Le Tour de France 2014

[PotomacCyclist]

I remember another crash last year or in 2012 where Cavendish did something similar. I think he sort of head-butted another guy. I don’t remember if it was just the other person who crashed or if Cavendish went down too. I’ll have to look it up later.

This time, the cameras clearly show Cavendish leaning against Simon Gerrans, basically ramming his head into Gerrans’ armpit. There was another cyclist on Gerrans’ left, so he couldn’t move over. Then it appears that Cavendish’s front wheel contacts the wheel of Gerrans’ bike, causing the crash. Cavendish flipped over and landed on his right shoulder. Even though this was about 200m from the finish and there was a large group of sprinters and lead-out cyclists, only three riders went down. Some of them just missed riding over Cavendish and Gerrans.

Gerrans was able to return yesterday, but he has bruised ribs. He said it was nice that Cavendish apologized but it didn’t help take away the significant pain he was experiencing.

The reaction from observers hasn’t been that harsh against Cavendish, for some reason. Maybe because he was the one who got injured. Or because it was his mother’s hometown and he almost had a shot at winning the early stage and wearing the yellow jersey in England. He’ll probably never have that opportunity again. Plus he is getting older and he isn’t as dominant as he was a couple years ago.

[PotomacCyclist]

A recap of Stage 1 along with a brief video:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/cycling/tour-de-france-mark-cavendish-dislocates-collarbone-in-horror-crash-20140706-zsxu4.html

You can see Cavendish leaning into Gerrans in a couple of the clips.

[PotomacCyclist]

Today’s stage ran from Cambridge to London. I didn’t see much of the action, but I did see the impressive overhead shots of Cambridge University and central London. I also saw the final sprint finish. I think there was another crash, but not immediately before the finish. I did see two of the sprinters smack into each other from the side, but neither of them fell. It seems that Cavendish isn’t the only hyper-aggressive sprinter out there.

[Dickie]

I’ve been following Cav for many years, and I wouldn’t single him out as the aggressive sprinter because they are all aggressive sprinters. The mindset of a sprinter (as Paul Sherwin once described) is not unlike a boxers, they will stop at nothing to beat the crap out of anyone challenging them. Sprinters are missing that part of their brain that says to the rest of us “don’t do that, you can’t fit there, no way I’m making that turn”. Add to that Cav’s undeniable status as one of the greatest sprinters of all time and the massive target on his back it’s easy to see how a few examples of this behavior can be quickly referenced. Everyone wants their piece of Cav, to beat the best…. but if you look hard enough you will see examples of this from every sprinter.. they all believe it’s their right to win.

Ayrton Senna (The great F1 racer) once said; “…being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, we are competing to win. And the main motivation to all of us is to compete for victory, it’s not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. I race to win as long as I feel it’s possible. Sometimes you get it wrong, sure, it’s impossible to get it right all the time.”

[cyclingfool]

I’m with Dickie on this one. Cav looks really aggressive because he is really aggressive, but so are all the other sprinters. I saw a video from inside the peloton in the last couple weeks in the run in to a sprint finish… may have even come across it here. In any case, the amount of pushing, showing, elbowing, jockeying for position that was going on was even greater than what you expect to see based on the helicopter shots of the finishes from the TdF or other televised races. It was insane. Even as someone who’s been watching pro cycling for years, I was surprised by the amount and the degree of the argy bargy, as Paul Sherwen would say, including leaning on each other not unlike what Cav did at the end of Stage 1.

[PeteD]

Regarding the argy bargy, that’s all part of sprinting. The leaning/elbowing/shoving that happens happens. Cav’s just been a jackhole about it really up until he joined Sky. And, well, it was a very important stage, even made worse after last year’s crash on stage 1, then add on the UK and the familial ties, I can’t blame him for pressing and doing what he did, and he’s paid the price for doing what he did; no catching up to Eddie Merkx this year and no stage win on UK soil.

Can’t wait to see the injured wrist brigade take on the cobbles tomorrow. For Froome it’s not that bad, but seeing Niki Terpstra go down was really bad; high hopes for him tomorrow on the course (in reverse somewhat) he won on earlier this year, especially with Cav out it should have been a real good chance for him to get a stage win in.

Seems that everyone has already given Sagan the Green Jersey, only Bryan Coquard seems to want to contest the mid-stage sprints, and as long as Sagan continues to finish near Kittel there’s no way anyone will come close to the points needed.

–Pete

[sjclaeys]

I’m disappointed that VeloNews no longer seems to have its TdF stage commentary and EuroSport dropped its graphic showing where the riders are relative to each other and the course.

[ShawnoftheDread]

@Dickie 89692 wrote:

I’ve been following Cav for many years, and I wouldn’t single him out as the aggressive sprinter because they are all aggressive sprinters. The mindset of a sprinter (as Paul Sherwin once described) is not unlike a boxers, they will stop at nothing to beat the crap out of anyone challenging them. Sprinters are missing that part of their brain that says to the rest of us “don’t do that, you can’t fit there, no way I’m making that turn”. Add to that Cav’s undeniable status as one of the greatest sprinters of all time and the massive target on his back it’s easy to see how a few examples of this behavior can be quickly referenced. Everyone wants their piece of Cav, to beat the best…. but if you look hard enough you will see examples of this from every sprinter.. they all believe it’s their right to win.

Ayrton Senna (The great F1 racer) once said; “…being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, we are competing to win. And the main motivation to all of us is to compete for victory, it’s not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th. I race to win as long as I feel it’s possible. Sometimes you get it wrong, sure, it’s impossible to get it right all the time.”

In ‘Murica we just say rubbin’s racin’.

[PotomacCyclist]

A different perspective on the Cavendish crash. Some of the statements (from the pro cyclists) are kind of bizarre:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/28203755

[PotomacCyclist]

I don’t envy those guys riding on the cobblestones tomorrow. I have a tough enough time riding on the single block of cobblestones on Prince St. in Old Town.

http://goo.gl/maps/M0jSA

That was tricky even on a mountain bike, and I was riding slowly.

[KayakCyndi]

No spoiler but for anyone live streaming … oh my!

[Terpfan]

@KayakCyndi 89771 wrote:

No spoiler but for anyone live streaming … oh my!

Won’t spoil it, but just imagine pouring rain and cobblestones…

[CaseyKane50]

@PotomacCyclist 89743 wrote:

I don’t envy those guys riding on the cobblestones tomorrow. I have a tough enough time riding on the single block of cobblestones on Prince St. in Old Town.

http://goo.gl/maps/M0jSA

That was tricky even on a mountain bike, and I was riding slowly.

I tried it once too. I was glad the pavers were dry.

Here is a shot of Prince Street

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6161[/ATTACH]

Alexandria has another block of cobblestone on Princess Street. Unlike Prince, it is a two-way block. It is also not as steep as Prince.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]6162[/ATTACH]

[Dickie]

@PotomacCyclist 89740 wrote:

A different perspective on the Cavendish crash. Some of the statements (from the pro cyclists) are kind of bizarre:

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/cycling/28203755

Kristoff is trash, sounds like he should have a beer with Courtland Millroy.

[KayakCyndi]

@Terpfan 89783 wrote:

Won’t spoil it, but just imagine pouring rain and cobblestones…

Well that was fun. Going to have to watch it all again tonight ….

[Author]

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