Jump to content
  • Sign up for free and receive a month's subscription

    You are viewing this page as a guest. That means you are either a member who has not logged in, or you have not yet registered with us. Signing up for an account only takes a minute and it means you will no longer see this annoying box! It will also allow you to get involved with our friendly(ish!) community and take part in the discussions on our forums. And because we're feeling generous, if you sign up for a free account we will give you a month's free trial access to our subscriber only content with no obligation to commit. Register an account and then send a private message to @dave u and he'll hook you up with a subscription.

2021 Tour de France


dockers_strike
 Share

Recommended Posts

16 hours ago, TheHowieLama said:

So a dude who is ostensibly clean - and 36 - is winning this thing?

 

9 hours ago, Kepler-186 said:

Mark Cavendish isn’t in contention for the overall Tour de France victory. He’s a sprinter, and picks up sprint stage victories. The overall leader wears the yellow jersey, and that’s based purely on time. Cavendish has now got 31 individual stage wins, but he’s not like a Froome, who rides to win the Tour overall. Cavendish won’t be anywhere near the front when they ride through the Alps or Pyrenees.
 

 

OK, I know nothing about cycling except for Lance Armstrong - who was drugged his whole life - let me re phrase - a 36 year old who is clean can pedal faster than any other fella in the world??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

 

 

OK, I know nothing about cycling except for Lance Armstrong - who was drugged his whole life - let me re phrase - a 36 year old who is clean can pedal faster than any other fella in the world??

Depends on the stage route.If it’s flat overall it favours the sprinters in the end. They have a team to help them get to the front just at the right time to then unleash the power. He’s won the last two stages, now has 32 at the Tour de France and like Wiggins and Froome it’s all been done in the post Armstrong era. The team manager dictates what to go for on each stage, and it depends on the make up of the team. They have riders who are expert climbers, and ones who just power through the kilometres and look after the “stars”. 
Started getting interested in it a while back, but I bought the official guide this year and it’s cleared up some of the tactics and vocab used, as a lot of it are French terms. 
It’s a huge sport in France, Belgium, Holland and so on, as well

as Spain and Italy.
 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@TheHowieLama

 

I’ve not heard of a big scandal like Armstrong or one of the big riders, but I only really tune into it for the Tour de France, although I had the Giro d’Italia on this year on Eurosport. 
 

@dockers_strike seems to be up on it as he’s started the 2 threads this year. Who was the last big name done for doping? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Kepler-186 said:

@TheHowieLama

 

I’ve not heard of a big scandal like Armstrong or one of the big riders, but I only really tune into it for the Tour de France, although I had the Giro d’Italia on this year on Eurosport. 
 

@dockers_strike seems to be up on it as he’s started the 2 threads this year. Who was the last big name done for doping? 

Of the 3 classics, Le Tour, the Giro and the Vuelta, I think Armstrong was the last big name proven to be doping but that was only proven about 7 years after he retired.

 

There were doubts over Bradley Wiggins using therapeutic use exemption for steroids or something to lessen the effects of his asthma or hay fever but while questions remain, the claims havent been proven to my knowledge.

 

Some French organisation went big a few years ago analysis of Chris Froome's piss claiming it had abnormal levels of testosterone or something.

 

@howielama asking how can a 36 year old like Cav beat supposedly fitter and younger men is an understandable question but overlooks what the Tour is.

 

Even excluding the time trial stages, every stage of the Tour is different be that in lengthy, a relatively flat stage, hilly stage or mountains. Each team has 8 riders. Some are literally workhorses, sacrificed to 'con' other teams in a breakaway, fetch the food and drink for other team members, usually a sprinter and a team leader, supposedly the one to carry the overall chance of winning the Tour.

 

So some days, a stage may favour the sprinters, or riders who are ace going up steep hills and mountains etc. Although a stage may favour sprinters, they arent riding at sprint speed from start to finish. Effectively, the other riders in his team will pace him for most of the stage plus effectively shield him from most headwinds.

 

Cav is just fucking fast. He's been unlucky with injuries and illness the last 4 or 5 years. But his two recent sprint finishes are numbers 31 and 32 on the Tour overall.

 

To say Cav's 36 so how's he beating younger men is a bit like asking how Usain Bolt won so many 100m races against younger men or how does Federer win so many tennis titles against younger men.

 

The answer is, they're just so fucking good. Cav's won the first couple of sprint stages but it's no means certain he'll win most of them even if I hope he does!

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

 

To say Cav's 36 so how's he beating younger men is a bit like asking how Usain Bolt won so many 100m races against younger men or how does Federer win so many tennis titles against younger men.

