Hyde Park: the big screen showing the men's Olympic road race yesterday
Has Mark Cavendish reached his limit with Sky? Now that the Olympic men's race is over it may well be decision time for Mark Cavendish. Will he stay with Team Sky or will he be tempted to move away to a team that is dedicated, like HTC Columbia was, to helping Cav to win the sprints.
Doubtless Mark was happy to be in the Sky this year to help Bradley Wiggins be the first British rider to win The Tour de France. However, will he happy to work again as super-domestique fetching and carrying water bottles for the rest of Team Sky for a second year running? It seems unlikely as surely Cav will want to win as many stages as he can in the Tour and perhaps overhaul Eddy Merckx's record 34 victories, while Sky will want next year to concentrate on either helping Bradley to win for a second time or work for Chris Froome to take Yellow. Also with Sky Mark will have problems winning the Green Jersey again.
Will Mark Cavendish move from Sky – David Brailsford has acknowledged that Cav could go. If Cav does move I wonder what the chances are of reuniting with Mark Renshaw, his brilliant lead-out man when they were HTC Columbia together.
It was disappointing that the men's road race didn't come down to a big bunch sprint giving Cav a good chance to win a gold medal. It was, however, always going to be a big task for four riders to control the race. I can understand why other teams wouldn't work to bring the break back – Cav is just too fast for his own good! The Australians had someone in the break and André Griepel seemed to have lost some of his legs in the last week of the Tour. He was quite well back in the last two bunch sprints at Brive and on the Champs Elysées, so probably wasn't confident he could beat Cav on the Mall. Griepel did win the peloton bunch sprint but no real indication what would have happened had there been a full out bunch sprint for the medals.
Women's Road Race
This was considerably more exciting than the Men's race yesterday. Very fine ride by Lizzie Armitstead to get Silver and also excellent by Emma Pooley. Congratulations to the winner – Marianne Vos.
PS: Ludicrous security@Hyde Park
Ticketed spectators at the Hyde Park enclosed big screens not allowed to take any food or liquids into area. I was told it was due to security but surely had much more to do with persuading you to buy food and drink from the many stalls inside. Allowed to take in an empty small plastic or metal water bottle (no glass) but not with the top of a plastic bottle! Why?
Will Mark Cavendish move from Sky – David Brailsford has acknowledged that Cav could go. If Cav does move I wonder what the chances are of reuniting with Mark Renshaw, his brilliant lead-out man when they were HTC Columbia together.
It was disappointing that the men's road race didn't come down to a big bunch sprint giving Cav a good chance to win a gold medal. It was, however, always going to be a big task for four riders to control the race. I can understand why other teams wouldn't work to bring the break back – Cav is just too fast for his own good! The Australians had someone in the break and André Griepel seemed to have lost some of his legs in the last week of the Tour. He was quite well back in the last two bunch sprints at Brive and on the Champs Elysées, so probably wasn't confident he could beat Cav on the Mall. Griepel did win the peloton bunch sprint but no real indication what would have happened had there been a full out bunch sprint for the medals.
Women's Road Race
This was considerably more exciting than the Men's race yesterday. Very fine ride by Lizzie Armitstead to get Silver and also excellent by Emma Pooley. Congratulations to the winner – Marianne Vos.
PS: Ludicrous security@Hyde Park
Ticketed spectators at the Hyde Park enclosed big screens not allowed to take any food or liquids into area. I was told it was due to security but surely had much more to do with persuading you to buy food and drink from the many stalls inside. Allowed to take in an empty small plastic or metal water bottle (no glass) but not with the top of a plastic bottle! Why?
Riders on Box Hill shown on the big screen in Hyde Park
Maybe Olympian Pancho Campo could set up a team devoted to “take” Cav to the finishing line? I suggest Cancellara as ... driving force and the name of the new squad could be Cycloboost. Non e bello ?
ReplyDelete