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Sixth place "not good enough by far" at Tour de France sprint for Mark Cavendish, says Adam Blythe
CyclingTuesday, 04 July 2023 at 13:05
Mark Cavendish only needs to take one win at this Tour de France to break the record of Eddy Merckx and become the rider with the most stage wins in the race's history. It will however be a difficult task with the tough competition he faces, but a sixth place on the opening day was a positive sign. Not for Adam Blythe however, he argues.
“Promising that he’s up there at the pointy end and it would’ve been disappointing had he just rolled in around 67th or something and not been able to sprint. Sixth. Not up to his lofty standards of years gone by but encouraging nonetheless that he was there and there’s plenty more days to come," Robbie McEwen commented on 'Cav' at the Eurosport's 'The Breakaway'.
As Cavendish only contested four sprints throughout the Giro d'Italia, failing several due to bad positioning, the first shot at Tour success was a positive sign, as he did not seem to have any teammates around him in the final few chaotic kilometers. He was happy to be in place with two kilometers to go and then jumped wheels until he ended up sprinting to sixth place, just behind Fabio Jakobsen and Wout van Aert.
“I think he’ll stick with it for the time being but there’s been a lot of speculation as to why they haven’t raced together a little bit more in the lead up to this race," Daniel Lloyd argued. “I think sixth place is really promising for him with the sprints that we’ve still got to come because that was a really fast finale."
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However, for a rider who is seeking only a victory and not secondary results here, the sixth spot doesn't mean much at the end of the day. “You guys are saying sixth is promising. Rubbish. We’re concentrating too much on him saying the third week is where he can shine. Yes, he’s not too far off, but I think we’re thinking too much about he’s just more concentrated on the third week," Adam Blythe argues.
"He’s not. He’ll have wanted to win today as much as he’ll have wanted to win in the third week. Yes, sixth is good but in his terms, it’s not good enough by far. I think because he said it, we’re getting lured into him thinking about this last week, last week. I don’t think we should be at all. We need to look at Mark every day, every sprint, that it’s his chance to make history."
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- Nonsense Mistermaumau. Tom has noticeably more character and personality than Mathieu. Look at the photograph with this article - when was the last time you saw Mathieu crack a smile like that?RupertBear17-12-2024
- Get over yourself! Tom is fine, he's quite a character in his way - he's got a great sense of humour for a start. Watch him and Matt Stephens do one of their cafe rides, they're both a hoot. I don't mind Mathieu, but he's a bit of a cold fish in case you haven't noticed. You guys make me laugh, you get a unique rider like Tom appears on the scene and all you can do is bitch! By the way Senna, your use of a comma and then the lack of a space between words is usually an indicator of ASD. Now I'm being bitchy!RupertBear17-12-2024
- Whining isn’t a good look, Lance. Oh and doping or not, the GOAT is still Eddy Merckx imho - lance couldn’t t even come close when you compare resultsCrashjames16-12-2024
- * not taking anything away from the tireless sacrifices wout has made as a superstar. those are two extraordinary individuals.OCexile16-12-2024
- sadly true. mathieu is the bedrock AD was built on, and he’s always shouldered that role and always seen the bigger picture: took MUCH less money than he could have gotten while the team was growing, and has written them new book on what it means to be a completely selfless superstar, witness every ferocious leadout for jasper and what he did at MSR last year. yup, so far that’s not thomas.OCexile16-12-2024
- ...you could also add diminuer,etiquette,basic PR skills and respect all of which Pidcock lacks in abundance.Senna196016-12-2024
- Just like Remco should have ;-)Mistermaumau16-12-2024
- And you base that on which vast amount of knowledge you have on him please?Mistermaumau16-12-2024
- Not only that but what MVDP did at AD had a lot to do with a personality that TP will never have.Mistermaumau16-12-2024
- i mean, duh, the ONLY reason for pidcock to be at Q36.5 is freedom and autonomy. vande velde has kind of an art for the obvious. but as far as the “you should do what van der poel did” advice goes, well, I’LL state the obvious: doing what mathieu did KINDA depends on being ABLE to do what mathieu did. if it didn’t then yeah, that would really be some terrific advice.OCexile16-12-2024