rousseau

Has there ever been a sprinter as dominant as the Manx Missile? I don't know enough of the history to say for sure, but I'd be interested to hear from those more knowledgeable.

Another aspect to watch for: Merckx won 64 stages in the Grand Tours, while Cavendish already has 32, and there are clearly many more to come.

Are we watching a legend in the making?

DiabloScott

I'm ready to cast my vote for him. Certainly on anybody's short list.

chasm54

Cav is superb, certainly. It is always dangerous to compare athletes from different eras because tactics change, training methods change and so on. Back in the day, there were fewer dominant teams that delivered their man to the line with an organised lead-out. I think Rik van Looy more or less invented that with his "Red Guard" in the early 1960s. He was a hell of a sprinter, though.

I've been following pro racing since the 1970s. If I had to pick one who was clearly in Cavendish's class I'd go for Freddie Maertens. Twice world champion, winner of eight stages of the TdF in a single year, very very fast.

SouthFLpix

I think he's an excellent sprinter. Not because he produces the most power in short bursts, but because of how aero he is while sprinting.

It always struck me as odd that people stand up like a big sail when sprinting. Of course if you do that a lot of the power that you produce is going to be lost. Cav is very efficient because his sprinting position is almost as aero as a time trial position, so he gets a lot more out of the power he produces.

I think he's going to influence a lot of sprinters in the future. That style of standing up straight as a board when sprinting is going to go away, imo.

Rotten Bastard

^I suspect it's Cav's short legs that allow him to sprint with power while keeping his upper body so low. Other guys have to extend longer legs and thus move their bodies up. That's my armchair analysis.

Cav simply has a jump that no one else can match, which gives him a huge opening gap. The aero position allows him to maintain his top speed without having to sustain giant wattage, which is something a short-sprinter like him can't do. Simply put, he was born to sprint on a bicycle.

chasm54

But of course, on the track he's an endurance rider. Physiologically he seems to have pretty much the ideal compromise for stage races. Just enough slow-twitch to get over hills within the time limit (mostly) with enough fast-twitch for that big jump at the end.

prettyshady

Cippolini was great but we cant compare the two as Cippolini was not invited to the tour de france from 2000 to 2003. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_C...ni#Controversy

Its interesting that a new shape and style of dominate sprinter has arrived. Much like Usain Bolt would have been considered too tall to be a sprinter, he has changed that way of thinking.

I have noticed the TDF has less typical sprinters stages, and more stages with short climbs at the end. This is probably due to the dominance of mark / his team pulling back every breakaway, having the same guy win too many stages in the same style.

I hope team sky protect Mark, he can win on his own but his stage 3 giro 2012 crash was avoidable if he was in a good lead out train like in stage 5

dstrong 

Easy to argue for him being the greatest. As a matter of fact, they've run out of awards for him so now he gets babies!

Porkponey

I think his climbing is getting stronger. I really like Cav. I know there are people who think he's cocky.

Pro cycling needs more Robert Downey Jr.

kalliergo 

I'm one of those who think he's a bit cocky. But, really, it's easy to forgive a a little cockiness in a kid who has such good reasons for it.

It's hard to say that anyone is "the greatest" sprinter ever. So many variables, so many changes in cycling over the years. But it would sure be hard for a well-informed observer to argue that he isn't one of the very few at the top of the list.

byrnemm

he's also tougher than nails. Can anyone post the pic of his leg after his first big crash? It looked horrendous! And then he won the very next day... hardcore.

rousseau

One year later, and following a classic win in the first stage of the Giro, the word "is" gets shifted to a different part of the sentence and the punctuation changes:

Mark Cavendish is the greatest sprinter ever.

Zinger

I'm certainly no expert.
I used to think a lot of Eric Vanderaerden but I think this guy might be better.

mprelaw

fify.

baj32161

I have always been a fan of the sprinters. My faves have been van Looy, Vanderaerden, Zabel, McEwen and Boonen down the years. I like te swagger of Cavendish and his balls-out toughness. I have never seen anything like him and have no problem calliing him the greatest I have ever seen.

Waxbytes

I think Cav may be the greatest but I have to reserve a spot for McEwen in there since I never saw McEwen with a lead out train. At least not from his own team. He did sometime "borrow" other sprinters trains. As they say, it's difficult to compare athletes from different eras.

cruiserhead

This is a great description of why Cav is so fast