All or nothing for Cav and the Brits - and thus they choose nothing

Well it was certainly an interesting race. No radios, small teams, narrow roads and tactics as plain as the nose on Postman Pat's face (my kids like to think Wiggo looks like Postman Pat. Not sure who's the black and white cat, though). Unsurprisingly it all went exactly as expected - everyone attacked the Brits, yet the Brits stuck resolutely, doggedly, determinedly to Plan A. Get Cavendish to the line, first.

So what went wrong? Well David Millar reckons it was Cav's fault, basically, although he didn't say that exactly:  

Millar Left With No Complaints Despite Cavendish Missing Olympic Gold | Cyclingnews.com

With 50 kilometres to race and just one ascent of Box Hill remaining, the British seemed in control. A break had gone clear but after over five hours of racing, the gap was less than one minute as legs began to tire. However new impetus was added when a second contingent of riders attacked on the climb to create a 33-man group.

"We were always working at Mark's pace, so we couldn't react to those things and that was never our plan," said Cavendish's teammate David Millar.

The British team had been clear over its race strategy, telegraphing its tactics in a press conference last week. It was all for Cavendish, with David Brailsford saying, the sprinter was "plan A and all the rest of the letters of the alphabet," too.

My emphasis there, but I would deduce from that quote that Cav's pace wasn't ideal, then?

So what did Cav think went wrong?

Cavendish Misses Olympic Glory In Men's Road Race | Cyclingnews.com

"We did everything we could. The crowd was tremendous the whole way around, but the Aussies just raced negatively. The team were incredible. They left everything out on the road. I am so proud of them. We didn't expect any help. We rode the race we wanted to ride. We couldn't pull the group back on Box Hill. Other teams were content that if they didn't win, we wouldn't win. We expected it. If you want to win, you've to take it to them."

My emphasis, again. It wasn't Cav's fault, nor his one-idea Team of champions. It was the Aussies. Having O'Grady orchestrating the first break and coming, umm, 6th, plus Rogers trying his own attack was clearly not a positive in Mark's eyes, who came, umm, 29th.

And the truth? Well there is more than a little truth in the other teams wanting to negate the Manxman's sprint and thus being prepared to leave their own sprinters stranded, waiting for the Brits to close the gap. But they all wanted a medal, too. Trouble was, no-one wanted to tow Cav (and Greipel) up to the front so they can fight it out for 1st and 2nd, either. It was a stalemate.

And good on Vino for attacking and closing his checkered yet always interesting career with Olympic gold.      

I almost agree with Mark Cavendish. Am I going mad? A balanced view on India and the Commonwealth Games

Given the intensely critical and largely anti-Indian drivel written and broadcast prior (and during) the Commonwealth Games it's somewhat refreshing to read Mark Cavendish's honest and balanced opinion. Whilst I may not say it exactly the same way I tend to agree with the overall tone. The lead-up to the Beijing Olympics was similar with the old media focused on the delays, disease, displaced homeless and poor air quality rather than the opportunity. Yes, these are common problems in developing nations. And so it is with these games and the host, India. Of course it hasn't been plain sailing and there are problems, and it may all go pear-shaped from here. But for mine I think India is doing a great job - and for such an enormous time-critical project it appears to be going - if not perfectly - quite well.

I'm sure they'd do even better if they had the surfeit of public resources that the Western so-called "developed" nations have. Indeed what the Western nations - or at least their old guard media - haven't developed is a sense of decency and fair play in their reporting. That doesn't mean covering up, it means balance. Bravo to Mark C. for his remarks.     

Cavendish Frustrated By Lack Of New Contract Deal With HTC-Columbia | Cyclingnews.com

“We’re in India,” said Cavendish. “It’s not a Western country. “I think it's quite ignorant to assume we were going to going to be in a Western-style country. I've been to India before on holiday - I knew what it was going to be like."

“I think it's ignorant not to respect the way those countries are, it's how it is. The reason India's got the Commonwealth Games is because it's a developing country, so you can't expect it to be like going to Hong Kong or something."

