posted Jul 21, 2008

Why is it a dissapointment?

He is a pure sprinter, there is little point in him continuing at this stage with the olympics to follow.

He may want to finish the tour, but if he does that at the expense of an olympic gold then it would be stupid. He can finish any time in the next 3 seasons instead.

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posted Jul 21, 2008

Blimey, do some of you think before typing your bile out on here. BuckinghamLonger, if you engaged brain first you'd realise full well that the British Track Cycling team is the team to capture the golds for Britain at the Olympics, that will ignite the nations interest in cycling much like the track world championship did earlier this year.

And what all the people who frequent this part of 606 outside of the month of July said about others pulling out of the Vuelta for the worlds, and other events as well.

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posted Jul 21, 2008

Olympic glory? Yes, that's great isn't it

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posted Jul 21, 2008

How many of the truly fastest sprinters regularly finish the TdF in Paris?

Previous holder of the self-proclaimed "fastest sprinter in the world" title prior to Cav, was "Super Mario" Cipollini, who managed to win 4 stages in a single TdF once, after 4 attempts at it, but he wasn't noted for making it to Paris too often...

Jaan Kirsipuu regularly won stages in the TdF, against everyone including Mario Cipollini, Robbie McEwen, Tom Steels, Erik Zabel, Thor Hushovd and Oscar Freire to name just a few, and even wore the Maillot Jeune for 6 consecutive days in 1999, yet he dropped out of the Tour on a record breaking 13 consecutive occasions...

However, even those two, still thought the Olympics was worth it...

As did Abdoujaparov, Armstrong, Boardman, Evans, Indurain, McEwen, Museeuw, O'Grady, Riis, Rominger, Vinokourov, Virenque, Zabel and Zulle to name a few other familiar names

Mark Cavendish, at just 23, hopefully has 15 more years ahead of him to blow everyone else away on multiple stages, and win even more Maillot Verts than Erik Zabel who's still going well at 38...

Pearls before swine anyone?

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posted Jul 21, 2008

Haven't time to read the whole thread but I have to laugh when I see armchair cyclists talking about "respecting" the tour. I suspect their sole interest in cycling is confined to July each year.
Anyway, my point is this. Mark Cavendish was contracted by Columbia to do a very specific job based on his sprinting abilities. Having exceeded his teams expectations in the Giro he has now performed at a level 200% above that predicted in the TDF. His job was to win at least one stage, two if possible. That's all. He was not at any point expected to finish...that was NEVER part of the team's plan. To get four stage wins was way beyond his target. His value as a rider next season will be skyhigh and the team's sponsors will be over the moon. That is the reality of professional cycling.
Respect due.

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posted Jul 22, 2008

>Olympic glory? Yes, that's great isn't it<

Yes it is actually - IMHO - so you won't be supporting Brits in any Olympic event then - I will be cheering on the cyclists, swimmers, athletes, rowers, footballers (oops they didn't qualify - again) at this festival of sporting excellence

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posted Jul 22, 2008

paulthebike, just one minor point. It’s a technicality, but Team GB cannot enter Olympic football, hence never qualify. Reason being there is no GB football association. Each home nation (England, Scotland, Wales and NI) has its own football association.

For GB to enter Olympic football either the BOA splits into the home nations, with each entering all Olympic events as separate counties or the home nation football associations (including all the leagues and football clubs) merge into one giant GB league.

Neither is going to happen, so there isn’t going to be a GB Olympic football team.

There has been talk about 2012 and if there is a way to resolve this impasse, but haven't I read anywhere that anything came of it.

On your wider point of supporting Team GB at the Olympics I couldn’t agree more

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posted Jul 22, 2008

mmm I knew that just winding up the football fans Always laugh when they say that to merge into a GB team would mean loss of tradition - that'll be the one trophy between them then...........

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posted Jul 22, 2008

You tease you. Can you imagine the furore it would make? Just talk of Celtic/Rangers joining the premiership causes plenty.

On a lighthearted note, I went to insert a smiley. Looking through them I wondered why there isn't a cycling smiley.

Come on BBC web masters, there’s got to be one somewhere out there. We need our ‘Cav’iley.

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posted Jul 26, 2008

even though it is an olympic year and pressure was probably put on him to pull out,the personal achievement finishing the tour when he might not get another chance

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