Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 13: Nîmes – Carcassonne, 219.9 km

[Salvarani]

"Weak field"

Tour didnt start way and its a long race. You still gotta make it to the finish.

Being this good late in the second week is just proof of the form and how good he is when everything is working. Him and the team.

Not everyone being bad and him racing against amateurs.

There are capable sprinters in this race, still, and he winning at will right now with good help from his team of course.

If anything the others look mentally defeated and all fighting for Cavs wheel. No wonder they cant beat him in the sprint. They have spent their energy and their team is not good enough to compete with DQS.

Garcia move was good today. More of that to disrupt if they wanna beat Cav. But Morkov is just too good.

 

[TMP402]

The top 10 looks more like a belgian 1.1 than a TDF sprint stage. Sprinting level must be the worst since a very long time

I know what you mean, but I wonder how many Belgian 1.1 top-10s have 82 GT stage wins between them.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Tim Declercq takes over as Lantern Rouge by a split second.

Hope that injury isn't too bad.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

So is he confident/cocky enough to not bother trying to get stage 19 (a thank you gift to Morkov?), then break the record in green on the Champs Elysees, shake Eddy's hand, and retire on the spot?

 

[Leinster]

So is he confident/cocky enough to not bother trying to get stage 19 (a thank you gift to Morkov?), the break the record in green on the Champs Elysees, shake Eddy's hand, and retire on the spot?

I think it was Cav’s most recent (I won’t say “last” yet)* win on the Champs where Renshaw exploded out of the final corner leaving a huge gap behind Cav’s wheel with nobody close. When they were halfway through the finish stretch, as it became clear they wouldn’t be touched, I started wondering “will he just not come through and let Renshaw have this?”

He came through.

If the win is on, he’ll take it.

*I checked, it was his first Champs win, in 2009, and his 6th of that Tour.

 

[canarydan23]

I think it was Cav’s most recent (I won’t say “last” yet)* win on the Champs where Renshaw exploded out of the final corner leaving a huge gap behind Cav’s wheel with nobody close. When they were halfway through the finish stretch, as it became clear they wouldn’t be touched, I started wondering “will he just not come through and let Renshaw have this?”

He came through.

If the win is on, he’ll take it.

*I checked, it was his first Champs win, in 2009, and his 6th of that Tour.

He claims if he'd have known Renshaw was in second he'd have gifted him the win. Not sure I believe that!

 

[Ramira]

I wonder how many stages Cavendish would have won without Renshaw (and now Mørkøv).

He won 3 with Sky in 2012 and 2 with Quick-Step in 2013 while Renshaw was trying to race for himself with Rabobank, so he definitely would have won quite a few. But he would definitely have lost at least a handful of sprints he ended up winning.

 

[Leinster]

He claims if he'd have known Renshaw was in second he'd have gifted him the win. Not sure I believe that!

Not buying it. It would've only taken a peek over the shoulder before moving to know they were gone.

 

[Leinster]

I wonder how many stages Cavendish would have won without Renshaw (and now Mørkøv).

He won 3 with Sky in 2012 and 2 with Quick-Step in 2013 while Renshaw was trying to race for himself with Rabobank, so he definitely would have won quite a few. But he would definitely have lost at least a handful of sprints he ended up winning.

Yeah, the easy answer is "fewer."

The other question is "how many would Farrar/Old Petacchi/Hushovd have won with Renshaw" and the easy answer there is "more than they did, but not as many as Cav."

 

[DanielSong39]

Ballerini and Morkov went full gas since they needed a backup plan in case Cavendish didn't have it

You can't let someone win in a sprint unlike in a mountain stage. You let up for 10 meters and 5 riders will pass you

 

[dgodave]

Wow I'm impressed.

Dont really care if Cav is objectively the fastest man in the world on a bike right now. He and his team are winning Tour stages, which is a high prestige goal for a lot of teams.

 

[DanielSong39]

Quick-Step lead out is good but let's not confuse it with HTC-Columbia
Time and time again we've seen Alpecin-Fenix and Team DSM make a late push and disrupt the train

Cavendish has 4, Philipsen and Bol have combined for 0. Bol doesn't even have a top 5

I don't know what else there is to say

 

[druthers]

Yeah, the easy answer is "fewer."

The other question is "how many would Farrar/Old Petacchi/Hushovd have won with Renshaw" and the easy answer there is "more than they did, but not as many as Cav."

