What should HTC do next?

[mowie133]

I said they were never podium material anyway. What else are they suppose to do in the first week. AC and Schleck had a great ride in the Cobbles. It looks like everybody else but Evans lost against them. Anything can still happen.

they way the tour is going cav might finish on the podium martin is a sneaky chance for white if andy messes up real bad,....an rogers top 5 would be a awesome effort..

 

[joy118118]

Dont forget greipel also had a bad form in Giro.

HTC could try to get some stage wins with Siutsou or Monfort. Cavendish? let's forget him. This year he shows nothing and will show nothing.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Cav on bad form is still better than Greipel on good form.

Nah, Imagine next year when Cav and *** greipel go head to head!

No leadout train, no cav. shows he isn't overly skilled with sprinting as he does not position well when he does not have a leadout train. Pettachi whopped his ***!

 

[Scirea]

Columbia will change strategy in sprints but no way they'll dump Cav. They realized now that their leadout train is not nearly as good as last year. Today Renshaw and Cav were left at the front without teammates at around 1200m. That's way too much for those two. Ale.Jet was sitting on Cav's wheel the whole time. Columbia should mix things up. Forget the train and put Renshaw + Cav on Petacchi's wheel. Petacchi's train with Hondo, Gavazzi, Lorenzetto and Bole will take care of thing until the last 4-500m, then these two can go.

 

[Ryaguas]

Forget the train and put Renshaw + Cav on Petacchi's wheel. Petacchi's train with Hondo, Gavazzi, Lorenzetto and Bole will take care of thing until the last 4-500m, then these two can go.

That sounds great but Petacchi's legs are in a outstanding form... you could see it today in reims and in Brussels... Petacchi is validating his nickname "Ale-Jet" in this very first part of the tour...

mmm if the train is not going working... should be better use the lampre train and leave the hand to hand battle to Renshaw and Manxman... there they can prove who is fast and who have the legs to battle for the Maillot vert... but Alejet is doing great =/ mmmm I'm going with the option of keep doing the train and serve the sprint for Manxman he only need to rest and shake that phsycological burden that he have now...

Today was the oportunity for Cav to come back cuz Thor was so toasted from the 3rd stage win... Today I didn't expect another victory from Ale-jet... I though "well is now or never Cav" when I saw the HTC train I said "ufff this is done..." but Manxman was toasted as well... was pretty clear that Cav didn't have energy for the finals 300m...

Hey! watch out with Robbie McKewen!!! he is doing great too... w/o saying to much is 3rd in the battle for the points... pretty great...!

 

[Benotti69]

B.S
If Greipel was on another team, he would have flown by Cav just like McEwen & the others did today. Doubt Greipel would have pulled the pussy move Cav pulled today - he realised he wasn't as fast as the others and gave up and stopped pedaling, the guy behind almost ran into him. Gave up points. Lame.

Greipel did it twice in the Giro this year

the famous boxing trainer Brendan Ingle told Boxer Naseem not to get his teeth fixed until he finished his boxing career as it would affect his performance by playing on his mind to protect his new teeth...after he got his teeth done it ended his career and he never won another world championship...whether this has had the same affect on Cav, who knows....

If Cav wins any stages this year it will be a successful tour, you cannot win 5 stages every tour. If he wins the Champs Elysse stage i am sure HTC will take that....For him to say the he was gonna win the Green was a mistake. Also he should dump his Italian girlfriend...obviously draining him ; )

 

[junkie]

I think st.4 was not lost by Cav, but won by Lampre.

HTC tried to respond on Hondo's move, and then suddenly Ale Jet came out of the woods and shown them youngsters how wily old veterans do their best work.

 

[M Sport]

If Greipel was on another team, he would have flown by Cav just like McEwen & the others did today.

I don't wish a crash on anyone .... but ... one of the most enticing prospects next year could be Greipel and Cav on opposing teams getting involved in a tangle and then getting to watch Greipel toss him over one of the spectator barriers, beats spitting on someone any day!

On the OP's question. Have a couple of riders support Cav until he pulls out this weekend and have everyone else work for Martin and Rogers.

 

[Galic Ho]

My feeling is that if he hasn't anything to show for by Friday, he might drop out.

That isn't how it will go. The Groupetto will drop him and he will fall outside the time limit. Oh, how I will laugh.

Cav was 4 seconds away from being eliminated in 2008. This year I can see it happening. He really does suck this year.

 

[Mambo95]

Also he should dump his Italian girlfriend...obviously draining him ; )

They split up a while ago.

 

[I Watch Cycling In July]

HTC new strategy:

Cav to become the lantern rouge and garner the sympathy of millions

Seriously, I think those who think Cav will just quit if he doesn't get a victory are underestimating him.