Le Tour 2010 - Stage 18 - An otherwise dull day. TT aside, we turn to Thor and Alejet for escape from the predictable

Another fizzer, unless you like a rest day on wheels. Yeah, I know, (a) easy to say, harder to do and (b) gotta admire someone who can repeatedly win at this level, even if it means admiring Cavendish. A bit.

I think I need a ride myself. TT aside, we turn to Thor and Alejet for escape from the predictable. Anyone? Vino again with a late attack? Or will McEwen repeat his first win in Paris, when he said farewell to Rabobank in the best possible way?

Tour De France: Stage 18, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

The closing sprint was the only excitement on an otherwise dull day, and even it was pretty much of a foregone conclusion. Sky led the way into the final kilometre, hoping to set up Edvald Boasson Hagen, but the young Norwegian couldn't hold his own against the top sprinters.

Petacchi Retakes Green Jersey | Cyclingnews.com

Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) was unable to match Mark Cavendish's late burst of speed on the banks of the Garonne in Bordeaux but the Italian veteran made sure he finished third and so took back the green jersey from Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam), who was only a distant fourteenth.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

Under the final kilometer banner and Sky was still on the front. Oscar Friere loomed in the back, the front end fattened up some and Thor got through with some of his teammates. Cav was right where he needed to be, so was Petacchi. Cervelo led out Hushovd perfectly and then the big names got launched and Thor faded quickly. Petacchi cut left and Cav chased his wheel, enjoying the Italian slipstream.

A second later Cav launched to the right and was gone, having time to almost taunt the rest of the field by looking over his shoulder not once, not twice, but three times before sitting up and sticking his fists in the air. Petacchi slipped in for 3rd, and that was enough to take the green jersey off of Hushovd’s shoulders. Thor’s job just got pretty tough with only the stage to Paris remaining to get points back.

A blizzard of words on Renshaw's expulsion from Le Tour

Bathurst won't be a happy place this morning, will it? But you can't get into a guy's head and read his thoughts: the judges have to go with what they see. And we all saw what they saw.

addicted2wheels

So 2 strikes against Renshaw, really - headbutting to possibly protect Cav's gap, and then impeding Farrar, intentionally or not. Still I didn't think "exclusion from tour", rather "fine and loss of points". Oh well, I can see both sides... but it does make things more interesting again, doesn't it? (I hope the race judges didn't have that thought, too.)

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

Carmichael: Instead of continuing forward side by side, the two leadout men made contact with each other. This in itself is not unusual or against the rules. Contact happens, and it’s usually shoulders and elbows pushing against each other. Renshaw escalated this normal situation to one that drew the attention of the race officials by repeatedly hammering his helmet into Dean’s shoulder. One tap with the helmet, OK. You won’t get in trouble for that. It will seem like you’re just keeping the other guy at a safe distance. But leaning on a rider and using your helmet as a hammer is viewed as being aggressive and unsportsmanlike.

Renshaw claims that Dean was moving over in his direction, forcing him closer to the barriers. I know things look and feel different in the heat of the moment, but from the replays I saw – and that the officials were viewing as well – it doesn’t appear that Dean was encroaching on Renshaw. What is more likely is that Renshaw knew that with Dean on his right and Garmin sprinter Tyler Farrar on Dean’s wheel, the only lane Cavendish could use to get to the finish line was to Renshaw’s left. That meant Cavendish was going to have to sprint between Renshaw and the barriers.

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Carmichael: Some people are pointing to Renshaw’s move to the left after Cavendish passed him as a second instance of unsportsmanlike conduct, since it impeded Tyler Farrar’s progress toward the finish line. If anything, I’d say that was a more severe infraction than the head butting. As a sprinter or a leadout man, he was supposed to continue in a straight line – or at least if he moved off his line it shouldn’t have been in a manner that impeded another sprinter from challenging for the stage win. Renshaw opened up the lane to his left for Cavendish, and then slammed the door shut on Farrar by moving to the left. Normally I don’t like it when riders take their hands off the bars to push someone out the way, but I think Farrar prevented a potentially very serious crash by reaching out and stopping Renshaw from moving any farther to the left.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

With a little head-butting from Renshaw to Dean, this opens the door for Cavendish to go early, Petacchi sees the move too late and can’t get on terms with the flying Manxman who has a bike length in hand.

