I'm not saying Cav isn't good or even great. I am saying he's racking up great wins against non-great fields.
Go back to the first half of this decade. You had Cipollini, Petacchi, Zabel, McEwen, Freire...all guys we'll still be talking about 20 years from now.
Who is Cavendish regularly beating right now that we'll still be talking about 20 years from now? A 37-year old McEwen? Tyler Farrar? please. Boonen? for sure but Cavendish won 4 Tour stages last with Boonen not there. Daniele Bennati? Cavendish won 2 Giro stages against him in 2008 but Bennati won 3. He didn't ride the Tour last year. Boonen never does the Giro. Hushovd? okay, but he's a perennial top 5 also-ran who got it right once in a while like Jalabert.
I need to see Cavendish win a few more sprints with Boonen, Petacchi, Freire and Bennati all there at the end before I call him one of the all-time greats.