News bot Posted July 19, 2016 Posted July 19, 2016 Mark Cavendish is to parts ways with the Tour de France to focus on his preparations for the Rio Olympic Games. Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka issued a statement reflecting on what has been a most successful Tour de France.Click here to view the article
King_Crispy Posted July 19, 2016 Posted July 19, 2016 Quite a blow to the team, but they know what's best for all of them. He's had a brilliant Tour Vetplant and xcd 2
Rocket-Boy Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 I knew it was coming when he had no chance of getting the green jersey and the mountains were getting tougher.He has ridden a good tour so Im sure the 4 wins he got were enough for him and Rio is his big focus for now.
shaper Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2016/07/19/tour-de-france-2016-mark-cavendish-quits-in-bern-to-focus-on-oly/
Capri Wheeler Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 Love the Cav. Now as South Africans we must shift our main focus to Meintjies Vetplant and AllAboutRides 2
Johan A Marais Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 (edited) I do not like this at all. If a rider leaves a tour, any tour for that matter, just because, he should lose all record of the tour in question, including any wins against his name, or his team's name. Lost respect... Not cool. Edited July 20, 2016 by The Commuter AdamA, dexterdent, quintonb and 4 others 7
Wil6 Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 I do not like this at all. If a rider leaves a tour, any tour for that matter, just because, he should lose all record of the tour in question, including any wins against his name, or his team's name. Lost respect... Not cool. Shows you how much you know about cycling Veebee, Pure Savage, Abercrombie and 8 others 11
American Flyers Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 I feel it is wrong, the Tour organizer must fine the riders for pulling out of the tour, unless given sick certificate..... It is not fair for others.... mikkelz 1
Ysterbeertjie Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 Im not a fan of him... for other reasons.   Two nights ago he claimed on a Belgian tv show that he is focused on Paris and feeling very strong.  Now this.  However, Im not naive, so I think there were pressure put on him from British cycling to exit. It is a Olympic year... so I guess even the TDF has to take a backstep.
T-Bob Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 Fair play. He's taken 4 stages, the mountain coming up are going to nothing for his tilt at Gold and knowing his desire to win in Paris it can't have been an easy decision. Cav' is a rider that respects races and their history but this is he last chance to fill that one hole in his record.His year has been sterling so far and especially for Team DD. He's taken a World Champ', some overall stage races, silenced the people who had buried him last year, show Dougie Ryder to be very shrewd about running his team, killed it in TDF, worn the Yellow Jersey, worn the Green Jersey and now head's to Rio. Where are the other contenders for the Olympic Track medals? Fine tuning, not riding up the Alps and not done 16 hard days of a grand tour.Ask most riders if they are going to quit then they say 'nope', it's a way of avoiding the same Q's and speculation from the press, twitter and the rest of the spotlight. Plus he's much heavier due to track training and hasn't had the warm weather training sitting in Manchester velodrome. He needs to manage his recovery so he can go for gold and still have enough in the tank to swing for the World Champs in Dohar... That's a decent years work! Whether you like him or not the guy is champion, always speaks well about the team and his team mates, carries bottles on dom' duty etc. He's taken *** for the last couple of years and shown the naysayer his quality again this year. So a few more people trying to write him off for knee jerk reasons aren't going to do much apart from show themselves up. Wannabe, Sniffie, BigDL and 6 others 9
rock Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 I do not like this at all. If a rider leaves a tour, any tour for that matter, just because, he should lose all record of the tour in question, including any wins against his name, or his team's name. Lost respect... Not cool.  you're being sarcastic right? no chance that was a serious comment. Sniffie, tombeej and Pure Savage 3
T-Bob Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 Another factor is that the spirit stages up until now have been characterised by the fact that no one has managed to get a full bore sprint train running and working 100% well in the last 2kms. This has meant that Cav' has been able to duck and dive in the chaos after being dropped off by Renshaw etc and freelance his way to the line.The run it to the Champs' is a very different scenario, the big open boulevards will be a massive battle between the big trains to get the first 4 wheels into the final corner. As good as they have been I don't think DD have got the fire power left (esp' with Renshaw gone) to mix it with Lotto, Ettix and the other players.On balance, Cav' isn't going to be able to freelance his way to win that stage.
madbradd Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 Another factor is that the spirit stages up until now have been characterised by the fact that no one has managed to get a full bore sprint train running and working 100% well in the last 2kms. This has meant that Cav' has been able to duck and dive in the chaos after being dropped off by Renshaw etc and freelance his way to the line. The run it to the Champs' is a very different scenario, the big open boulevards will be a massive battle between the big trains to get the first 4 wheels into the final corner. As good as they have been I don't think DD have got the fire power left (esp' with Renshaw gone) to mix it with Lotto, Ettix and the other players. On balance, Cav' isn't going to be able to freelance his way to win that stage. I dunno.... He's been on Kittel's wheel almost as long as Qintana has been on Froome's! Wannabe, T-Bob and Andrew Steer 3
Pure Savage Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 I dunno.... He's been on Kittel's wheel almost as long as Qintana has been on Froome's!Except he comes around Kittel at some point, unlike Quintana.... Wannabe, madbradd, T-Bob and 2 others 5
Milosh Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 So up front I don't get all the intricacies of the TDF. It does however seem somewhat wrong for a sprinter to burn himself out on the sprinter type stages win a few than withdraw Seems a bit like going flat out to get the strava KOM segment than getting a lift home with KOM bragging rights !   CleatsnCleavage, YetiFan and Jonkie 3
YetiFan Posted July 20, 2016 Posted July 20, 2016 So up front I don't get all the intricacies of the TDF. It does however seem somewhat wrong for a sprinter to burn himself out on the sprinter type stages win a few than withdraw Seems a bit like going flat out to get the strava KOM segment than getting a lift home with KOM bragging rights !   I completely agree, if it's okay to race the first 2 weeks and then pull out before the big Alpine stages, why is it not okay to skip the Alpine stages and come in just to contest the final stage up the Champs Elysees? Hypothetical situation I know... but hopefully you get my point! Just to be clear - I'm no fan of Cav. Would have far preferred to see Louis remain in the DD team (with some solid support climbers to assist) Fadhl and CleatsnCleavage 2
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