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Tour de France Tour de France 2021, Stage 6: Tours – Châteauroux, 160.6 km

Page 12 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
It's Cav re-introducing toxic sprint styles from way back when he was still sprinting. I thought the Jakobsen-Groenewegen affair woke everybody up on how not to sprint, but the Cav fanboys just throw all that sanity out of the window, and that includes TV commentators.

If this kind of sprinting is allowed (again), we're in for some nice crashes in the near future. God, I start to hate that Cav is back already.

That's, uhm, nonsense, with all respect.
I'm not a Cav-fangirl and I have no reason to excuse him.
And to compare this to the Groenewegen incident, ugh. Why do people now always feel the need to behave like every deviation is a move like that?
Cavendish has had his fair share of dirty moves, that's true. Most sprinters have.
Yes, road-sprinting is dangerous and it's often a bit dirty. I'm in favour of punishing really dangerous moves, but not every deviation, although of course with that tempo it can often lead to a crash, should be punished.
If society agrees that cycling sprints on the road are too dangerous, forbid them already.
 
But he clearly does. I can see him moving right regardless of the white line. It's really obvious on the overhead shot. You can look at the gap between Philipsen and the barrier on the left expanding if it's not obvious to you.
He is also deviating slightly but by far not as much as Cavendish. Another Sprinter also deviating doesn't make one's deviation acceptable. Philipsen deviating or not, Cavendish still chops Merlier which should be ground for relegation. And for people saying, well he expected Merlier to stop after his lead out, that's not for Cav to decide when Merlier has to stop.
Anyway, not surprising that nothing was done given the consistency of the UCI jury and I doubt too many feel bad for Alpecin given that they keep trying with Philipsen for whatever reason.
 
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Theo Bos: Cav really didn't need that swerve. Shame about this sprint. Not sure if the jury should/would allow it.

I like clean sprints. This wasn't clean. But yeah. Who's gonna relegate the comeback kid, ey?
 
And something no one talked about is Rickaert pulling off directly in front of Morkov and slowing down causing Morkov to lose speed and go around. If Cav had followed Morkov he most likely would have lost. With than Merlier trying to nudge Cav more to the right. So to whoever was that said Cav and Quickstep are marked now and the other teams are going to try and stop him, they already are trying.
 
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Merlier also deviated rightwards as Cavendish came around him, a good few feet.

Relegate all 3 of them or none.
I think that's probably why AF didn't complain - they'd have ended up with no stage win, and lost points for green.

Cav actually went back into the 'lane' he was on previously before he had to deviate because Merlier went right. I guess that would be his argument. On balance though, having watched it a number of times, from different angles, and heard different views, and it's obviously a close call either way, I think I'd have relegated all 3, but with no further punishment, and I say that as a Cav fan. Actually, the best way the whole thing could have been avoided, and would probably have given us a more entertaining battle, is for Merlier to sprint and not lead out.
 
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And something no one talked about is Rickaert pulling off directly in front of Morkov and slowing down causing Morkov to lose speed and go around. If Cav had followed Morkov he most likely would have lost. With than Merlier trying to nudge Cav more to the right. So to whoever was that said Cav and Quickstep are marked now and the other teams are going to try and stop him, they already are trying.
AF were a mess throughout. VdP was all over the place, Rickaert tried this stunt, Merlier and JP both veered right. They've got the gas not to mess around like that too.
 
I think that's probably why AF didn't complain - they'd have ended up with no stage win, and lost points for green.

Cav actually went back into the 'lane' he was on previously before he had to deviate because Merlier went right. I guess that would be his argument. On balance though, having watched it a number of times, from different angles, and heard different views, and it's obviously a close call either way, I think I'd have relegated all 3, but with no further punishment, and I say that as a Cav fan. Actually, the best way the whole thing could have been avoided, and would probably have given us a more entertaining battle, is for Merlier to sprint and not lead out.

The thing that bugs me the most is how dumb the whole thing was. They could all easily have crashed into each other and their tours would be over. Not worth it for a very minor advantage on one stage. I guess in the heat of the moment nobody is thinking like that.
 
If you can't see that all three of them were a little bit naughty then it's because you don't want to.

Merlier quite clearly starts to edge right as Cavendish passes and even looks to lean into him before Cavendish even starts to move left.

Cavendish moves left unnecessarily, risking an incident with Merlier, but had the latter carried on straight, there would have been nothing to worry about.

Philipsen then moves right and actually creates a bigger hazard to Merlier than Cavendish did.

Not a clean sprint by any of them but nothing that would warrant relegation. They were actually a little bit silly and almost opened up the door to Bouhanni, ironically the only one of them who did a completely clean sprint.
 

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