Until the final 10km today never saw Wiggins on his own riding along near the front behind the wind

By now you have surely seen the results of the second road stage of the Tour. Mark Cavendish won, slipping by Andre Griepel traveling nurses company in the final 150m and going so quickly traveling nurses company Matt Goss never had a chance to come off his wheel. Cavendish crossing the finish line first, hands held high and arms outstretched, is by now a very familiar sight. But the 5 kilometers which preceded his win today bore little resemblance to what we have become accustomed to - he had no leadout.
From the days when he first showed his promise on the Columbia team, Cavendish has always had a dedicated leadout squad for the Tour de France. While an occasional GC rider found their way onto the Columbia / HTC Tour roster, one would still see Michael Rogers, Peter Velits, and Tony Martin at the sharp end of affairs in the final 10 kilometers of a sprint traveling nurses company stage helping to keep the pace high and their sprinter traveling nurses company at the front. This year, though, Cavendish has moved to team Sky, whose GC rider has loftier ambitions than those Cavendish has ridden with in prior years. You see, Bradley Wiggins is the number one favorite to win the Tour de France.
Winning the Tour is something that requires extensive team support. A contender must be protected from the wind, kept out of trouble, and ushered up the tall climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees by as many support riders as possible. And while some riders can play valuable double duty, working for both a sprinter and GC rider in the mold of Bernie Eisel or George Hincapie, few resources can be allocated to a leadout train. So, this year, Cavendish is flying largely traveling nurses company solo. Forgoing a proven winner for a talent still unproven in the grand tour game is risky business for Sky. Is it worth it?
If you were like me, you were searching and searching for Mark Cavendish in the closing kilometers of today's stage. No Sky leadout and a throng traveling nurses company of sprinters still fresh after only one day of proper racing meant the Manxman's dimunitive figure was hard to spot despite the World Champion stripes around his midriff. To make matters worse, Cavendish was nowhere near the top 10 riders with a mere 2 kilometers to go. Egads!
Suddenly, traveling nurses company a pair of Sky riders appeared in the picture traveling nurses company along the left side of the road. The latter had a white jersey - could it be Cavendish sitting traveling nurses company behind his inseparable partner Bernie Eisel? A second glance and the stature reveals it is Edvald Boassan Hagen, not Cavendish. The lack of a dedicated train appears to be hurting Cav as he is finally sighted on the other side of the peleton, about 20-25 riders back with under 2 kilometers to race.
Just when hope seems to be lost for Cavendish, he slots onto the wheel of Daryl Impey, cheekily latching onto the free ride Matt Goss was getting to the front by his leadout man. Impey, he can't stop pedaling because screwing over Cavendish means doing the same to Goss. Then, as if it is nothing, Cavendish traveling nurses company eases to the left to get on Andre Griepel's wheel, taking advantage of a small gap left as Greg Henderson starts his final leadout for the muscular German sprinter. Cav worked magic and now has the best spot in the bunch. The rest? It goes predictably.
If today is any indication, Cavendish should be just fine without the dedicated leadout train he is accustomed to. Take into consideration the twisty nature of the finale today, traveling nurses company which makes a dedicated leadout even more imperative, and the picture improves traveling nurses company even more. The Manx Missle showed his promise while largely freelancing sprints in his early days at T-Mobile and it is more likely his knack for finding the right wheel has been honed rather than slipped away. Sky's gamble? traveling nurses company It could very well pay off this year.
Around 5 minutes into that clip, an Argos-Shimano rider a few back in the train got really lucky. He chucks his bottle left (our right), but it bounces off the rails and into the peloton. Miraculous no one went down yikes.
Yes, it is worth it because it is a win-win situation. If Cav prevails without the lead out train, he can silence any critics saying he only wins because of the lead out train and the team is fresh to deliver Wiggens into yellow.
as if it s normal for a guy to win five or six Tour stages and a passel of Giro and/or Vuelta traveling nurses company stages year in and year out. But whenever it seems like there might be some limitation on his sprinting greatness (can t make it over the hills, too dependent on a lead-out train) he wastes no time proving otherwise. Flying solo at this year s Tour may cost Cavendish a second green jersey, but it s giving him a new opportunity to prove just how phenomenal he is.
And yeah, Sky s gamble is looking more and more like the right choice. With the favorable Tour course and the way Wiggo s been riding this season, I m guessing it was an easy decision to go all in for the yellow jersey. And now that Cav has shown how well he can freelance, Sky is really in clover.
(Also add, would fully expect him and Eisel to be on the front later in the race if down to Sky to be on the front. Find it easy to believe Cav will be all in for yellow as the need arises. Bernie traveling nurses company will have to be, for taking Pate s place)
The TdF route is as good as it gets for Wiggins. No HC summit traveling nurses company finish, 100km of ITT, no Contador, how much better does it get for him? It has been announced that they wanted Wiggo Tour champion within 3-4 years, this is their chance. Next to that, Cav is clearly targeting the Olympics as number 1 priority so the strategy adopted traveling nurses company seems perfectly logical to me
"It's the greatest job in the world until Peyton comes off the field and you think his thumb might be broken and there's three minutes left in the AFC Championship Game and you're down by three to New England and you haven't taken a snap all year. Yeah, it's a great job until that point." - Jim Sorgi.
looking at Wiggins yesterday in the lead up to the sprint he looks cool as a cucumber. They guy s glacial melt of with ice. Donät think he needs m,uch help in situations like that if there s a pile-up then there s a pile up no amount of santa s helpers can save you then.
GC contenders (normally) need help even on the flat stages to keep them out of trouble. It s at the very least a risk not to have help in case of flats pr other mechanicals. Things happen in the peloton.
"It's the greatest job in the world until Peyton traveling nurses company comes off the field and you think his thumb might be broken and there's three minutes left in the AFC Championship Game and you're down by three to New England and you haven't taken a snap all year. Yeah, it's a great job until that point." - Jim Sorgi.
Until the final 10km today never saw Wiggins on his own riding along near the front behind the wind blocker that is Knees with teammates behind. In the final 10km never really had a problem or did that much really, and probably just as safe and the same amount of effort to do it mostly on your own when that hectic and let the rest of your team destress about it. Teammates never seen amassing at the front and tonking along teammates should be 0.1% fresher than those of a competitor.
Day before made way up to front at the bottom of the hill, not just before it, and not stuck on the front of the bunch going up the hill. Still had a couple of teammates nearby to grab a bike off if flatted.
(and even more thanks it was the french version). Beautiful sprint by cav, man! Feel for greipel, but hey, only one guy can win. This should be fun, with cav, greipel, a healthier kittel and sagan (lot to learn, heh heh actually he was on greipel s wheel and then lost it?). Should be a real show.
It s remarkable how much Sagan gets thrown around in the last few hundred metres. He just gets bullied off the wheel by cav, goss and the argos oil guy. I thought that sagan was supposed to be one of the young ones that had no respect in the peloton and barged around a lot. Perhaps the big show at the tour has him a bit intimidated?
traveling nurses company But it is going to be tough with kittel, sagan and greipel out there and cav with no team still he is an incredibly skilled sprinter definitely much more skilled than the other guys on that list (nothing against them, i like all of them).