Cav's on a diet: Here's why

[zizou]

The last couple of years he has gone into the tour with people questioning his form and whether he has lost his edge over the others. Even in the tour itself he has started off a bit slow in the early stages and lost out to riders like Farrar or Petachi prompting more doubts.

Admittedly all this is accompanied by criticism that he is looking a bit podgy rather than discussing how he has lost weight!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

And today he gets beaten into second by Boom. It does make his overall lead much safer with Greipel and Renshaw not in the lead group at all, but no-one can tell me he will happy with second and third places, he just isn't that kind of rider.

 

[montage]

And today he gets beaten into second by Boom. It does make his overall lead much safer with Greipel and Renshaw not in the lead group at all, but no-one can tell me he will happy with second and third places, he just isn't that kind of rider.

What was the stage like? The Team sky report says that it was an uphill finish - Flecha finished third and the results seem pretty split up into groups suggesting a harder course, so maybe this should be seen as a success of his weight loss rather than discredit to his recent sprinting form

 

[Flying_Monkey]

What was the stage like? The Team sky report says that it was an uphill finish - Flecha finished third and the results seem pretty split up into groups suggesting a harder course, so maybe this should be seen as a success of his weight loss rather than discredit to his recent sprinting form

That is the general point I am making, but Boom is just as much a pure sprinter as Cav. As I said though, he's going to have to get used to losing more often at least in the short term if he is transitioning to the kind of rider he needs to be to be more likely to win multiple green jerseys.

 

[zizou]

It was a lumpy stage with an uphill finish so i suppose he was doing well to contest the sprint, but definitely cant see him being too happy losing out again!

profile @ http://www.sterzlmtoer.nl/download/2012/hoogteprofiel_etappe_3_2012.gif

 

[Nearly there]

He seems happy to be in the gc jersey though

 

[montage]

I'd always considered Boom as more of an all rounder rather than a pure sprinter. I guess Cav just didn't have anything left for the sprint

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I'd always considered Boom as more of an all rounder rather than a pure sprinter. I guess Cav just didn't have anything left for the sprint

I guess he's still discovering exactly what he is in road terms... but yeah, he's a bit more of an all-rounder than Cav.

 

[raindog]

Cav has taken overall victory in the Ster ZLM
Is this a glimpse of the future for the new lightweight Cav?
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news...kes-career-first-gc-win-in-ster-zlm-toer.html

 

[yello]

It's just a bit weird innit? (not suggesting anything untoward at all, just that we're not used to it!)

A comment from Jens Voight (ripped off from YACF)....

Long bus transfer here, so i just keep writing.had an eyeopening experience yesterday in that hilly stage. Was like a little Liege Bastogne.

We are on the famous" la redoute" climb and 2 of my teammates just attacked and went of the front. Of course some counterattacks behind...

I try to keep them in check and its pretty sticky already, and there is 5riders just ahead of me, and then i look to side and guess what???

I see the worldchampion Marc Cavendish in his yellow jersey shifting 2gears bigger and just jumping to the counterattack, totally easy!!!

I could see how Cav thought" i know i am supposed to be a sprinter, but i dont care!!" And he crossed the Hilltop in first place.

I mean the biggest names in cycling used to fight and suffer with this hard and famous climb and then Cav comes along

Cav totally made this climb his bi..atch, i was sooo totally impressed to eyewitness that!! He is a champ, and watch out for him at olymics!

I recall reading a few years back that Cavendish aspires to the classics. He thinks those are real tests. That warmed my heart because it suggested there was a depth to him, a drive to not stick at the one thing he was known for - and, lets not forget, paid good money for.

That's why, when he signed with Sky, I saw it as a good thing. I thought his aspirations might be better met. Equally, it's why I think the talked about Cav/Wiggins conflict of Sky interests in the TdF is a short sighted (non) argument. Cavendish is more capable, wants to be more capable than the fastest man over 300m behind a lead out train.

 

[raindog]

I'm suitably impressed!

"I see the worldchampion Marc Cavendish in his yellow jersey shifting 2gears bigger and just jumping to the counterattack, totally easy!!!
I could see how Cav thought" i know i am supposed to be a sprinter, but i dont care!!" And he crossed the Hilltop in first place."

 

[rich p]

Interesting. Good for him.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Apparently, it is the first top level stage race he's won*... I like the new leaner Cav and it's the direction I'd been hoping he might go for quite a while. I just hope he can learn to like being second or third on stages that he used to win more often... he didn't even contest the sprint today because he didn't have to, so that's a good sign.

*I thought he'd won some Belgian race back in 2008, but I couldn't find it.

 

[Buddfox]

Hopefully he'll still give it the beans on the Champs Élysées...! Great result and enjoyed Jens' comments.

 

[rich p]

It's a compromise innit? Chris Hoy would win the sprints over the last 200 metres but he wouldn't be able to get there to contest them. Cav has been struggling to get over the mountains in the GTs lately and almost got DQed in last years tour. This leaner Cav might climb better and thus get to contest stages he'd otherwise be crawling in 10 minutes down. It'll be interesting. It was evident that he was willing and able to do long stints on the front of the peloton in the cause of Uran and Henao at the Giro. Not many sprinters would have done that, especially world champs. Good on him.