No you are not wrong- in C+ magazine it was revealed he upset everybody on the isle of man and nearly lost his sports council funding!!! I think he will suffer from burnout as he is too young. Thor & Lance have all over muscle but Cavendish still seems to have a lot of puppy fat still.

I am fed up with nationalism in sport but politically correct multiculterism in everything else. The Olympics were ruined by the commentators harping on about the brits constantly. Wimbledon was a joke with all talk about Murray.

Nicole Cooke has been abandoned by British Cycling and I think the Sky team is the wrong road to take.We should try a new clean road and leave the tour as it is.

Bradley Wiggins is the only story of note in this years tour-the only other stories are Astana & Cav and I am bored sensless with it.Lets hope Cadel can do something.

I agree with jumpingbuddhist.  We in the UK love to knock down winners.  It's pathetic.

I hope you've got better things to do than read this forum, Cav, but if you are reading it, ignore the sarcasm and the snipers - you're a star!

 

What a bunch of negative individuals you people are - Typically English to knock a successful Sportsman, Why can't you just appreciate the guy for want he is - Currently the fastest sprinter in world cycling, no doubt if he was Italian, German, or from ***Belgium ( With lines of Coke hanging off his nose!) you would be applauding his win's. Cavendish is young, brash and totally focused and I am for one glad he is, True talent generally is - Ronaldo for one is probably the most hated player in world football - Why?? because without doubt he is currently the Best in the world ( and no I am not a Man U supporter).

Cav has now equalled Hoban's record and will hopefully create a new one, and with a bit of luck win the Green Jersey. Yes he has a fantastic team around him, but name any individual in modern cycling that has not had a great team around them, It's a team sport which ultimately one member of the team wins. Cav always makes a bee line for his team members after he crosses the line, aswell as refering to the tremedous effort they put in to get him to the line first. With all that said without his fantastic ability to turn it on over the last 150m's all the team effort would be unrewarded. He proved again today that he can out sprint the best sprinters currently around, beating Hushovd, Tyler, Freire, this time coming from behind Hushovd & Tyler to win a incline finish.

Yes he can't climb... Yet. You should support any British success, Wiggins is having a great tour so far and is maturing into a excellent allrounder, All power to him. Give cav a break and stop with the petty whinging... Anybody would think that your jealous of his success.................... You aren't in fact Tom Boonen with different log ins are you??

GUYS!  , seriously, one of our finest tour riders in ages and you knock him down... F***KING RIDICULOUS.... WTF are you lot on!  to be the best at anything you need arrogance and lots of self belief... which he has in abundance and he never ever says he can't do it without his team... Leave the CAV alone.

yes, he's not as media savvy as LA but he's young and he'll get better. 

i agree with posters above.

he`s just a kid.  

he`s made history.

give him a break.

that columbia train......its like watching a perfectly-orchestrated ballet.

I think you may be mistaking confidence with arrogance. It is a normal 'British' repost to put down anyone who appears confident as this is 'not cricket'. That is why, on the whole, Britain has no edge on the world sport stage. It is just not in the national psyche to want to win but merely to battle and take part. He has a real talent, Being labelled British would be a hinderance and should have no bearing on either his performance nor his confident attitude. That said, he is a very powerful tool in what essentially a team sport, and he is very aware of that.

"Who said that? What?............ Probably foreigners".

No, what he actually said was "... probably Internet forum people" - even Ned got it wrong though, asking Matt "who are Internet phone people?". Forum/phone's fair enough, but I'd love to know how you interpret "Internet forum people" as "foreigners".

He does himself the only favour he needs - he wins.

If you are not amongst the best climbers - and Cav certainly isn't - you really have no hope in the GC. This is because the time differentials in the climbs are so much greater.   Cav can beat Thor by 4 places in yesterday's sprint but gains nothing on him in the GC and only a few seconds on the yellow jersey.  Are you suggesting that sprinters should pack up and go home because they can't win GC?   Le Tour is so great because it demands so much, and has opportunities for glory for all types - climbers, time trail specialists, sprinters - but above all - all rounders.   If it's all about GC only, then breakaways would always be hunted down, climbs would be done by team trains etc. etc. Boring!   With better team organisation, Garmin might be able to pull Wiggins up to yellow - but then he's not the leader of Garmin.

Cav freely and consistently acknowledges the effort put in by the team just to put him over the line first - road cylcing is the ultimate tactical team sport, the team puts the specialist in the right spot, he has to finish the job. Same with protecting the yellow, or hauling the leader back to the peloton after a puncture - witness Astana today - (Armstrong / leader?)

As for the interviews - a bit less hounding of sportspeople for the 'first reaction' seconds after they finsish , would be a good thing. Same nonsense at Wimbledon and in the tunnel after football.  You try answering daft questions coherently and politely after an adrenalin rush like that ! 

