... before he has the most of any british person?
I hope this isn't a spoiler, smee. 😥
I’m not worried about how many he wins, i would prefer he actually finished the Tour with the green jersey. 😀
Don't worry, today was all about the snails.
8 I think
Don't worry, today was all about the snails.
Yum Yum 😛
He got the record last year for the most wins by a British rider in a single year when we won four.
Not sure what the most in a career is but can't be far away i would have thought.
Barry Hoban won 8, seven of them competitively, the other out of respect for Tommy Simpson
IIRC he's just overtaken Chris Boardman has having the most pro wins, I think Chris had 41, Cav now has about 43.
Stages in the TdF, not sure.
i liked how Stephen Roche said what a lot of people think.....
Trev - what did Stephen Roache say (he says taking the bait :-))?
i liked how Stephen Roche said what a lot of people think.....
Maybe, but I also agree with what Emma Pooley was saying about a bit of arrogance (although I prefer confidence) is likely to come with being the best sprinter in the world.
he is the best, but i doubt many riders like him in the peleton, he is brash and cocky, arrogant and rude. he has no respect for anyone or what they have done. he has no respect for the Tour, the jerseys and what it all stands for. i doubt he will even get to paris.
He has no respect for anyone? He has no respect for the tour? Or the jersey and what it all stands for?
On what do you base the opinions?
cocky and brash yes but the other comments?
the fact that he said he didnt care about the green jersey, it means nothing, stage wins mean more, the way he rode past cipo with one leg clipped out....
He's got a lot better though, he did used to open mouth before engaging brain but he's calmed down a lot. Always praises his team-mates for the work they've done.
It comes with the territory - look at Robbie McEwen when he was winning everything, he had the same attitude. Doesn't mean he didn't respect the Tour or the jersey, everyone respects that, it's the 2nd most coveted prize in cycling (after the yellow jersey).
Manchester Trev - suggest you read his book 'Boy Racer'. You'll probably come away with quite a different perspective.
he is a very good sprinter
i think as he gets older he will mellow a bit, and start to show other riders a bit more respect.
shaun kelly was the most respected rider on the tours he rode, he was a cocky young fellow too when he 1st rode it.
Well, you know - live in Manchester long enough and that's what happens.
he has no respect for anyone or what they have done. he has no respect for the Tour, the jerseys and what it all stands for. i doubt he will even get to paris.
Utter nonsense, total and utter Garbage
if he wins today he has the record, no?
to answer the OP - 2 more. So maybe done and dusted by tomorrow evening 🙂
[i]if he wins today he has the record, no? [/i]
no, he equals the record.
Manchester Trev - are you Hora in disguise? What a crock of sh1t.
Lance seems pretty fond of him....
Sprinters need to be cocky and arrogant no one will ever win by saying after you thats fine just nudge me into the barriers.
I for one love Cav I am just sick of seeing british sports people folding at the first sign of pressure. Hes got an Australian/American attitude to sport 1st is the winner 2nd is first loser.
GO CAV get your elbows out and weave like a rat in a sewer
It isn't that he doesn't want or respect the jersey - he is just saying that if he wins enough stages he'll end up wearing it anyway. In other words, he has set out with the team planning not to bother contesting intermediate sprints.
The guy really is in exceptional form - every other sprinter will admit he is the fastest right now. Considering the (discussed) feisty nature of the typical sprinter that is quite something.
he has no respect for the Tour, the jerseys and what it all stands for. i doubt he will even get to paris.
Utter tosh!
He came out and said wearing the green jersey was the proudest moment in his careeer??? He praises his team every time he wins. I agree he is cocky and arrogant. So what? He's the best and as others have said it seems to come with the territory. I also think he will mellow with age
IMO - He will get to Paris, he will win green and the final sprint. I hope we (the British public) give him the respect and credit that deserves should it happen.
Well he's definitely not endearing himself to the locals.
Whether they're being just prickly or sore losers, its not good for his relations is it?
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15072009/3/french-tour-riders-slam-racist-cavendish.html
Cavendish has already been accused of not doing his share of the work in the 'grupetto', the slow bunch of non-climbers which usually works together to get through the difficult mountains stages.But some French riders claim to have also been racially insulted by the 24-year-old, who claimed his third stage from this year's race Tuesday when he won at Issoudun to take his career tally to seven.
So he's winning all the time, and annoying the French. Splendid.
