the race perfectly but be honest here, was it as good a race as Stuttgart, Mendrisio or Geelong?

NO! And don't try and tell us it was

Bingo!!!!!! It was an average race wherre cav deserved to win but compared to other world championships where other world champions have come from, it devalues the jersey a bit.

But see the other side. We have had so little presence in World Championship Road races in the past and now suddenly GB is controlling the race, the team are on the front throughout, on form British riders putting on a real show of control and pace riding then a Brit rider finishing it off. We have never had anything like that before.

a massive high point for British riding. Of course we are going to react when everyone insists on saying that it was not a deserving win on a course that was too weak.

It also find it amusing when people expect some sort of logical thought to apply when it comes to sports and its fans.

that's the problem, if the brits acknowledged that the course was rather average and stoppped being so defensive about all of this then I would be content. I agree with the statement "worthy winner on an unworthy world championships course". He deserved to win because he was the fastest in the final 100m. If you are happy with that deciding a WC RR then good luck to you.

 

[PCutter]

I'd be interested to hear from English posters what the coverage is like in the mainstream press of the win. I all but couldn't find anything on The Sun website, but appears to be top sport story in The Guardian? Did it manage to push football off the back page?

 

[ramjambunath]

Was it a clinical performance by Gbr? Yes. Was Cav the best man to win on the day? Absolutely. But was it an interesting race? No. The course was pretty poor but the Brits are not to blame for that and equally most of the comments made criticise the course not GBR. Now that they have had a pretty much pan flat worlds, will the UCI have a gardeccia stage equivalent or a cobbled classic parcours for the worlds in the future.

I'd be interested to hear from English posters what the coverage is like in the mainstream press of the win. I all but couldn't find anything on The Sun website, but appears to be top sport story in The Guardian? Did it manage to push football off the back page?

The guardian tries follows cycling to an extent, extended tour coverage. Unfortunately they are obsessed with Wiggins Cav and Millar and hate Contador and love Schleck.
Any paper which has a WWE section(as the sun does) in their sports site cannot be a real paper or tabloid can they.

 

[ultimobici]

I'd be interested to hear from English posters what the coverage is like in the mainstream press of the win. I all but couldn't find anything on The Sun website, but appears to be top sport story in The Guardian? Did it manage to push football off the back page?

Front page of at least one broadsheet, the Guardian I think.

Cycling gets virtually zero coverage in the press here unless it involves the Tour, the Olympics or doping. The only papers that seem to do a better than crap job are the Guardian & the Telegraph. When you consider the Sky connection, it's funny that the other News International papers don't pay better attention.

The really annoying thing is that during the Vuelta the BBC seemed to totally ignore the achievements of Chris Froome & Bradley Wiggins. Not a dicky bird!

 

[Weeman]

I'd be interested to hear from English posters what the coverage is like in the mainstream press of the win. I all but couldn't find anything on The Sun website, but appears to be top sport story in The Guardian? Did it manage to push football off the back page?

Don't know how much coverage the English papers will give it as the winner wasn't English.Neither was most of the team.

 

[ramjambunath]

Front page of at least one broadsheet, the Guardian I think.

Cycling gets virtually zero coverage in the press here unless it involves the Tour, the Olympics or doping. The only papers that seem to do a better than crap job are the Guardian & the Telegraph. When you consider the Sky connection, it's funny that the other News International papers don't pay better attention.

The really annoying thing is that during the Vuelta the BBC seemed to totally ignore the achievements of Chris Froome & Bradley Wiggins. Not a dicky bird!

The BBC were too busy waxing lyrical on vettel winning in formula 1.

Unfortunately, doping gets too much space considering that the papers actually dont cover any races. Report about cycling's problems but only alongside it's glories. I dont see CN talk about FIFA corruption.

But Cavendish is one of the few people who can force non cycling fans into watching the sport thanks to his sheer dominance.

 

[greenedge]

Let's just all look forward to next year where we don't get a flat course ( right ). If they had a cycling forum in 2002 i could envisage everyone going off at Cipos' Italians with a 13 man team. Though Wiggins was the equivalent of one whole team today. So many riders who did not do anything today even just normal riders. I liked Denmark's and Frances' approach to the race ( we have no chance in hell in a sprint so let's attack )

 

[Midnightfright]

Bingo!!!!!! It was an average race wherre cav deserved to win but compared to other world championships where other world champions have come from, it devalues the jersey a bit.


that's the problem, if the brits acknowledged that the course was rather average and stoppped being so defensive about all of this then I would be content. I agree with the statement "worthy winner on an unworthy world championships course". He deserved to win because he was the fastest in the final 100m. If you are happy with that deciding a WC RR then good luck to you.

Not all the Brits are in denial it was a flat course the only type of course they realistically could of done something on but it was very easy as far as worlds go and unless you were a Heir who enjoyed watching Chris Froome sitting on the front for half the race not generally exciting that said the victory is probably the biggest tying that's happened in British cycling so people are rightly elated and I'm sure will be more reflective once its died down

 

[Hugo Koblet]

Congratulations to Cavendish and the british team. They did a very good race and had everything under control.