Dean wanted to close the door on Cavendish to let Farrar come round on the other side, but Renshaw kept it cool and the gap was there with 350 meters before the line for Cav to go for a longer sprint than he would normally want, it worked and no one could get near him.

Robbie McEwen (mcewenrobbie) on Twitter

history will now show that combining the 2 aforementioned tactics will get u sent home...greater than the sum of it's parts

SBS: Tour de France 2010: Renshaw booted from Tour

in the final 500 metres of the 184.5km stage from Sisteron, the normally affable Australian lost his head when he tried to headbutt Garmin-Transitions' Kiwi lead-out man Julian Dean three times.

Cavendish eventually raced on towards his third stage win of the race, and 13th of his career, as Renshaw then produced another blatant blunder by trying to block Dean's sprinter, Tyler Farrar, as the American tried to come up the inside of the barriers.

Top race official Jean-Francois Pescheux said they only needed to look at the television pictures once to make their decision.

"Renshaw was declassified immediately but we have decided to also throw him off the race," said Pescheux.

"We've only seen the pictures once, but his actions are plain for all to see. They were blatant. This is a bike race, not a gladiator's arena."

SBS: Tour de France 2010: Renshaw booted from Tour

"The guy (Dean) came across from me. Either he keeps turning left, puts me in the barrier and I crash, or I try to lean against him," he said.

"I didn't have another option. It's all about sprinting straight."

Although saddened by the decision, Cavendish laid some of the blame on Dean, claiming the Kiwi "hooked his elbow over Mark's right elbow".

"Mark used his head to try and get away. There's a risk when the elbows are that close (that) the handlebars are going to tangle," said Cavendish.

"That puts everyone behind in danger. Mark (Renshaw) gave us a bit of space that kept us upright."

Le Tour - Stage 11 - Rest day on wheels ends in head banging and expulsion. Harsh but fair?

First time I saw the sprint I thought Renshaw had gone a bit overboard. It happens in a sprint, though. Things happen fast, you protect your line and hold your ground. I rewound the tape (OK, it was on a HDD but you know what I mean) and watched it a few times. Dean provoked it, possibly - he certainly had an elbow out, but whether that was to instigate and intimidate or to fend off Renshaw I can't be sure. Either way the two of them were veering towards the barriers, or the road narrowed - again I can't say; but Renshaw seemed justified in holding his line and ensuring that he didn't hit the barriers. Of course he was also ensuring that he left a gap for Cavendish. I'm not sure what was the more important to him, only he would know that. Whether that justifies repeated headbutts I'm not so sure. Whilst all of this is going on Lampre looks to go for it, and simultaneously Cav comes off Renshaw and dives through the gap.

Now it gets really interesting as Farrar wasn't on Dean's wheel like he probably should've been. Instead he was following Cav. At that point Renshaw realised that Cav had gone - I think it surprised him as he seemed to be preparing to sprint himself and launch Cav a bit further on - but now he needed to sprint to take points off Hushovd. So he naturally chased Cav's wheel to the left, as you would. You see a wheel and you grab it. But in so doing he impeded Farrar. Now in some sports that could be seen as a foul, but was it intentional? Did he know Tyler was coming? The more I looked at it the less convinced I was that the intention was to block Tyler Farrar. Whilst it's just a racing incident it was probably within the last 200m and thus an illegal change of line... in any case it looked bad to the judges. 

So 2 strikes against Renshaw, really - headbutting to possibly protect Cav's gap, and then impeding Farrar, intentionally or not. Still I didn't think "exclusion from tour", rather "fine and loss of points". Oh well, I can see both sides... but it does make things more interesting again, doesn't it? (I hope the race judges didn't have that thought, too.)

Renshaw Kicked Out Of Tour De France | Cyclingnews.com

Renshaw was told that he had been disqualified by Cyclingnews reporter Jean Francois Quenet. His immediate reaction was: "I can't be out of the Tour de France if Barredo and Costa only got a fine a few days ago."

"I'm extremely disappointed," he continued. "I'm extremely harshly done by the decision of the jury. I've never had anything against me in the past. I've never done anything wrong. The process of this decision is abnormal. There's no possibility of appeal to this decision."

