Mark Cavendish is world champion, and a fully deserved one. 10 years ago, nobody would have ever thought that a British rider would win the Worlds so soon. But 46 years after Tom Simpson won in San Sebastian, it has been done. The Copenhagen course really could not have been won by anybody else. It suited Cavendish perfectly, almost completely flat and bound to end in a massive sprint.
What's more, by winning this year, he can potentially win twice in a row as next year's race in Holland will also be flat. If in 2012 Cavendish wins several Tour stages, the green jersey in the Tour, the Olympic Road Race and the World Championships, I think it's safe to say that he will have moved from cycling great to cycling legend.
The Manxman is now undoubtedly the best sprinter of all time. Nowadays, a cycling sprint is like a Formula 1 race. Cavendish always wins, just as Vettel always wins. No sprinter has had that kind of dominance ever. Cipollini got close, but he could still be beaten. When Cavendish is lead out by his train and released with 200-300m to go, he is quite simply unbeatable.
So what next? The obvious answer to that are the Olympics, but firstly he still has to announce which team he's going to be on. As I said in a previous post, I think he will end up at Quickstep as a lot of his former team are heading that way. It would make sense for him to try and keep as much of his old lead out train as possible, even though everybody seems to think that he is going to Sky.
0 comments:
Post a Comment