Surely team politics is a big part of bike racing, and, for a sprinter, a big part of the politics of bike racing is getting onto the team with the best lead out and convincing the team managers that yours is the basket they need to be putting their eggs in?
In general i feel like its absolutly fair to say that Cav has been lucky this year, but that's more than counterbalanced by the awful luck he's had since 2016

 

[DanielSong39]

Surely team politics is a big part of bike racing, and, for a sprinter, a big part of the politics of bike racing is getting onto the team with the best lead out and convincing the team managers that yours is the basket they need to be putting their eggs in?
In general i feel like its absolutly fair to say that Cav has been lucky this year, but that's more than counterbalanced by the awful luck he's had since 2016

Cavendish was absolutely a merit selection once Bennett got hurt, his Tour of Turkey form alone would have made him worth gambling on

Politics is important but his legs did most of the talking

 

[Leinster]

Cavendish was absolutely a merit selection once Bennett got hurt, his Tour of Turkey form alone would have made him worth gambling on

Politics is important but his legs did most of the talking

This is true, but it was absolutely politics, name recognition, and "who you know" that got Cav his ride with DQS in the first place. Only a handful of riders on the planet could have approached any team in the WT, let alone the team with the best leadout in the business, and said "I'm bringing this sponsorship on board with me, gizz a job."

Politics got his foot in the door. He has absolutely bashed the door in since.

 

[druthers]

I guess part of what i was trying to say was that people, and this includes Cav, only get to be one of those handful of riders by being consitently brilliant at their speciality for a very long time.

 

[Panda Claws]

Gilbert in 17th place. Not bad.

 

[superprinz]

If" x" would have happened and "y" had been there, then "z" would not have won. -> Conjecture

Cavendish won. -> Reality

Bravo Cavendish.

PS: Odds are that somewhere in the world there is a genetic mutant rickshaw driver who would drive all of our cycling heroes into the ground. But we will never know, that's why it is equally irrelevant. Reality beats conjecture 100%, every time.

 

[canarydan23]

This is true, but it was absolutely politics, name recognition, and "who you know" that got Cav his ride with DQS in the first place. Only a handful of riders on the planet could have approached any team in the WT, let alone the team with the best leadout in the business, and said "I'm bringing this sponsorship on board with me, gizz a job."

Politics got his foot in the door. He has absolutely bashed the door in since.

It wasn't politics, it was track record, on and off the bike. His accomplishments give him the sponsors, his achievements make DQS consider offering him a deal and his personality gave Lefevere the confidence that he would be a good fit.

He earned the factors that got him his deal.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I wonder how many stages Cavendish would have won without Renshaw (and now Mørkøv).

He won 3 with Sky in 2012 and 2 with Quick-Step in 2013 while Renshaw was trying to race for himself with Rabobank, so he definitely would have won quite a few. But he would definitely have lost at least a handful of sprints he ended up winning.

Well he has 2 so far without Morkov, Sky he only actually tried in 4 sprints 3 of which he won, 2013 he rode the Giro and Kittel was a beast. He won before Renshaw and after he was disqualified when most said he couldn’t. There is a reason why Cavendish said he wanted Renshaw on the team at the end of 2008.

Stage 10 was textbook sprint train domination. Like DanielSong said, Quickstep became very disorganized when they were overtaken.



Now just has to get through 5 tough stages. I think he can breath a sigh of relief on the green unless Colbrelli starts winning from the break.

 

[Breezy1985]

Cavendish was absolutely a merit selection once Bennett got hurt, his Tour of Turkey form alone would have made him worth gambling on

Politics is important but his legs did most of the talking

Interestingly it was dominance in the Tour of Turkey that elevated Bennett from average to possible top sprinter in many people eyes too

 

[Lequack]

 

[Leinster]

Interestingly it was dominance in the Tour of Turkey that elevated Bennett from average to possible top sprinter in many people eyes too

I think Bennett had also taken a Paris Nice stage that year in front of all the big guns (Kittel, Greipel, Demare, etc) so he was being noticed.

 

[jmdirt]

He's best every sprinter around though. Until Cav can show he can beat Ewan and Bennett, and even Merlier where Merlier goes for the sprint (Merlier was leadout for Philipsen in the ones he didn't win), can't say he's better than those guys now tbh

He got TM at ToT this year.
He got CE and TM at ToB this year.

 

[Red Rick]

"At least I take stages from Van Aert."