Cavendish Unhappy With Renshaw's Ejection | Cyclingnews.com

From there Cavendish moved on to face the press, and it was immediately clear that his post-stage euphoria had gone. Asked straight off about the commissaire's decision to throw Renshaw out of the Tour, he responded: "I understand the commissaires have made their decision. It's against what we as a team believed happened. So we'll just have to see how the situation evolves. It's very sad."

Cavendish Unhappy With Renshaw's Ejection | Cyclingnews.com

Cavendish then described his view of the final stages of the run into Bourg-lès-Valence. "We came around the last corner in a good position. Bernie [Eisel] went to lead out and Mark was on his wheel, and Julian Dean came around on the right and put his elbow from the left over Mark's right. Mark used his head to get away. There's a risk when your elbow's that close that you could end up in a tangle and that puts everybody behind in danger. And Mark gave us a bit of space, which kept everybody behind upright."

Vaughters Says Renshaw Disqualification Was Fair | Cyclingnews.com

"I saw the video and I think it's a fair decision,' Vaughters told Cyclingnews.

"I would never want to see one of our riders doing that. I understand that sprints are very hotly contested and I understand it's a long hot, hard Tour but you can't do that."

Vaughters was angry how Renshaw first head-butted Dean and then also clashed with Farrar.

"It's the head-butting and then he put Tyler into the barriers after. I understand it's intense competition but we all have to respect the rules," he said.

Farrar And Dean Furious With Renshaw Over Tour Sprint | Cyclingnews.com

Renshaw, leading Cavendish into the final few hundred metres of the stage was seen head-butting Garmin-Transitions lead-out man Julian Dean and then squeezing Dean's charge Tyler Farrar into the barriers, impeding his sprint.

The American rider was furious after crossing the line, even though he was able to recover and sprint on to third place. "That wasn't a good sprint from Renshaw; that wasn't normal. Renshaw shouldn't be riding like that. It's so dangerous. I almost crashed," Farrar said.

Le Tour 2010 - Stage 6 - Cav find his legs and is suddenly 'untouchable'? Renshaw did the hard work. McEwen down after the finish line

Untouchable is overdoing it. Actually a lot of HTC Columbia riders worked hard to get the bunch together, and then Lampre and Garmin did their best to make it interesting. But they lacked the killer punch in the final kilometer. They got gaps but also gapped their own guys, allowing other teams to bridge up. Whilst it looked promising, it was HTC's Renshaw who picked his way along the stepping stones, finally sprinting at full pace to bridge the last gap, not letting up until he had got Cavendish into a clear launch position. No-one else got a leadout like that, and they were left in the dust.

Call it good timing or just great teamwork, it was like watching Geert Steegmans launching McEwen four years ago - when it went right it went spectacularly right. Of course the flip side was when Geert went too early and Robbie got caught before the line. And of course Steegmans harboured ambitions to win sprints of his own, so the partnership was shortlived. Arguably neither rider has prospered to the same degree since, despite briefly reuniting at team Katusha.

Cav will be hoping that HTC can keep the bottle on Renshaw's own ambitions for a while, ensuring that a successful combo is kept alive. Although plenty of others will be seeing Renshaw as hot property in his own right.    

Tour De France: Stage 6, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

Untouchable. Just 24 hours after taking his first win of this year's Tour de France, Mark Cavendish equalled the record of his sprinting mentor, Erik Zabel, and with a superb sprint in Gueugnon indicated that yesterday was no fluke for the Isle of Man's greatest cycling export, who now has 12 Tour de France stage victories to his name.

Gert Steegmans - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Although Steegmans was already known in Belgium, he gained more popularity outside Belgium as he piloted Robbie McEwen to two stage wins during the 2006 Tour de France.

During the second stage of the 2007 Tour de France, a Liquigas rider fell sideways in the last 3 kilometres causing others to fall. Around 20 riders fell blocking the entire road and leaving approximately 30 riders to sprint for the victory, eventually taken by Steegmans in his home country ahead of his compatriot and team-mate Tom Boonen, who took over the green jersey by coming second in the stage.

