Just a thought and I’d imagine done to death previously but what is new leaner slightly slower Cavendish for in this year’s tour? Too slow to be the dominant force of old on the traditional sprinters finishes (well he appears to be with only Bernie Eisel for company) to challenge for Green but still not lythe enough to challenge by getting over the lumps still in touch and sprinting out on the tougher stages. He has stated he wants to be there to play his part in a British team getting a British GC winner to Paris – but is he really part of that?

Is his current shape more to do with being the perfect man for the London course – but is it really lumpy enough to justify the weight & power loss he has chosen for this season? Sky/British cycling just don’t do things on a whim – there must be reasoning to it.

Slightly baffled – sure he has won a stage and could have won more with a bit more luck and lack of crashes but its the choice to get lean that I don’t understand. If it’s the sight of him sprinting for stage win in Paris in his WC hoops with a leadout train including the yellow jersery Sky wanted you would have thought you would have left him more powerful and let him plod his way there.

He’s for the Olympics. He’s got to get up Box Hill 9(?) times, at or at least towards the front of the pack to stand a chance of being in the running for the sprint on the Mall.

No idea, but everyone on the Sky team looks emaciated to me. Even by skinny pro-cyclist standard.

Yep Olympics are the target. Beyond that a crack at a couple of the classics? More suited for M-SR and maybe Flanders. He might just stick the weight on and become sprinter extraordinaire again.

He’s got to get up Box Hill 9(?) times

I thought of that and whilst to us Box hill is a tough few minutes is it really that big a deal for any pro especially as its miles to the finish and if the entire GB team drafted him back you would have thought it would not be that big a deal.

In his current shape a sprint for the line is no longer a certainty for Cav amongst classy opposition and that must be a massive physiological boost to his opposition in London assuming they are still there when it counts.

everyone on the Sky team looks emaciated to me

Froome and Wiggins certainly do.

But yes, it’s for the Olympics. Personally though, I’m surprised. He was hardly fat before, and Box Hill isn’t really that much of a climb, even 9 times.

AS just mentioned on Eurosport by mark Harmon Cavendish gets over the climbs better than most of the sprinters, so he should be fine on Box hill, he will have the support of his team remember.

I think he’s there as part of his Olympic preperation and partly because sponsors want to see him there.

Chris Boardman said Cav responds really well to the 3 week tours and that it was probably the best preperation he could do for the Olympics. The week break between the Tour ending and the Olympics should be enough for him to rest and still retain the extra form that three weeks of racing brings.

It’s not been shown on the TV much but he is working for the team when he can, you see him pacing the peleton on the early flat parts of stages and working as a domestique carrying bottles up from the team car for other riders.

Not sure it will happen but it would be awesome to see Team Sky with the yellow jersey leading Cav out for the stage win in Paris 🙂

Well the only way anyone else but Cav can win the Olympics (crashes/mechanicals aside) is by splitting it on Box Hill and dropping Cav. If they manage that it won’t be a simple chase back for Sky as almost all the other teams will ride hard to stop them getting Cav back on. Therefore he’s giving up a bit of top end power so he can improve his chances of being in the split when it happens. I guess he’s hoping the other top sprinters either don’t make the split or still aren’t fast enough but here’s hoping it’s the former…

If they manage that it won’t be a simple chase back for Sky as almost all the other teams will ride hard to stop them getting Cav back on

You’re not gonna get ‘Team Sky’ at the Olympics… You may get a few allegiances, but EB-H (for example) is not gonna be helping Cav out!

AS just mentioned on Eurosport by mark Harmon Cavendish gets over the climbs better than most of the sprinters, so he should be fine on Box hill, he will have the support of his team remember.

Does he? I’d say that’s really not the case! Sagan and Hushovd that immediately spring to mind are both obvious rivals to Cav who have shown themselves to be better climbers.

Err hah yeah meant Team GB (although 4/5 are Sky assuming no injuries pre-Olympics) :p

Stannard, Froome, Wiggins and Millar. That’s a pretty strong team to keep things together.

Greipel, Boonen and Goss climb ok too. It definitely won’t be a formality, so the rest of the team will really make a difference.

Bottle boy at the moment!

1. Race sharpness?
2. Respecting the world champs jersey?
3. stage wins, he still wants to be at the top of that career wins leaderboard?
4. Crossing the line first in Paris?
5. Marketing!
6. Branding!
7. Selling stuff!
8. MARKETING!