 

The answer is, they're just so fucking good. Cav's won the first couple of sprint stages but it's no means certain he'll win most of them even if I hope he does!

I think you are right here - same with golf.

 

Why do you think there is such a stigma to fellas playing an unnamed sport (on the GF) being over even, say 30?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, TheHowieLama said:

I think you are right here - same with golf.

 

Why do you think there is such a stigma to fellas playing an unnamed sport (on the GF) being over even, say 30?

Not here mate , I am 61 and if a mobile number comes up that I dont recognise I assume it's Michael Edwards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let's not forget that Cavendish is winning bunch sprints only, he is not winning any other type of stage, usually he just sits on the bus, conserves his energy and when mountains come, he will be focusing chiefly on not getting eliminated from the race. So at 36, he is the most experienced sprinter, he is extremely tactically astute, as the best sprinter he usually has the best lead out man and team to put him in the best position etc. Plus he was always the fastest or thereabouts over the last 300 yards, so if he stays upright and has worked hard to prepare, it is not such a miracle to win again at his age. He is effectively racing against 10 or 12 guys at the most who are in his speed category, and half of them either work for him or must work for his competitors in a bunch sprint.   

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today is a rest day for the Tour riders so, here's an article hacked from behind the torygraph paywall on Cav.

 

It has been an extraordinary return to form for Cavendish, who has won two sprints already at this year’s Tour de France to claim the green jersey and move to within two stages of Eddy Merckx’s all-time record. But how did it happen? 

 

How did a 36-year-old without a team eight months ago, and without a win in almost three years, rediscover his mojo? Tom Cary explains how the love and support of his family, the faith of Patrick Lefevere, the firepower of Deceuninck-QuickStep’s famed ‘Wolfpack’, a new coach, and a new bike all helped to get the Manx Missile back on track.

Self-belief

While others may have lost faith in him, Cavendish never lost faith in himself. Even during the dark times, when he was at loggerheads with his teams, or nursing injuries, or battling mental health demons, he continued to insist - when asked - that he felt he could compete at the top level. His training numbers were good, he would say, he just needed a clear run of fitness and races to build himself back up. 

 

He continued to work incredibly hard to prove it, too, flogging himself on training camps near his house in Quarrata in Italy, or hitting the turbo in lockdown. It speaks volumes for Cavendish’s self-belief and love for the sport that he never walked away because he certainly didn’t continue for the money.  

Family

Arguably the most important factor, at least in terms of his mental health. Although Cavendish has extraordinary reserves of self-confidence, there were of course times when it wavered. He was diagnosed with clinical depression in August 2018, shortly after he was forced to abandon that year’s Tour after missing the time cut on stage 11 (little did he realise it at the time but he was in fact still struggling with the effects of Epstein-Barr virus). 

At these moments the support of his family was crucial. Cavendish may show a spiky, sometimes even bolshy, side of himself to the world at times, but he is a doting dad and incredibly proud of his four children: Finnbarr, Delilah, Frey and Casper. 

 

Lockdown, while frustrating, was an opportunity to connect with them on a deeper level and he clearly loved that, posting pictures of himself building model Power Rangers, or sitting at the sewing machine “putting a hem into a DIY den for the kids”, or with the whole family doing PE with Joe Wicks. 

 

After he won on Tuesday, a video his wife Peta sent him of his “cycling-obsessed” three-year-old Casper celebrating was like food for his soul. He was thrilled. Peta, he says, has been a rock during this time. “She has believed in me more than I have believed in myself at times,” Cavendish wrote in a Telegraph Sport column before the Tour started.

Patrick Lefevere

There is no chance this comeback would be happening were it not for Cavendish’s move to Deceuninck-QuickStep this year. Patrick Lefevere took a punt, offering the Briton a place on the team if he could bring a sponsor with him, which he duly did. “He gave me a chance when many in his position never would have and I will never, ever forget that,” Cavendish says.

The ‘Wolfpack’

With the return to QuickStep, Cavendish once again became part of the famed ‘Wolfpack’. The Belgian squad have a reputation as the best classics/one-day/sprint team in the world, and boast an incredible roster of riders including the current world champion Julian Alaphilippe, Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel, Tour of Flanders winner Kasper Asgreen, and a host of other hitters. The winning mentality in that team must be infectious. 

 

Cavendish has repeatedly said what an honour it is to be part of such a crack squad; to be led out by the likes of Alaphilippe, given his own aspirations in this race. Special mention must also be made of Michael Morkov, the Dane generally acknowledged to be the finest leadout man in the world.

