posted Aug 20, 2008

sniffershaw, from my earlier post;

'...I don't buy into this idea that Cav pulled out of the Tour especially for the Olympics. For sure it was part of the reason, but there was more than one mountain stage that would have seen him finish outside the time limit...'

Plus, I can't but think that if Cav thought he could make the time limits he would of relished a shot at victory on the Champs Elysee.

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posted Aug 20, 2008

PS. Cav is never ever going to win the Tour de France. He will however win the Green Jersey one day and yes, that will better Olympic gold. Just not in the eyes of your average UK media and non-cycling fan who will think the opposite!

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posted Aug 20, 2008

He was pulled out of the Tour because there was no way he could ever win it!

I am still suspicious about the day he was pulled too, big conflab at team car, LOT of talking on radio!

There were other riders heading for the Olympics too and yet THEY finished the tour, what made Cavendish so special!

Also, there was a report that Cavendish would not be going to the Olympics because he failed to make the time. Didn't see it myself but a keen road racer told me about it.

Personally I'm not concerned he didn't get a gold. Bradley Wiggins rode his heart out to win all of his, so leave him alone.

By the way, you will NEVER beat an Olympic Gold, stop trying to belittle the achievement these cyclists have made.

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posted Aug 20, 2008

macfan you ignorant git. Try getting to know the subject matter before you come on here spouting such crap.

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posted Aug 20, 2008

hmmm perhaps a tad harsh by myself but you clearly are no cycling expert. Mark Cavendish is the best British cyclist in mine and many many other cycling fans opinions. No one is belitting the gold medals, it's fantastic but there are bigger fish to fry in the sport of cycling. But if you were a cycling fan then you'd know that.

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posted Aug 20, 2008

macfan, sorry, but a grand tour win is on a different stratosphere in terms of prestige compared to any number of olympic golds.If you knew about cycling as sport you would not say otherwise.It is the absolute pinnacle of any cyclists career to win a tour.The cyclists say so themselves and the european public know it too.Its just in the UK, where knowledge of tour cycling amongst the public and media in general is practically non existent, that the olympics is considered the most important.

The olympics in cycling is not a major event for most professional cyclists, its important but does not carry a great deal of prestige.That might sound harsh, but its true.

Some top cyclists do not even enter,they have bigger fish to fry, and thats the tour of Spain coming up in September.

As for Cavendish, he will never win a grand tour, or probably even any other tour as he will never be able to climb.He could, and probably will, win the green jersey over and over again in all the grand tours he enters.

He pulled out the tour for 2 reasons.Firstly at his age its very difficult to finish the tour de france and he was knackered, secondly the olympics.I reckon he wanted to stay in though as to win the last stage in paris would have been glorious.

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posted Aug 23, 2008

I am no cycling expert, but follow it enough to know that for Cavendish, the Green Jersey in the Tour de France will mean a lot more than Olympic Madison gold.

If I remember correctly, he made a joint decision with the Great Britain team to pull out of this years TdF to prepare for the Olympics.

A couple of weeks ago there was talk that Geraint Thomas was posting better times than Cav and could replace him in the Madison. Wiggins was exhausted in the Team Pursuit and his gearing had to be changed. Surely this should has set off an alarm in Dave Brailsford's head to pull Wiggins from the Madison and put in Thomas, who had only done the team pursuit. Better chance of a medal with fresher Thomas than knackered Wiggins.

Was it not Wiggins who praised the effort of Clancy, Manning and Thomas to give up individual pursuit to improve the team pursuit. They helped him get his second, why didnt he let Britains most talented cyclist win gold by pulling out and letting Thomas get a piece of individual glory...obviously not individual but there are only two of them not four!!

I'm gutted for Cav as Olympic Gold would have gone nicely alongside his four stage wins!!

Haven't read all 41 posts so some of this may have been said!!But let's get the message to those who know nothing of cycling that Wiggins let down his team mate!!

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posted Aug 23, 2008

Can we all please remember that cav completetd the giro d'italia 4 weeks before the tour, a three week grand tour that had more ascent than the tour de france, and he won two stages of that.
Chris prudhomme (tour organiser) didn't mind so much cav pulling out because of all the excellent publicity he brought to the race.

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posted Aug 26, 2008

Good point dunc, he won a lot of praise in the Italian media for the way he rode the Giro.

Maybe it was the physical and mental expenditure in finishing the Giro, coupled with the first hand experience that brought of recovering from a grand tour and the knowledge of the Olympics to come, but despite the 4 wins he didn’t look to have much climbing in him on the Tour.

That’s only my opinion from armchair viewing. There was a distinct lack of interview after the Olympic Madison; it would be interesting to see what Cav has to say. I suppose Cav has to bite his tongue a bit. When he rides for Team Columbia Wiggins plays a vital part for Cav, using his time trailing ability to keep a sustained tempo.

As for Cav’s climbing it’s all relative. Haven’t got the times to hand, but I think Cav still finished the E’tape stage of the Tour approx 40mins quicker than the winner of the E’tape! I know the Tour stage and the E’tape stage aren’t identical, but still…

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posted Aug 26, 2008

Can't see how Wiggins was being selfish - he won 3 golds at the World Championships this year, so better to go with him rather than another rider who has very little experience of riding Madison at this level.

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