[Closed] TDF Stage 19 - SPOILER!!

michael - most sprinters seem to be screaming girly prima donas don't you think?

goes with the job

Gotta be said - that was my favourite Cav win (Team Columbia HTC)

yup, completely un-expected as well. i was about to go shopping but thought i'll just catch the last 10km (i'd not bothered watching it in the office) and lo and behold theres the Columbia Train in action 😀

almost makes up for the complete let down in Beijing

that fromsport link is rather good - Ozzie?

Shame the official killed the green jersey competition days ago.

Shame the official killed the green jersey competition days ago.

I subscribe to the opinion the Columbia HTC killed it off

hmm armstong got another 4 sec on wiggo

was that as a result of that last roundabout?

it was cav that killed it not the officials, a learning experience i hope

'I subscribe to the opinion the Columbia HTC killed it off'

Well there is that arguement 😐

last minute form eurosport:

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=1095451&ch=5127641&cl=14715115&src=ukyvideo

I like the way one of the riders bunny hopped first onto then off the roundabout and made up places. I can't tell if it was deliberate or he drifted wide, but it was impressive about 2k from the end.

Oh, and Cav wasn't the let-down in Beijing. Wiggo had been over-used and couldn't keep up in the Madison.

i don't really follow road riding but a quick look at the results seems a bit unfair that you can win 5 races and the competitor wins 1 yet he wins the competition. surely there should be a bigger emphasis on winning such as in football.

BigJohn - both a let down, both looked dog tired and in my eyes cav looked worse off.

what mmw said. Cav was equally ****ed, only Wiggins didn't start pointing the finger.

cav had time to recover for his ONE event. In fairness i think too much was asked of him last year by BC, he clearly didn't want to be there.

plus wiggo did a yeti impression for his official photo:

[img] [/img]

AND he got arrested for jumping over car bonnets 😆

Cav was robbed of the points the other day, he just held his line ti was the barriers that closed up on Thor not Cav, watch the helicoptor footage.

if you look at the way cav moves and where he is looking it is clear to me (and obviously to the officials) that he shut Thor off not necessarily to win the sprint, he could have just ridden up the road like he normally does, but to slow the whole lot down.

Either way he's young and i'm sure there are plenty of green jerseys for him to come 🙂

I take Phil Liggets' point on this one - Cav transgressed, there was no doubt in that, but to rob him of all points was disgraceful IMHO

even if ya lad did cut him off, its a race any tactics short of booting the opponent off there bike should be game. is the tour run by UCI? also why the **** does such a small sport cycling seem to have the worst organisers. The UCI should do one and let say red bull take over, they always put on a good show.

Another AWESOME day from Columbia HTC,

Finished off in fine fashion by CAV.

In answer to some peeps on here ... I just wish I was as rubbish as Cav at riding a bike up a hill 😉

P.S

I may be wrong but don't

ASO

run Le Tour not the UCI ?

almost makes up for the complete let down in Beijing
[/quote

That is so wrong its almost comical.

 

please do explain

P.S

I may be wrong but don't

ASO

run Le Tour not the UCI ?

yeah your probably right but they seem equally as inept as UCI. Anyone read about the fiasco over in US nationals? Any official cycling body seems unable to do a proper job.

sq225917
Cav was robbed of the points the other day, he just held his line ti was the barriers that closed up on Thor not Cav, watch the helicoptor footage.

tails
even if ya lad did cut him off, its a race any tactics short of booting the opponent off there bike should be game.

While I agree that I think Cav held his line and it was bad barrier design (covering road furniture?) that didn't help matters. I think the point of the UCI rules are to try and avoid things like the Abdoujaparov crash in 1991 (skip to 1:20 if you're hurried):

[url=

When the lead guys came through 5 mins before the bunch (Hincapie etc.) I saw the barriers and thought it was a fairly rubbish idea.

That said, there are plenty of other UCI rules that are crazy, and I think at at worst Cav and Thor's placings should have been reversed. That would have kept the competition alive rather that effectively killing it there and then.

please do explain

Track riding is a snall niche of a much bigger sport, any cyclist would want a tour stage rather than an olympic track medal. As for Cva's achievements well melan san remo all those tour stages... its no contest. Cav was pissed off as he sacrificed tour stages and potential Paris win in order to ride the olympics (a much smaller event in cycling) out of loyalty to British Cycling and they ****ed him over by not giving him a fresh partner.

so in what way does that not make his performance a let down?

we'd been led to believe that he was the all conquering sprinter (not least by him) and what we got was a disinterested dog tired looking performance.

I felt let down, the cyclists i was with felt let down, and the other British fans i was sat with trackside felt let down. Of course we had other things to celebrate 😀

Yeh, Cavendish could have got that lucrative Bran Flakes advert....

The Bran Flake brand has been devalued now 😉

This just in on ****ter!

lancearmstrong"Surprise" antidoping control here @ the hotel. #11 for this Tour. I'll consider it my appetizer b4 dinner.

This is taking the p**s surely? 🙄

This is taking the p**s surely?

into a little vial I think 😉

Nope Cav reckons he got tested in excess of 60 odd times last year! Now that is pretty stringent testing and good IME.

so in what way does that not make his performance a let down?

Thats not what you said "it almost makes up for the let down" which is bollocks it exceeds it by miles.

to you it does, i may have accidentally expressed a personal opinion. I shall report myself to the moderators forthwith. I shall also make sure that at ALL TIMES i put 😉 after my post to explain to those of a lesser intelligence that sometimes the people exaggerate on the internet

😉

Michael- a case of 'dope' testing if ever I heard?! 😆

So would any of the contributors who reckoned Beckingsale would beat Cav up Ventoux now care to change their opinion?

Everyone's happy!! 😉

[img] [/img]

Can't argue with the math, but its a bl**dy crime that Cav has won five stages but hushovd will in all likelihood walk away with the green.

Depends what you reckon the Green jersey is for. It's not all about winning stages - Thor has proved he can do that though, and hasn't been that far off Cav. Meanwhile he can also get over the hills and get points where Cav can't, which has really swung it for him. Assuming something strange doesn't happen and he does win it, I do hope he wins by more than the 15 point penalty Cav got, so there is no quibbling over it.

Thats true. In all honesty I'm being a little biased here. It takes a lot of effort to contest those intermediate sprints. Cavendish has obviously targetted stage wins over the points, while Thor has gone the other way so both should walk away happy. However, when one sprinter has been so dominant in a tour and won 5 (going on 6?) stages, it kinda deserves the green.

I'm sure he'll get his chance in the future once he's had a few more grand tours under his belt. Until he's gained the confidence that he can finish the three weeks strongly, its the smart move not to contest every sprint.

to you it does, i may have accidentally expressed a personal opinion. I shall report myself to the moderators forthwith. I shall also make sure that at ALL TIMES i put after my post to explain to those of a lesser intelligence that sometimes the people exaggerate on the internet

Obviously I have a lesser intelligence, but that posts sems contradictory to me. I may be thick but you clearly know **** all about pro-cycling like many of the people in this country. An example was last years sports personality awards in which the olympic team cleaned up and Cav who won 4 tour stages didnt get a mention. Crazy.

However, when one sprinter has been so dominant in a tour and won 5 (going on 6?) stages, it kinda deserves the green.

BTW it's nothing to do with contesting every sprint, and all to do with being able to get over the hills and be in a position to contest the sprints - something Hushovd has managed but Cav hasn't (apart from yesterday). If you want the real reason Cav isn't already in green though, look back at stage 6, where he lost 25 points to Hushovd, and more recent results suggest he really should have done a lot better there.