The Cavendish intervention

Mark Cavendish showed up for work on stage five of the Tour de Suisse only to find some very unhappy workmates greeting him at the start line, writes Philip Gomes.

Imagine showing up for work one day only to find your workmates staging an intervention over your inability to obey workplace OH&S rules?

Well that's exactly what happened to Mark Cavendish prior to the start of the fifth stage of the Tour de Suisse.

Ok, well maybe the rules of bicycle racing aren't as hard and fast as those applied by the OH&S bureaucrats, but in an environment where you really do often rely on your co-workers to ensure your safety, Cavendish pulled off a howler of a bad day at the office on stage four.

Not only did the Manx Mauler take himself out Djamolidine Abdoujaparov style, but like the legendary Tashkent Terror he also took out most of the peloton who had joined him in the sprint - and not many of them were happy campers at the morning water cooler.

"We just want to send a message to Cavendish to ask him for more respect," said AG2R sporting director Gilles Mas, whose team rider Sebastien Hinault was elbowed by the British rider in the fourth stage.

Worse still is the suggestion from subsequent unconfirmed reports that Cavendish spat at his primary adversary on that stage, Heinrich Haussler.

With incidents like this it's always good to hear how the elder statesmen of sprinting assess the situation, themselves having matured from raw aggressive young guns.

As Robbie McEwen observed to Cyclingnews when pinning the blame squarely on Cavendish, "[he] has gotten used to winning a lot in the last couple of years and things have gone very smoothly for him. But a pro athlete has to learn and accept that every year is not the same and how to deal with setbacks physically and mentally.

"He still has the talent and the speed. He has to figure out the best way to get back to his best and that seems to be by trial and error at the moment. He's a young guy who came up very quickly and is discovering new aspects about cycling and himself. He has many years left in front of him as a pro and for sure many victories."

Despite Haussler's post crash suggestion that he would have won had Cavendish not strayed from his line, the eventual stage winner, 36 year old Alessandro Petacchi, saw things differently.

"I don't know what happened in front. Maybe the wind had something to do with this unfortunate finish. I don't like winning this way. If Cavendish hadn't crashed, he would certainly have won."

Yes, even in losing Cavendish is acknowledged as the fastest man on two wheels amongst his sprinting peers.

This incident follows on from the recent one at the Tour de Romandie, where a return to form saw him win the second stage.

There, Cavendish gave the proverbial two fingered salute to assembled journalists as he crossed the line, annoyed at the criticism of his below par early season form. His team, HTC-Columbia, responded to that PR debacle by sending him home early.

Cavendish showed contrition following that incident, saying, "I apologise to everybody watching the race and especially the kids. I am not proud of releasing the feelings in that way. I hope I can redeem myself and show my feelings and passion for cycling with some exciting results in the next couple of months, rather than with a gesture such as the one [I made] yesterday."

But this time around no such similar apology was forthcoming. "I'm not gonna say that I wasn't wrong but I don't think I'm the one who should have taken all the blame. That's disappointing," said the HTC-Columbia rider.

Surely a full and frank apology to the men he spends several hours a day riding handlebar to handle bar with is as important as one to the kiddies?

A professional courtesy, an acknowledgement that clearly, again, he was in the wrong. But hey, how many of us really understands a sprinters mindset?

I love Cavendish, I love what he brings to the finish of a race, he's a journalists wet dream, allowing them to write copious column inches like this one, but clearly the burden of his immense sprinting talent is a heavy one for him to carry.

Hopefully it gets a bit lighter as the wins begin to flow again, as they most surely will, and he'll grow to enjoy the amazing gift that it is - winning both often and well.