On July 6, 2008, it was announced Steegmans signed a two-year contract with Tinkoff Credit Systems.[1] In the Tour de France, he won the prestigious stage at Champs-Élysées. Team Tinkoff later folded under that name, and the management and ridership re-emerged as Team Katusha.

Fight Breaks Out After Tour Stage 6 | Cyclingnews.com

Robbie McEwen had his own reasons to be upset after stage 6 after another incident. The Katusha rider's bad luck at the Tour de France continued when he collided with someone from the race organization at the end of the same stage. The Australian was taken to a hospital after the incident, but no fractures were found.

"[I] got taken out at 60kph by a podium chaperone 75m after the finish," tweeted an irate McEwen. "He literally jumped in front of me and ran into me. Nothing broken."

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

Under 1km and Garmin swooped to the front and took control. A right hander and then a quick left, with Julian Dean leading out Robbie Hunter at the very front, with the elbowing going on behind. Mark Renshaw came out of nowhere at 500m to go with Cav on his wheel and Farrar back in the mix glued to Cav.

Le Tour 2010 - Stage 5 - Elbows, emotion, new tactics, better timing and more luck brings Cav the win

It didn't look like a great plan but it worked. Early commitment to the chase, commitment to position and better timing opened up the gap. Once he got a sniff he didn't back off, unlike Stage 4's "switch-off". He just went.

Throwing Elbows Part Of The Job For Renshaw | Cyclingnews.com

"And if Thor thinks I’m going to give him the wheel with 500m to go, come on - that’s my job [to hold the wheel in front]. Thor knows that - I’ve been on a team with him.

"There’ll be no hard feelings later," added Renshaw. "We’re good mates, we train together every second day in Monaco. He might be a bit angry now, but that’s sport."

Renshaw admitted that the team had had to compromise its efforts in the finale, after committing men to the earlier pursuit of the break. "A few teams didn’t want to help chase, so we had to use Tony Martin early, which was a pity," he said.

"We shouldn’t have had to commit Tony Martin with 6k to go, or Michael Rogers, but as I said yesterday, we’re a few guys short. We had to compromise, to use different tactics. It shows how bad we wanted this win."

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

I don’t know the specifics of how Mark Cavendish deals with pressure, but on the way to becoming a successful champion, all top athletes develop a method that works best for them. Some simply don’t read the papers and stay away from the internet. Others decided how much of that information they want to see – and from what sources – and then tune out the rest. There are others who read everything and talk to everyone because they feed off it and channel it into incredible performances. How important is it to develop an ironclad method for dealing with pressure? There may be nothing that’s more important. I would say that the ability to cope with or thrive under the pressure that comes with success is one of the limiting factors that determines whether an athlete who is physiologically capable of being a champion, actually becomes one.

PezCycling News - What's Cool In Pro Cycling

Renshaw took Cavendish through to the front and set the sprint for his man. All happy in the HTC camp today, there won’t be any tantrums at the team bus tonight, but a tearful Cavendish on the podium.

Le Tour 2010 - Stage 4 - The old guard prove to be more experienced at this game. What a surprise.

Cavendish had some spectacular leadouts in last year's Tour. The final stage into Paris being the extreme example - a perfect leadout that took advantage of the correct line through the last bend, something almost everyone else failed to do, followed by immediate acceleration to top speed. No hesitation, just the perfect launch. Cavo had no problem taking advantage and capitalising. But this year - so far - he has failed to get a good lead out. Either he has lost contact with his lead out man, Renshaw, or failed to jump out of his slipstream at the right time. It's still early days and everyone is shocked and stunned after 3 brutal road stages, but stage 4 really highlighted the problem. In contrast Petacchi and his leadout team have weathered the storm better and are showing more skill in jumping at the right time. They are also disrupting the HTC train, something no-one could do last year on a regular basis. Indeed last year HTC looked and worked more like the Petacchi or Cipollini trains from last decade, and it worked. This year HTC are trying to get it together but missing a link somewhere, with a resultant lower launch speed. It's that failure to launch from top speed that's allowing other teams to get in there and jump first.  McEwen almost capitalised on Petacchi's initiative, too. So there is life in those old, experienced legs after all.

