Cavendish shows up to a local hometown race

[ridethecliche]

What a cool way to give back!

https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/i...-finishes-29th

[paredown]

Awesome, thanks for that!

"I was actually at a party on Saturday night," he says. "I messaged Cav back and said, 'Bring your licence and bring 20 quid.' And that was it." Fletcher laughs. "He was like, 'Cheers mate.' And that was the exchange.

"Although we have to be quite strict with entry closure, because otherwise everybody just takes the mickey, we all sort of agreed that if it is a Conti-level rider or a WorldTour rider, we always put them in, because their programmes can change. That's the only slack we cut them. They rock up, pay their entry fee, and none of them complain about it.

"I, just by chance, rode from the HQ building up to the start line with Mark. He builds it into a training ride normally. He had ridden out from Douglas, about 18 or 20 miles away, rode the race, and then rode home with a bunch of them as well. He just likes the club scene."

[Likes2ridefar]

Good for him! Some of my most memorable first year races were when Ted King signed up for a few races while he was on cannondale and once raced against Floyd Landis in a stage race in the Catskills.

[azrider]

Very cool

[redir]

Nice treat for the local racers.

[zs3889]

The paintjob on that Wilier is 👌

[osbk67]

Understanding this is the key to understanding that telling top racers when to retire is a waste of time and energy…

[fourflys]

awesome!

[earlfoss]

All Mark has to do is be ready for July and win a single stage to get his record.

I'm rooting for him. He's still got the mind and on the right day his legs are unbeatable.

[GregL]

Originally Posted by earlfoss

All Mark has to do is be ready for July and win a single stage to get his record.

I'm rooting for him. He's still got the mind and on the right day his legs are unbeatable.

+1! Cav has grown on me over the years. From enfant terrible to elder statesman. His 2021 TdF performance was inspirational. Looking forward to a (hopefully) similar performance in July.

Greg

[Alistair]

It's always nice to see pros return home.

Locally, we used to get Joe Dombrowski once in a while. His parents live about an hour outside DC. Maybe we'll see him around more now that he's retired.

[redir]

Originally Posted by Alistair

It's always nice to see pros return home.

Locally, we used to get Joe Dombrowski once in a while. His parents live about an hour outside DC. Maybe we'll see him around more now that he's retired.

Ben King used to show up to the Jefferson cup but not as a racer. I did race with him when he was young in the 1/2 fields.

I remember seeing Dombrowski at cross races before he went pro.

Lots of good talent comes out of VA.

[benb]

Reading a book about Merckx right now and it would somehow seem wrong I guess if Cavendish ends up with the stage win record without ever coming anywhere near close to contesting the GC.

All records are broken eventually though.

At least he has a giant pile of green jerseys.

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by benb

Reading a book about Merckx right now and it would somehow seem wrong I guess if Cavendish ends up with the stage win record without ever coming anywhere near close to contesting the GC.

to me, this is a similar argument people make when talking about the "best QB".. is it Montana, is it Peyton, Bradshaw, is it that guy from New England? well, it depends on what you look at and how you take into account the environment they played in..

Merckx rode in a time where folks didn't appear to specialize as much.. were there folks who only trained for the polka dots or green jersey in Merckx's time? the current generation in World Tour racing is highly specialized it seems (at least for the stars).. I can't imagine we'll ever see another rider come close to winning all of the jerseys again as riders like Tadaj or Jonas don't train to be able to match Mads Pedersen in a sprint and would never get the chance to go off and hunt mountain tops to gain enough points most years (they do come close at times though).. the white jersey for sure as that's just a coincidence if it happens most of the time..

I guess what I'm saying is if Cav gets the record, I think it would be awesome and a sign of that record coming into modern times..

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by benb

Reading a book about Merckx right now and it would somehow seem wrong I guess if Cavendish ends up with the stage win record without ever coming anywhere near close to contesting the GC.

Why, I mean really, why? I see this "point" being made a lot of the past couple of years and can't see any real validity on the point. The dude is not the only "specialist" in pro cycling. He's earned those stage wins and deserves his shot at the record. It's just one arbitrary record amongst a slew of various records.