 

Now that Cavendish has shown himself to be the fastest sprinter out here, they in turn are showing more and more confidence in him. It’s a virtuous circle. The confidence has seeped back allowing his legendary racecraft and instincts to come to the fore again. It has been like watching the old Cavendish this week.

New coach 

New team, new start. Cavendish has a new coach this year in the shape of ex-rider Vasilis Anastopoulos about whom he has been very complimentary. They actually raced each other on the track almost 20 years ago, at Revolution Series meetings. “When we first met, within five to 10 minutes there was a really strong connection between us,” Anastopoulos told Cycling Weekly

 

Cavendish, for his part, describes the Greek as “wicked, really chilled out”. Not too chilled out though. A photo of Cavendish collapsed in a heap in the Athens velodrome, which the Manxman posted on his Instagram feed earlier this year, provides a clue as to the kind of efforts Anastopoulos has him doing. Cavendish has spoken often in the past about how training on the boards helps to hone the speed in his legs. 

 

It was one of the reasons he gave for his four Tour stage wins for Dimension Data in 2016, having switched from Deceuninck-QuickStep the previous winter. In those days, QuickStep were rather less keen on their star sprinter spending time on the boards. They paid him to win road races, not help his Olympic aspirations. Clearly they know what’s best for him now. 

Specialised bikes

The final piece of the jigsaw. Cavendish has made no secret of the fact that he is happy to be back on a bike that “fits” him this year. He is riding a Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL7, fitted with Turbo Cotton clincher tyres, and despite a couple of issues - his saddle rails snapping mid-stage on Tuesday and his chain falling off after his sprint on Thursday - he is clearly delighted with it. 

 

Asked this week to explain his triumphant return, Cavendish thought for a moment. “You can call it excuse-making or passing the blame but I knew the ingredients I needed,” he said. “I needed a team that functioned as a team and I needed a bike that fitted me. I had neither of those things.”

 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2021/07/05/rebuilding-mark-cavendish-manx-missile-got-back-best-take-tour/

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the meantime, we are witnessing the emergence of possibly the most exciting talent in world cycling since the era of great champions.

 

I dread the day when the penny drops at Ineos that rather than fucking about with South Americans, Geraint Thomas, tactics, technical improvements and new ways of juicing, they can just sign Pogačar and dominate the Tour again, for the next ten years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tough day on the Tour for Cav. Made the time limit with minutes to spare and was even closer on Sunday!

 

Van Aert’s time on the stage dubbed ‘Mont Ven-two’ was 5 hours 17minutes 43 seconds placing the time limit at 47:39. All eyes were then focused on Cavendish after his struggles in the Alps on Sunday, when he snuck into Tignes with around a minute to spare and promptly broke down in tears. But he made it home this time with around seven minutes to spare, meaning the Manxman will have the chance to sprint for what would be a record-equalling 34th Tour stage win in Nimes on Thursday, assuming his Deceuninck-QuickStep team can bring the race back together.

 

“We knew today we were not going to be as close to the time limit as we were on Sunday, but still we had to be focused the whole day,” Cavendish said. “Everybody was there with me, helping me up and down the mountains. I’m very tired - I guess everybody is. I’ve done many Tours de France, but this for sure is one of the hardest.”

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Made up for him. Seems like a really likeable person. Unbelievable story.

 

Seemed like a good day, but I had to catch a train at 4, so missed it, hopefully watch the post race stuff later. 

 

If anyone could post a video of the finish, I would be very grateful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's amazing that Cavendish lasted so long, some 15 years. Everyone he raced in these bunch sprints 10 or so years ago seems to have retired a long time ago, except Greipel, who is, what, almost 40 now? And still occasionally finishing in the top 10 sprinters.

 

Which begs the question, where are all the new young sprinters? Sagan has also been boring the fuck of everybody with his uncontested green jersey intermidiate sprint points collection for years.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 09/07/2021 at 22:29, SasaS said:

It's amazing that Cavendish lasted so long, some 15 years. Everyone he raced in these bunch sprints 10 or so years ago seems to have retired a long time ago, except Greipel, who is, what, almost 40 now? And still occasionally finishing in the top 10 sprinters.

 

Which begs the question, where are all the new young sprinters? Sagan has also been boring the fuck of everybody with his uncontested green jersey intermidiate sprint points collection for years.

Im guessing many of the sprinters prefer the shorter track races to the grind of 150km a day?

 

Yeah, greipel is still in there, Sagan dropped out a stage or two back.

 

Rest day today, back in the saddle for the start of the final week tomorrow. Can Cav win one more stage to beat Merckx's and his record?

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share


×
×
  • Create New...