 

An alternative to any sense, it is just a ***typical British attitude if Cav was simpering on about how he tried his best when he came second or third you negative saps would be lapping it up.

Regardless of nationality Cav is absolutely brilliant at what he does and that is win stages, which are races in their own right. Of course he has the help of his team, it is a team competition.

Not only that I think he gives a ***good interview, he is honest, doesn't suffer fools and is positive about his teams and his own abilities.

I'm putting my phone on redial for a month when it comes to sports personallity of the year

He's a sprinter and so that's what sprinters do - sprint! Let's not forget that cycling is a team sport and just like football - it's the ones that produce the results that get the glory - i.e. Goal Scorers.

 Everyone knows that the domestiques are the hardest working but that's what they signed up for and one day will progress onto becoming specialists in their best area of cycling. Cavendish didn't progress through the ranks of being a domestique as such because he had an extraordinary talent in sprinting and this is very valuable to a team and it's sponsors - i.e. being seen to cross the line first in a bunch sprint.

 Yes he's arrogant - he always has been. I'm from the Isle of Man and used to race with him in the Manx national team. We used to get along OK but there's no denying he can rub people up the wrong way but how many world class athletes can you call 'gentlemen'? It's in their nature to be brash and if they were more considerate and emotional then there's no way mentally they could cope with the demands of the sport at this level.

 He's quite right when he says he's the fastest in the world - i've sprinted against him several times and even when he was 16/17 he was unreal and i'm damn sure he's a lot faster now.

 In all - i can see where you're coming from but part of the blame for the way he comes across needs to be focussed on the media - they wouldn't bother showing him being nice all the time as it wouldn't attract viewers.

I have been a staunch defender of Mark Cavendish on these forums, but after witnessing his petulant and ungracious behaviour today any respect that I had for him has now gone out of the window along with any regard I had for this year's dud of a tour – (why do we need another rest day – that's what the GC's have been having for the past two weeks)?

However, if Cavendish were to apologise for his childish behaviour, putting it down to post race exhaustion and dashed expectations then all will be forgiven.

He needs to learn to be a gracious loser as well as a great winner – no one likes a sulker, which is why Cadel Evans lost a lot of support after his truculent outbursts on last year's Tour (which by the way is proving to be a lot better than this year's dismal showing).

corserine:

I have been a staunch defender of Mark Cavendish on these forums, but after witnessing his petulant and ungracious behaviour today any respect that I had for him has now gone out of the window along with any regard I had for this year's dud of a tour – (why do we need another rest day – that's what the GC's have been having for the past two weeks)?

 

Cavendish has matured a lot since last year in his press dealings - he is very gracious about his rivals and his teammates. Its good he hurts when he loses the jersey, I'd hate him to not give a damn or be some kind of bland Tim Henman-esque robot. Its better that he says nothing and disappears into the bus than answers questions when he is het up (like last year). Finally, I think the first question asked by any interviewer immediately following a race should always be "Do you have time for a question or two?". If I was in his position and I'd just lost the jersey I'd be ducking into the bus myself.

 

 

 

Totally agree with last comment. Why is it necessary to get in the rider's face the second he steps off the bike? And why do they always have to ask idiotic questions of the "how do you feel" type? I reckon we all know and if it was me in Cav's situation yesterday, the only answer that I'd be able to come up with would be "How the **** do you think I feel you brainless [rhymes with banker]. The riders should have a meeting and all agree to say nothing straight after a race. In Ned's piece on the highlights programme a couple of days ago, Cav acknowledged that he's tactless in the heat of the moment. Bit of an understatement, true, but also understandable. Give him, and LW and the others a break, yeah?

Thanks for this thread. I was secretly thinking that I was the only brit who wanted Hushovd to take the green jersey.

Cavendish is ok, after his team take him 200k to the line he can sprint over it slightly quicker than most. Great, well done.
Hushovd is the better cyclist who works for his points, he is not arrogant and a better sportsman.
I agree with the original poster

I don’t altogether buy into the argument that a rider is too pumped up after a race to conduct himself in a civil and courteous manner. After all, they always seem to have enough energy and mental alacrity to pull off their victory displays in order to satisfy their sponsors and please their mums.

 

Additionally, it seems that Cavendish is quite willing to be interviewed straight after a successful stage in order to let every one know how good he and his team have been, but on so called bad days where his performance hasn’t matched his own high expectations he feels unable to conduct himself with any dignity.

 

Although, having said that, I quite agree that sticking a mic under a rider’s nose just as he has finished the stage is somewhat inconsiderate of the interviewer. Surely ITV 4 can come to some arrangement with Mark Cavendish (or any of the other British riders) that after his cool down and testing he can give a more considered interview.