It's getting hard to add to the superlatives already said about Mark
Cavendish, he is quite clearly the fastest and most exciting man on two
wheels.
Yes, he was beaten by another fast man today in stage two of the Giro, Alessandro Petacchi.....just.
But judging by Petacchi's post race comments, it's pretty obvious who he sees as the man to beat.
"I want to thank and compliment my teammates. I was on Cavendish's
wheel. I had been asking myself for several days how to beat him. We'd
never previously gone head to head in a sprint. He's a great champion."
Yes it's all about Mark Cavendish, even when he loses he wins.
One thing you can say about the man from the Isle of Man is that he's
no shrinking violet, telling it as he sees it, and I think for a sport
that's in serious need of some positive media excitement "Cav" is the
perfect antidote to the usual measured responses we hear from many of
our athletes.
Cavendish, is a guy you either love or loathe, except
for one thing, he always delivers when it counts and he always gets
people talking about the racing and the rivalries.
He really knows how to stir the drink but he backs it up and does it in a way that keeps you begging for more.
Here is Cavendish on the the eve of the Giro talking about Garmin-Slipstream's time trial obsession.
"The thing about it is that the Giro's 21 days, I think it's a bit disrespectful to the race [Garmin staking so much on this]… Your race is going to start on the first day and end on the first day, and that's what Garmin are fundamentally doing. They've said their season starts tomorrow. Their sponsor's paid money for the first six months of the year [sic]…and I think that's highly respectful to those guys. It's May. Their season starts tomorrow and I think it's going to end tomorrow night. I mean, come on..."
He stirs and then he goes on to claim the Maglia Rosa with the help of
his Columbia team in the opening teams time trial. The drink was
champagne.
I look forward to seeing Garmin-Slipstream respond to this slam dunk with a stage win of their own.
The sport could do worse than run a global media campaign with Cavendish as it's poster boy.
Garmin Slipstream's Johnathan Vaughters understands this, saying, "the
one comment I have about the past few days is this: Thank goodness we
have a controversy in cycling that doesn't have to do with doping."
Referring no doubt to the bad press of Belgian pin-up boy Tom Boonen's cocaine problem.
Cavendish brings a huge amount of fresh air to pro cycling, he leaves
us salivating at what he will do with his next burst of speed - even
when he loses we win.