He was hardly fat before, and Box Hill isn’t really that much of a climb, even 9 times.

At the speeds they’ll be going up it, yes it is one hell of a climb. Not Alpe d’Huez standard sure but it’s more than enough to blow the field into pieces.

There are only 5 team members, not the 8 they’ve got in the Tour or at the Worlds so the race will be much harder to control. Made even more difficult by the fact that Cav will be the most marked man there and everyone will know what the Team GB tactic is. There is only one plan – Cav. If that fails, for a reason other than a crash (like Cav being unable to stay with the bunch) then everyone else looks a little foolish.

The other point is that the Olympics is the big goal for Cav this year, not the Tour. He always knew, even when he signed for Sky, that the 2012 Tour would be spent playing second fiddle to getting Wiggins into yellow. You can’t go for both green and yellow jerseys, that’s a recipe for killing your team off.

Box Hill isn’t really that much of a climb, even 9 times.

That’s 1080m of climbing at an average of 5% (max 15%). Put together that’s a decent alpine climb – plenty of uphill for Cav to lose time on to someone like Sagan or Boasson Hagen.

Cav would love to be the first rider ever to win Gold while being the World Champion and he would love to see Brad win the Tour, I don’t think Sky could have gone all out to win Yellow and green in Paris, it’s very difficult these days because each competition is so specialised.

My take on the riders looking emaciated is that is what it does to you to win the Tour as clean rider as you have to glean every spare ounce of performance gain in power to weight ratio out of your body when your not relying on doping to help you gain that edge !

Put together

But they’re not – you lose 20s on one lap, you can get back before the next one.

why did we not just pick a pan flat course so Cav could win?

Who designed the course anyone know?

they look skinny because they cannot consume enough calories to replace the energy they expend during the race….about 8000 per day…they cannot eat that much whilst riding for 5- 6 hours per day…what they gonna do have a 4,000 calorie breakfast then go ride?

you lose 20s on one lap, you can get back before the next one.

Exactly. You’ve got the shallower section up through Box Hill village, followed by a long descent on a pretty narrow road to get back on. Not an ideal tactic, but it’s no Alp.

Edit: here’s the loop, 509ft/155m climbing per lap, 4 miles descending, 3 miles climbing.

they look skinny because they cannot consume enough calories to replace the energy they expend during the race

Actually they have to crash diet beforehand to get like that, then maintain through the race and they have to put some back on afterwards cos it’s not healthy to be that skinny all the time.

So they consume 8000 calories a day?

they loose weight doing the tour due to the effort

i would imagine “crash dieting” before an huge endurance event is rather unwise…they may loose weight over a year or a long period of time but “crash diet ” NO

Have I missed something here? Cav has only contested a couple of finishes this year – he won one, the other he was in a rubbish position leading into it and commented that he was going faster than anybody else but from too far back (so he hasn’t got a train this year, but we all knew that). Hardly “too slow”.

Good point, and his stage win was pretty epic considering his (lack of a) lead out train. My money’s still on him on the Mall!

Tomorrow’s stage of the TdF might give some idea where he’s at.

159 metre climb over 1.6km @ 10.2%. It’s 23km from the finish. He’ll probably have less help tomorrow than he will at the Olympics though.

Sky might like to give EBH a go though after all his work in the mountains the last couple of days.

Hardly “too slow”

He’s not – but he still doesn’t look like the ‘irresistible force’ he did last year when he puts the hammer down

i would imagine “crash dieting” before an huge endurance event is rather unwise

It was in one of the blogs last year. It was a managed weight loss programme to get Wiggins down to a weight that would normally be unhealthy, and then a less managed cake eating programme afterwards to put it back on again.

Hasn’t he only lost 4kg though? Or have I miss heard? It’s not a great deal

Hasn’t he only lost 4kg though? Or have I miss heard? It’s not a great deal

It’s not if you are a normal bloke walking around with a 12% + body fat but as a tour rider, even a 2011 spec Cavendish, the weight loss must be mostly muscle mass. If he was a boxer he would have moved two weight catagories from Welterweight to Lightweight.

Ah, fair point!

Hasn’t he only lost 4kg though? Or have I miss heard? It’s not a great deal

4kg is a lot when you don’t carry much surplus weight to begin with. The only real place it can come from is muscle.