I think some people are confused by what is racism - Cav is the same race as most French people. He has a different nationality.
Sure he's fast, but I'd rather go down the pub for a drink with Bradley Wiggins or David Miller. Though now I think about it Vicky would be more preferable, but I've got a bit distracted now.
FFS! im not making this up, Stephen Roche said cavendish needs to make his mind up, one minute he doesnt care about the jersey, that stage wins mean more, then he says he wants the jersey as it stands for so much........
what he's actually said is that since he's not yet finished a Tour, his targets are first winning stages and finishing in Paris. He quite rightly (and not very arrogantly) said that planning to win green when you've never made Paris yet is a bit OTT. He's also quite reasonably said that he'd love to win green but with the aforementioned aims first for the reason stated.
If it becomes clear that he will make Paris (hard this year because of Ventoux on the penultimate day) then I'm sure he'll start going for the points at intermediate sprints. Nothing conflicting there at all unless you deliberately want to make something of it.
Indeed - if he openly said he wanted to win green when he's never even completed the distance - well that would be arrogant.
Blame Stephen Roche not me, he made it out like that....
c'mon, seriously, what does he know about bike racing 😉
We might take Stephen Roche seriously if he came clean about the drug taking during his Tour/Giro/World Champ year.
No we're blaming you Manchester Trev its more fun 😆
Fair do's.
It was beautiful the way the guys could just adapt to the situation to deliver me to a perfect position to sprint.
What an arrogant tosser taking all the credit and totally ignoring all the guys who got him there 🙄
No wonder Poms don't win much - too busy dragging down their real achievers.
Cav can say what he likes - he's earned the right. Why should he be humble? Like a fine wine, he's only going to get better, and no doubt mellower 🙂
Today was very nicely done, eh? and isn't it good to see British cyclists starting to claim the high ground.
Cav is never short of praise for the guys that help him. He is streets ahead of his closest competition. So what if he's wired to the moon - he has character. I cant be doing with bland people.
So asked if he could improve ? said yes but said the team could not. Dinner on his lonesome tonight!?
An amazing sprinter just needs to keep his trap shut. Come back Super Mario now he talked crap a least it was funny.
Think you got that wrong wool. I think he was getting at the fact that his team and lead out couldn't get any better because they're already the dogs danglies. And he'd be right, they've bossed the sprints that he's won.
Rejoice, we've got a british sprinter in the form of his life with the best train leading him in. He'll get mature as he gets older and wiser, but I hope he never loses the fire in his belly.
it did sound like you thought at first wool but I thought he explained latter about them bossing sprints and other teams not even bothering ....that is why they cannot improve they ar eas good as it gets
Cav doesn not win every sprint yet but it is his goal.
Is there anywhere that explains a bit about the tdf? I have only just worked out cav is doing well although he is nearly 2hrs down on the lead time!
ok i got it wrong had a look at interview again I would still like to see Mario back, barking mad but fast as ****
Cav sems alright to me. He normally says thanks to his team for pulling him through in the interviews. No idea why people are bitching about him not doing his share, he's a sprinter, that's their job. Wait till the last 1000 metres, open it up. Agreed, it's a fairly simple job but I wouldn't expect anyone in that position to be particularly nice, it's a frigging ruthless game, if your opponents have a heart attack that's a good thing, that's how winners look at stuff.
For joe1983, there are a number of competitions in play simultaneously. Cav is in the points race, lance and contador are in the overall TdF winners race. Neither groups expect to win the others race. It's why Lance and the like are often quite happy to trundle across the line taking their time because they get a pelaton time just like everyone else in there but for the sprinters crossing the line first is the ultimate objective, even if it's only by milliseconds.
the guys a winner with a winners mentality: he knows hes going to win! And he tells it like it is, straight up!
Same as some guy called Lance summit other that alot of people onthis here forum believe is the second comming of Merckx, he can breathe out his arse, and never ever took drugs no sir-ee, the rest of them did tho!
I am glad to see him win having seen him sprint in real life.
I did like this comment about the others in the hunt for the green jersy.
[i]Asked what advice, if any, he could offer to them Cavendish was curt: "Cross the line before me."
[/i]
[i]Britain's Got Talent[/i] is a popularity contest - [i]the TdF Green Jersey[/i] is a sprinting competition.
I only know what I have seen of him on this tour, but he certainly had it yesterday, that was some display.