 

[Barrus]

Greipel did it twice in the Giro this year

the famous boxing trainer Brendan Ingle told Boxer Naseem not to get his teeth fixed until he finished his boxing career as it would affect his performance by playing on his mind to protect his new teeth...after he got his teeth done it ended his career and he never won another world championship...whether this has had the same affect on Cav, who knows....

If Cav wins any stages this year it will be a successful tour, you cannot win 5 stages every tour. If he wins the Champs Elysse stage i am sure HTC will take that....For him to say the he was gonna win the Green was a mistake. Also he should dump his Italian girlfriend...obviously draining him ; )

I don't really think he'll make it to the Champs Elysse, he'll either abandon or finish outside of time

 

[abbaskip]

I think st.4 was not lost by Cav, but won by Lampre.

HTC tried to respond on Hondo's move, and then suddenly Ale Jet came out of the woods and shown them youngsters how wily old veterans do their best work.

I disagree. Cav just had no legs. It was a good tactic for Lampre to do that with Hondo, but Renshaw was smart, and jumped off Eisel's wheel, and onto Hondo's. Then, we saw that drag race with him and Lancaster, and when Petacchi started his sprint (from 3rd wheel, behind Hushovd, Cav and Renshaw), Cav was still in pole position behind Renshaw. Petacchi even left him plenty of room to come out from behind Renshaw.

Cav just had no legs.

 

[Superbagneres]

I think that if Cav doesn't win today or tomorrow the idea of switching him to Renshaw's lead-out man is actually a very good one, not as a "disciplinary" move but as a way of giving Renshaw a crack and also increasing Cav's strength, confidence and sharpness without the pressure of needing to deliver a victory. It might rekindle something in him, and if he takes it as a humiliation then that would say more about him. From the way his season has gone I have suspected for a while that he will not finish the Tour this year, but acknowledging that things are not working and changing his duties temporarily for him to build himself back up would give him a reason to continue, and get the race days which for one reason or another he desperately needs.

 

[Merckx]

My sarcastic first post aside, I do think that Cav is too strong to not win a couple of stages this year. Was nice to see him vulnerable, but I highly doubt the team management will risk shattering his confidence by making him do leadouts for Mark Renshaw. He won't win the green jersey, but he'll collect 3-4 victories.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

But Cav was not boxed in - he was well positioned with 150 to go and well beaten a couple of seconds later. If I was the HTC DS watching that I would conclude that he simply does not have the form, so I would start weighing up the alternatives. The question remains, with Cav failing, and Rogers and Martin down on GC, how does HTC salvage this tour?

as a ds at htc i'd be facepalming myself right about now. nothing is going right for them. their riders don't seem to have "it." except for maybe renshaw. but, you have to stick to your strategy. here's why:

ale won't survive the mountains. farrar might not survive the week. cav might be able to ride into form in the mtns and outsprint thor on the champs elysee. that's not nothing.

mick and martin are both well positioned to ride into a top ten. that's not nothing either.

cav absolutely HAS to stick around and try to win something.

 

[Biffins]

He just won. So much for this thread.

 

[Eyeballs Out]

New thread. What should Garmin do next ?

 

[abbaskip]

New thread. What should Garmin do next ?

Can we just say what we said in the HTC thread? Get the lead out man to ride as a sprinter??

That said, Hunter has never impressed me (until Yesterday), and Dean wasn't great today, couldn't get out of the seat, and even when sitting down Renshaw came past him...

 

[Ryaguas]

ufff Did you see the battle between Thor and Renshaw???? I was like if Thor pushed me like that I would S&% on my pants!!!

Today was a great victory for Cav... He sprinted very well and Renshaw did a great job... I was touched when I saw Cav crying on the podium... He has been underpressure since the crash in the stage 1...

 

[Biffins]

This is why Cav won't win the green jersey. Hushovd knew he couldn't win, he kept chugging and got 5th and got a decent amount of points.

Yesterday Cav gave up as soon as he saw he couldn't win and came in 12th.

This is why Hushovd will win the green again this year.

 

[riobonito92]

Kudos to HTC for changing strategy and for Renshaw in particular. He did an interview before the stage started absolutely backing Cavendish and rode brilliantly.

I know some riders prefer being the lead-out instead of the main man, but I would loved to have seen Renshaw given his chance. He wasn't so far off in Brussels and he is clearly on super form.

 

[riobonito92]

What's the new strategy for the sprint stages?

 

[hrotha]

Eisel moves up in the ladder. Everything else stays the same. Should be harder, but they still have the fastest guy.

 

[Andre.J]

They should sell Monfort to either Quickstep or Lotto. He needs to get out of there.

Andre