Even though I would have preferred a hillier route, I actually don't mind a route which gives opportunities to sprinters once in a while, as long as it's not that often.

Of course it helps that I had some money on Cavendish at odds 16

 

[euanli]

Its a bit tough on Cavendish saying the jersey is devalued. You could say about that in 2009 when Cancellara didn't win when he was evidentially the strongest and was marked out of the race. Last year Gilbert was the strongest but didn't win.

Winning the jersey does not devalue it, not winning IN the jersey is what removes the prestige that the jersey has. Ballan made it pretty much anonymous. Evans marvelled in it and so did Hushovd.

Cavendish will no be remembered by the course or how he won the jersey, he will be remembered by how he wore it. That is what counts.

 

[craig1985]

Vos was the expected winner in the women's race, but didn't win.

It was still a godawful race on an even worse parcours.

Cav isn't a wheelsucker, he's a sprinter. Following your leadout is part of the job.

However, a course that made it so easy to do that job is an embarrassment to consider a World Championship.

Out of interest, when they had the World's in Zolder, you weren't watching that day?

 

[rhubroma]

wow! just ....wow! you guys are something else. this is a joke, right?

Only if you like boring races that serve merely the fastest man the victory on a plate!

Come on, yesterday's race was a pathetic joke! And only a liar or a hypocrite would say otherwise. And I don't think someone like Cavendish has the right class, nor the proper attitude to don the Rainbow Jersey in any way that is becoming, but is only grotesque. They may as well have called the Worlds the third stage at the Tour.

Worst World's course I have ever seen in 28 years watching the sport. Is it getting funny yet?

As far as a pure sprinter winning goes, I'm not for it. Let then win as many flat stages at the Tour as they want, and Paris-Brussels. Even when Cipollini won it, I didn't approve. Yesterday's course was a piloted marketing scam.

 

[spalco]

If Cav wasn't British you would all be saying the same thing as eveyone else. Wake up! The parcours was SOOOOOOOO boring and unworthy of a WC it was ridiculous.

I'm not British and I'm cheering for Cavendish - now what?

 

[Eric8-A]

Only if you like boring races that serve merely the fastest man the victory on a plate!

Come on, yesterday's race was a pathetic joke! And only a liar or a hypocrite would say otherwise. And I don't think someone like Cavendish has the right class, nor the proper attitude to don the Rainbow Jersey in any way that is becoming, but is only grotesque. They may as well have called the Worlds the third stage at the Tour.

Worst World's course I have ever seen in 28 years watching the sport. Is it getting funny yet?

As far as a pure sprinter winning goes, I'm not for it. Let then win as many flat stages at the Tour as they want, and Paris-Brussels. Even when Cipollini won it, I didn't approve. Yesterday's course was a piloted marketing scam.

There we go. Many are saying that Cvendish is a true champion just by his wins, but it seems that they fail to see the classless fool he is. I think right now the people that say the course was good or anything other than it was a suckish course are Cavendish fanboys who are all hyped up on his win.

This cry-baby's arrogant attitude is what devalues the donning of the rainbow jersey. Yeah he can say he's the world champion, but what good is saying that on a course that wasn't even that selective. I for one am not impressed. It's something that makes me go "so what. you won on a course that's like any other stage in any race. you want to impress me, you should have won last year."

 

[Midnightfright]

There we go. Many are saying that Cvendish is a true champion just by his wins, but it seems that they fail to see the classless fool he is. I think right now the people that say the course was good or anything other than it was a suckish course are Cavendish fanboys who are all hyped up on his win.

This cry-baby's arrogant attitude is what devalues the donning of the rainbow jersey. Yeah he can say he's the world champion, but what good is saying that on a course that wasn't even that selective. I for one am not impressed. It's something that makes me go "so what. you won on a course that's like any other stage in any race. you want to impress me, you should have won last year."

You have ago at Cav-fanboys but just across as a Cav hater , yes the course was too easy not his fault he's the best sprinter he won it and we have not seen how he will honour it bit hes does seem to understand and revel in the tradition of cycling so he will no.doubt where it with pride. He certainly is arrogant but so are a lot of the guys at the top end of the sport. If Gilbert or Canc it wouldn't be a problem and they undeniably have an arrogance. I understand u don't think its appropriate to have such an inselective worlds but there is no need for any attacks of Cavs character.

 

[spalco]

I also don't understand the attacks on Cavendish's character; yeah he had some bad scenes in the past, making obscene gestures on the finish line, his feud with Greipel, etc. But really as big a mouth as he sometimes has, as gracious and humble he always is in victory - both to the team that helped him win as to his competitors, like he immediately after the line congratulated Greipel and Cancellara (didn't see Goss, but I think he went off the front after the finish). Winning is never business as usual for him, he's always respectful to the races he wins and he doesn't abandon just because there's a big mountain ahead.