Le Tour 2012

[seanthevillan]

Missed a couple of stages, but I've tried to join the league as well..

[bertlambshank]

Cavendish takes it on the line.Superb.

[Dave Cooper please]

Cav does it again, and he didn't even need the Sky train.
Marvellous.

[SteveN]

Cav - The man is a true legend.

Not only does he win without a train, he does it in the first week of the tour when he is not always at his best.  Brilliant!

[N'Rexy]

Just watched it. Great finish. His interview afterwards with Boulting wasn't that of a super happy man though. I think he has had some issues with the team line up. Hope he doent have a strop...

[Dave Cooper please]

Just watched it. Great finish. His interview afterwards with Boulting wasn't that of a super happy man though. I think he has had some issues with the team line up. Hope he doent have a strop...

Nah, I think he's just trying to get his head around not having a team working specifically for him on the sprint stages, something he's had on every previous tour. But Brailsford has said from the start that this year is all about the Yellow Jersey, he'll be fine now he has proved to himself that he can do a "Cadel Evans" and win a sprint by attaching himslf to other teams' back wheels.

[SteveN]

Just watched it. Great finish. His interview afterwards with Boulting wasn't that of a super happy man though. I think he has had some issues with the team line up. Hope he doent have a strop...

Nah, I think he's just trying to get his head around not having a team working specifically for him on the sprint stages, something he's had on every previous tour. But Brailsford has said from the start that this year is all about the Yellow Jersey, he'll be fine now he has proved to himself that he can do a "Cadel Evans" and win a sprint by attaching himslf to other teams' back wheels.

I agree, also Brailsford mentioned casually something along the lines of what a kick in the teeth this was for Lotto and Griepel.  A team set up for one purpose seeing their man beaten by a one man army.

Watching it on the You Tube it was amazing to see how far back Cav was with so little time to make that up.  Great commentary on Eurosport "Cavendish has been hiding" "It's a drag race".  It is the attention to detail what makes him so good, he knows who is likely to do what and when in the bunch sprints so follows the right wheel.

Difficult for the other teams to manage when on his own he's so unpredicatable as far as they are concerned.

[Dave Cooper please]

The only problem Cav might have is if the specialist sprint teams like Lotto decide to block him off as they come up towards the finish, he'll be more vulnerable without his Sky minders, but if he's there or thereabouts with 500 metres to go he's virtually unbeatable.

[N'Rexy]

Hope you lot are betting on my tips. Told you it was Sagan today. Cav or Kittel tomorrow. My money is on the King (Cav).

[N'Rexy]

Sagan had a decent fall today. Let's see how he gets on after that. Tyler looked pretty bad at the finsh so let's see how he does too. Cav messed the sprint up today totally as he later admitted on Twitter. Cav tomorrow and then its into some big hills.

Wiggins looking totally in control, in fact looking like the 'patron' of the peleton. Hope he wins.

[lovejoy]

Too uphill for Cav today especially without a lead out train. I can see him getting frustrated not being the centre of attention for the team, but he knew the gig when he signed. Wiggins has a shot at yellow and that has to be the key aim.

Bring on the hills these flat stages are dull until the last 5k. Cannot believe they almost stayed away today - 100m from the line ffs.

[Dave Cooper please]

Cav will be fine. His big HTC train has been broken up anyway. Sky have the budget and the riders to have a go at all the Grand Tours, and if they can deliver Wiggins to the yellow this year maybe they will build a team to suit Cav next year?
Sky seem to have gone heavy on mountain domestiques this year to get Wiggins up the mountains, and I'm not sure he really needs all of them, he just needs to stick in there knowing he can make up minutes on most specialist climbers in the two time trials that are coming up.

[peter w]

All well and good but Cavendish just doesn't look happy. If he can find a team that is built around him he'll be off.

[Dave Cooper please]

All well and good but Cavendish just doesn't look happy. If he can find a team that is built around him he'll be off.

Cavendish never looks happy!

As far as I am aware (I'm no historian on this) no team has ever delivered both the Yellow and Green jersey in the same year, Cav must have known when he signed that Sky were going for the Yellow this Tour.
Besides, on this stage his team worked bloody hard for him, they delivered him to the 500m point and it was just that the uphill finish suited the power of Griepel more than the flat out speed of Cavendish.

 Perhaps after the first lot of mountains, if Wiggins is right up there in the GC, his team will stop worrying so much about him and concentrate on getting Cav another couple of stage wins?

[bertlambshank]

Wiggins takes the yellow jersey.