Cavendish and team will no doubt come back, but it must be disappointing to the HTC team to see him just switch off like he did, though. It sends a surprising message: I'm not serious about the green jersey, guys. Bring on Stage 5!

Tour De France: Stage 4, Route Maps & Results | Cyclingnews.com

The champagne would be flowing for Petacchi following his second stage win in this year's Tour. Amongst those other experienced hands animating the finish of stage four were Danilo Hondo, Julian Dean and Robbie McEwen, the latter jumping out of the pack with Petacchi at the 200m mark to ambush Mark Cavendish, who was swamped when lead-out man Mark Renshaw swung off in the finale.

The 'Manx Missile' lacked the speed to which fans became accustomed during last year's Tour and while his HTC-Columbia teammates pulled together well - as they usually do - in the closing kilometres of today's stage, the myriad crashes and unsettled nature of this opening week may have taken their toll on Cavendish.

Riders send a message to Cavendish after his crash-thru sprint (zagging all over the road) followed by a dummy-spit

Sprinters tend to be fiery, edgy characters but they usually have at least some sense of self-preservation, especially when they reach pro level. But they (and we) all make mistakes. When there's something at stake - like a sniff of victory - sprinters tend to throw caution to the wind and go for gaps that perhaps aren't there or make moves they regret later. McEwen himself has been accused of recklessness in the past but as a successful, experienced pro-rider he has earned some stripes in this debate. And when asked by a reporter what he thought about Cavendish's actions yesterday he was measured but forthright. Cav was wrong to swerve into Haussler and even more out of order with his petulant behaviour afterwards.

McEwen Ready For Tour De France | Cyclingnews.com

"There's a fine line between right and wrong in sprinting," McEwen said, "and it was definitely crossed yesterday."

The riders staged a brief protest at the start of today's stage to send a message to Cavendish not only for causing the crash, but for reacting to criticism by spitting on the ground.

"The one minute delay at the start today was a signal from his peers that what happened yesterday, the spitting incident after the crash in particular, is not acceptable and I'm sure he understands the message."

Cavendish has not been winning this season with the ease that he experienced last year, and McEwen thinks the pressure has gotten to him.

Cavo bitter about 9th place

From the "oh please" category... "The biggest regret of my career is quitting the Tour. I was fighting for the green jersey. I could have potentially won on the Champs-Élysées. I made a commitment to the track team and they didn't give anything back."

Who made the choice to stop? Who chose the Olympics over a green jersey? Who actually cares?

Giro 2008: the fastest doesn't always win

Don't you hate that? Even when you are clearly the fastest in the sprint, gaining ground with every pedal stroke and making everyone else look slow, the line comes up too early... and you come anywhere from 2nd backwards. Ouch. How do you fix this, it just isn't fair!

Now it's happened to Cavendish: Coming into the final turn, Bennati had already taken the lead with McEwen right behind, and Cavendish was left chasing for the win. He made a strong comeback and thrust his bike at the line, but was just millimetres shy of the win. "The team worked really well, but Bennati had 10 metres on me out of the corner," stated Cavendish. "A few metres after the line, I had it but that is no use."

And yes, it's no use complaining. Bennati must have gone at exactly the right time, and McEwen must have faded just a tad. And Cavo is left 2nd.

Giro 2008: nice one for Cavendish

A good team result for High Road: Timing his final move perfectly and easily over-taking Daniele Bennati, Mark Cavendish thundered to his first ever Grand Tour stage victory today in Catanzaro Lungomare.

Not so good for Rabo: Graeme Brown, the Aussie Rabobank sprinter was feeling the effects of yeterday's fall. He finished 149th, 6 minutes and 39 seconds back, but said he hopes to recover. "My knee is pretty sore but I struggled though it," he stated. "I hope it will be okay in a few days. Today was pretty sore, it is pretty sore now."

No luck for the Aussies this year, not so far anyway, although McEwen is edging closer with a 7th today. And Matt Lloyd is still in touch on GC, just 1:19 back from Pellizotti. Unless a big escape takes place things look like staying as-is for now. Di Luca is also looking good, but there are plenty of hopefuls and we haven't seen what Soler can do yet.