Got to be one of the best sporting comebacks, and after having been written off and crying last year that he felt it was his last race, come back and achieve that, plus amazing how well his lead out has worked for him, bearing in mind they would of been training with Sam Bennet for the Tour a fortnight ago and he would of been training with the B Team..
2 consecutive flat stages after Ventoux tomorrow.
Then hills and mountains until the end three - Sprint stage, TT, C-E
While a record on the C-E would be nice, I think Cav as well as anyone knows how easily the road can be whipped out from under you. Get through Ventoux tomorrow (do any of the other sprint teams try to press hard early - at the moment the only way to beat team Cav-DQS seems to be to not have him there in the finale, so try for a time cutoff play) - and then I think he'll take proper aim at the next two.
The Pyrenees will be hard again, harder than Ventoux and the risk of elimination ever present. Or a crash, or even a Covid test.......
And great as this has been, next year's another year again.
Best case scenario, he wins on C-E to make it 37. Greedy? No-one looks like stopping him so far.
What a lead out he had. The commitment from his team is so total and he is great to listen to afterwards. I can imagine that ASO will bend over backwards to make sure he gets through tomorrow
or even a Covid test……
unfortunately social distancing is not in Mark Cavendishs' vocab
I also wonder what effect his green jersey comment would have? Whether deliberate or not, is he inviting the others to fight for GJ points as that's the scraps he's prepared to let them have, just don't think you're getting a look in for stages?
Or to ASO that they can take the points off him if they like, him winning stages as the GOAT is pure box office.
Or to ASO that they can take the points off him if they like, him winning stages as the GOAT is pure box office.
He knows the value of that green jersey to him and to the team. They win that in Paris, Cav is back big time, his salary might get an extra 0 on it too - don't forget he's being paid far less than he commanded at the height of his career.
Rolling in 20 mins outside cut-off won't be an option, the whole team will be supporting him completely throughout the next 11 stages.
Besides, as with the World Champs course the year he won, this year of the Tour is very sprint favourable. I think the green jersey competition will actually be far better than yellow this year!
think there was a small mistake by Cav letting WvA up the inside and protection from the wind...
as the overhead shows he could have keot that door well an truely shut.
https://twitter.com/deceuninck_qst/status/1412443662424870917
Philipsen was finishing fast too! just too far back when he started his effort.
i think when you're doing that well, you can fight cleanly as power and confidence is at an all time high, to close the door that close to the line would be blocking, last thing he wants is a bad rep, points deducting or even worse causing a collision and being disqualified.
He had the team taking the wind, and he had the power to do it cleanly, so didn't need to be swerving across. If you look where Philpsen was and the course he had to take in travelling way over to the right, his straight line speed seems to have been the greatest?
Getting their backs up is one thing, them being able to do anything about it, well that's a different game.
Here's a question, would Bennet have performed any better? Arguably he couldn't have done much better, but would he have won more convincingly.
Do we think Cav would beat him in a straight sprint off?
I don’t reckon Specialized would like that, i don’t think he’ll need to pay for another bike or Oakley shades ever again!
I *suspect* he was already getting some stash for free!
I also wonder what effect his green jersey comment would have? Whether deliberate or not, is he inviting the others to fight for GJ points as that’s the scraps he’s prepared to let them have, just don’t think you’re getting a look in for stages?
Or to ASO that they can take the points off him if they like, him winning stages as the GOAT is pure box office.
He's always said the same, he doesn't go full gas in intermediate sprints for fear of compromising his final sprint. His focus has always been stage wins. Don't think there's anything more to read into it than that.
Here’s a question, would Bennet have performed any better? Arguably he couldn’t have done much better, but would he have won more convincingly.
Do we think Cav would beat him in a straight sprint off?
Probably not. In fact all other things equal he probably wouldn't beat most of his rivals in a straight sprint nowadays. But things aren't equal, he has the power of the wolf pack to deliver him there and that 8 man bromance has had me welling up a few times already.
Which brings me to another point. They're all pros and there's a fantastic DQS team ethic, but whether it's the WC squeezing another 200m out of dying legs, or hiding him from the wind, or towing him up a mountain to beat the cut off, DQS are giving everything for him. Bennett was already leaving the team, was starting to fall out a bit with them - would he have commanded the total devotion that Cav seems to have. Not saying they wouldn't work for him, but can you find those extra 200m of pull for someone you don't respect in the same way?
33 wins is amazing, but I think he'd be the first to say that he owes a lot of them to his lead out teams and none more so than this year.
nothing up yet. though there is a recap
ITV highlights on catchup once again a mess. Nothing up until 10pm, and at that point available on my Xbox app but not on iPad app or web. Guess I won’t be watching that, then.
it's usually repeated just after midnight on the main ITV channel, then again on ITV4 just prior to the live coverage the next day
Class is permanent