Still think he has some kind of wandering eye problem though..
i've met a lot of top sportsmen and a degree of arrogance in respect to your sport is required to be at the top of your game. doesn't necessarily mean they are arrogant in real life.
Cav and Wiggins are showing the fruits of the amazing work done by Dave Brailsford and his well funded, excellently managed and highly scientific British Cycling training. There whole mantra is 'Podium Mentality' and they encourage a very aggressive approach to winning alongside appreciation of your team members.
[url=
speech was the basis for the motivational video sent out to all BC team members during the start of preparations for Beijing last year. (contains swearing)
i for one would love to see cav and his team up against cippo and his red train at the height of their powers, what a last 5k that would be!
would that be with cippo on the gear or off it?
in the 'anatomy' skin suit with laurel crown and toga 🙂
I like Cav, he calls things as he sees them. He's a bit arrogant, but he's got the results to back that up and I don't believe you can be truly successful as a sprinter without that sort of attitude. It'd be like asking a boxer to be all lovey-dovey over his opponents, they could do it, but don't expect them to win a fight.
His team must love him right now: the first thing he does after a stage win is wait for each of them to cross the line to say thanks, then he credits them in every interview, and I bet they all get a share of the cash for the stage win. He was spot on in yesterday's interview, he might have a few things to improve on but his team is working perfectly to deliver him to the right point to win the stage in every sprint. As a sprinter, or a team supporting a sprinter, I doubt life can get much better.
WRT the green jersey, Cav's been pretty open about his primary goal for this year's tour being to win stages and get to Paris to win the final stage. If the green jersey comes with that then it's a bonus. If he manages to do what he wants this year, I reckon you'd see him going for intermediate sprints as well in next year's tour, but he wants to finish one first. Don't be fooled into thinking the green jersey doesn't mean anything to him, I suspect that the further through this tour he gets and the more likely it is he'll finish, the more he'll want the jersey as well as the stage wins.
Just to put things into perspective, both in relation to the fabulous Cav and the legendary Lance - Eddy Merckx won his first TdF by a record 17 mins and 54 secs and in the process won both King of the Mountains and Points jerseys (as well as Yellow, obviously). Had there been a young riders' white jersey he would have won that as well.Is there anywhere that explains a bit about the tdf? I have only just worked out cav is doing well although he is nearly 2hrs down on the lead time!
I the earlier interviews in this year's Tour, Cavendish was playing down his hopes for the Green jersey. From what he said, I thought he had it in mind, but team orders were to go for stage wins and not the jersey so that's the line he was taking.
i guess he can be as outspoken as he wants as long as his legs keep backing him up 😉 good luck to the lad. and from what ive heard he is very up for the green jersey . fingers crossed 😉
Just to put things into perspective, both in relation to the fabulous Cav and the legendary Lance - Eddy Merckx won his first TdF by a record 17 mins and 54 secs and in the process won both King of the Mountains and Points jerseys (as well as Yellow, obviously). Had there been a young riders' white jersey he would have won that as well.
But it was a very different race in those days.
from what ive heard he is very up for the green jersey
We'll know he's up for the Green when he starts going for intermediate sprints.
But it was a very different race in those days.
Testing methods were very different in those days.....
Merckx could only win the races he was in at the time, different or not. He is easily the greatest ever bike racer - just trying to highlight what a massive range of achievement there is to match up to.
Looks like Cav now is at the very least seriously considering green:
12:25 - 177km - The answer is yes. Cavendish from Hushovd and Casar at Channes!! So Cavendish has the green jersey with 182 points with Hushovd in second with 173 after that sprint. Full points standings (before that sprint)
12:20 - 180km - Sprint coming up, will Cavendish go for it with the group together? This is what he said yesterday: "It seems to be an unspoken agreement that we won't risk chasing two points. With Thor fifth, I've got a bigger advantage over him but it's still going to be hard because we've seen how good he is: he can get in a break over the mountains but I'm still not going to change my game plan. It's working." Video: Cavendish interview after stage 11
[url] http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/cycling/livematch/281270.html [/url]
Had a feeling he was taking it more seriously after his interview yesterday. After all, he has almost achieved his stage win aims now (would probably be happy just to win the last one).
Good article looking at Cav's success: [url= http://bicycling.com/blogs/boulderreport/2009/07/15/is-cavendish-a-goat/ ]http://bicycling.com/blogs/boulderreport/2009/07/15/is-cavendish-a-goat/[/url]