Yaniel

Pitachi is 35 right?

grolby

Cavendish, it should be pointed out, is not a track sprinter, he's a track endurance rider. His most notable success was as a double world champion in the Madison. That may not be a record like Chris Hoy's, but Hoy is a winning machine; Cavendish is still in a pretty rarefied stratosphere of track cyclists. As it happens, the road is more lucrative and prestigious, so that's where he's ended up.

tonski 

Two people have said this but more often than not he has a train leading him out and he is hit or miss without it. I'm inclined to not argue about this because after Renshaw was verboten and the train couldn't string out the group enough that it caused a lot of mess around setting up sprinters, Cavendish still came out on top.

On the other hand, having a lead out train most of the time gives the guy a lot of confidence and that's a good chunk of performance. Tyler Ferrar (sp?) let himself get muscled out of a couple sprints, had bad luck in the first (someone's bike attached itself to his), or confused his lead out rider enough they couldn't separate when it came time to go.

Cavendish answered this question last year in an interview. "Who are you most worried about in the sprints?" To his reply "Noone.". I'm not saying he's not good but he doesn't have a good arch rival to say he is really great. I love Cavendish's snob attitude and I root for him because he at least has a little humility (crying on stage 6's win).

Yaniel

wouldn't the fact that none of the worlds elite sprinters can match him mean that he is great?

chasm54

He's twenty five. Barring injury he has more than five years, but probably less than ten, at the top.

sakonnetclip

Agree, it's not like everybody else sucks. I think he's demonstrated that even without a commanding lead out he can still beat just about anyone when he's positioned well enough to sprint 1 on 1, or 1 on 5 for that matter.

SunSwingsLow

All the greatest athletes have no rival....thats why they are the "greatest".

Hes a special breed and his speed is unrivaled anywhere in the peleton. Watching the greats win sprints by a wheels or half a wheel for all those years and then to watch this guy decimate the best sprinters by multiple bike lengths is astonishing.

boniek1982

Yeah and that is exactly why I dont believe he is clean at all. These guys are all amazing athletes - you'd think someone would get close or challenge him once in a while? Meanwhile he is obliterating record books like no one's business. And here we are debating over what makes him a great sprinter. Pardon me for being so suspicious, but I refuse to be naive and believe that this guy is clean. His day of reckoning is coming...

Yaniel

so by this logic he's the only one that isn't clean right? that must be why he's so much faster since nobody else dopes. it has nothing to do with training and ability.

rogwilco

I don't know, Usain Bolt has been slaughtering everybody on 100m/200m for years too and I think it would be a bold statement that his opponents are cleaner than him. Some people are just better athletes than others regardless of doping.

Yaniel

then lets not single out cavendish for doping because he's faster. If doping didn't exist, he would still be unchallenged right now because he's just flat out the better sprinter. This is assuming all the big sprinters are doping just for arguments sake.

rogwilco

Yes, I agree, that's the point I was trying to make.

meatpants

To answer the OP's question- Mark Cavendish... what's he on?

Phil Ligget's mind

Braden1550

Sprinting is anaerobic.

What the **** would you need more red blood cells to carry more OXYGEN for?

Dickheads.

Imma go out on a limb here and say that most of this board learned thier sports science from Dr. Nick (of "The Simpsons" fame).

/grumpy mood

Whats Cav on?
A wave of success and a high wattage diet.

Fat Boy

I don't know/care if Cav is doping, but for someone criticizing others knowledge of sports science, you're hopelessly uninformed.

Sprinting is highly anaerobic, but having more red blood cells helps _hugely_ for any number of reasons. Rather than write a book, I'd just have you google, "EPO for sprinters" and that should clear things up.

luxroadie

Cocky teenager? I couldn't guess. Have a great life [IGNORE]