posted Jul 8, 2008

The Death of Marco Pantani is blinkered hero worship. If Kings of the Mountains is anything like Significant Other it won't be worth the cover price.

Try Rough Ride - that's a great cycling book. If anyone tries to tell you it's about drugs in cycling they haven't read it. It's about the love of a great sport, true self respect and guts (it's also been canned repeatedly by Rendell).

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posted Jul 8, 2008

All the best sprinters in the world including Boonen and McEwan have more or less admitted Cav is the fastest sprinter in the last 200-300 meters already at just 21. All he needs is his team to get him to the 300m flag near the front 5 or 6 riders and he can do the rest like he proved he could do easily in the Giro. As he said, he has nothing more to learn about how to win races, he's already done that, but no sprinter can win alone if his DS and team refuse or fail to lead him out for the win. You gotta remember too, he was interviewed about 3 seconds after crossing the line, full of emotion and adrenaline right after outputting maybe 600 watts in sprint. Cycling in that respect is pretty unique. You will often get the real emotion and gut feeling as they cross the line and get interviewed, not the fluffy media polished friendly interview of a footballer all showered, massaged and wearing a £10K suit after only 90 minutes of level 2 exercise!

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posted Jul 9, 2008

Mark Cavendish had just finished a 120 mile stage that, at the start, he had a good chance of challenging a first place. But due to the poor organisation of the sprinters' teams, including his own, that chance had been taken from him. Not only would he have been totally cooked, but also terribly disappointed. And then a journalist asked him a random question. What do you expect, some flowery oratory?

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posted Jul 9, 2008

Kings of the Mountains is a lot better than A Significant Other, which was one for the USPS/Disco fanboys and girls. Rough Ride is a good book, but I think the Death of Marco Pantani says a lot more about the destruction caused by drugs in sport, and found it in no way "blinkered hero worship"

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posted Jul 9, 2008

Sorry Sammy but you really showed your ignorance rather than your knowledge with this comment.

As to his on-camera behavior, you should give him a little slack. This is probably the first time ever, as a UK cyclist, that he has had to do interviews, let alone have the mike stuck in front of his face just after he crosses the line on a day that was obviously a big disappointment.

Also, have you ever seen interviews with any other sprinters? Probably not, from what you have said I don' think you have ever really watched before. But just to let you know, most of the sprinters are brash and arrogant, they don't get to be where they are otherwise. The thinking, eloquent guys tend to be the time trialers.

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posted Jul 9, 2008

Maybe "blinkered hero worship" was a little strong. However, Rendell validates his work through his access to many of the key gatekeppers in Pantani's family. This creates a biased angle that attributes Pantani's downfall more to recreational drugs and fast women than the fact his career was built on EPO. A true reflection (ala Paul Kimmage) would have cut ties with the gatekeepers. Maybe I'll have to borrow Kings of the Mountains.

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posted Jul 9, 2008

Hopefully Cavendish will carry on with his humble pie diet, it seems to be quite beneficial.

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posted Jul 9, 2008

I have just munched my way through my entire hat collection and am now off to Asda to stock up on humble pie !!! well done Cavendish . I hope that he will now be gracious in victory.

TIPOTA what planet are you on ? He's done loads of Media stuff over the last couple of years.
I've probably see live and on TV more TdFs than you have and speaking French, Italian , Spanish and even Australian !!! I have heard a lot of sprinters being interviewed. Yes some of them can be a little up their own saddles but I have never seen anyone as rude as Cavendish. Not McEwan, Cipollini, not even Armstrong or Hinault (yes I now last 2 are not sprinters) on a bad day. Anyway I'm feeling a bit sick now ...tooo much humble pie !!!

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posted Jul 10, 2008

Cav "took it easy" in the time trial to save energy for stage 5 ... which he WON !!!!
I did not see the interview, but his response cannot be worse than Bode Miller (just pipped to second place on a SuperG): "what a %& stupid question", and walked off !!!

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posted Jul 10, 2008

I've met Cav several times and he is very cocky, very arrogant and has a dismissive attitude. Personally, I don't like him. It's not an act he's putting on for the camera, like other sprinters do. He actually is quite arrogant.

Oh and Robbie McEwen isn't arrogant, nor is Thor Hushovd and they're great sprinters. So Cav doesn't need to act like that.

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