HTC-Columbia

It is one of the most grueling sporting events on the planet. Over three weeks ago, 198 cyclists departed from Passage du Gois. On Sunday afternoon, the remaining 167 cyclists crossed the finish line on the Champs Elysee to mark the end of over 3,400km of racing.

As he has done for the past two years, Mark Cavendish was able to stay ahead of his rivals in the sprint finish and claim his third successive Champs Elysee victory and continue to cement his name as one of the greatest sprinters that the sport has ever seen. However, he still seems to struggle to gain the recognition in the UK that he deserves.

This is due to two reasons. Firstly, the lack of attention that the Tour de France, and particularly road cycling in general, receives in the UK media. Mark Cavendish’s fifth stage win of this year’s Tour de France received a small story on the BBC Sport website, yet no coverage whatsoever on the BBC news programme. It was a small story tucked away in the depths of the sports pages in most national newspapers.

On the continent, Mark Cavendish is like the David Beckham of cycling. In countries like France, Belgium and Spain where cycling is a serious sport, he is one of the most famous sporting names. However, back in the UK, it would be fair to assume that only a small proportion of people have heard of Mark Cavendish, and even if they have, would not realise what a major star the man is.

The second reason is linked into the first reason. There is a general lack of understanding of how exactly the Tour de France works. There is the common misconception that Mark Cavendish won five out of the 21 stages, so he should be winning the Tour de France.

However, the Tour does not work exactly like this. There are four different jerseys that are up for grabs in the race. The yellow jersey (Maillot Jeune) is awarded to the rider with the best overall time.

Generally, there are only a small handful of riders who could even challenge for this jersey. To win it, you must be one of the few riders that truly excels in the high mountains, as well as being able to stick with the pack on the flat stages and being able to time-trial with the best of them.

If you lack in one of these attributes, it will be difficult to win the yellow jersey. Andy Schleck is arguably of the best cyclists of his generation in the mountains, but his lack of time-trialling ability meant that even though he carried a lead of almost a minute into the final time-trial, he ended up finishing the overall race in second place by over 1:30. This very small flaw in his riding ability will always make it tough for him to win the yellow jersey.

The second jersey is the green jersey, designed to determine the best sprinter. This is the jersey that Mark Cavendish won. Points are awarded for finishing position in each individual stage, as well as intermediate sprints at various points through the stage. The overall time that each cyclist finishes in the final classification is irrelevant when it comes to the green jersey.

Mark Cavendish won five stages and consistently finished in high positions on the intermediate sprints. Through this, he accumulated 334 points. His closest rival, Jose Joaquin Rojas, accumulated a total of 272 points over the 21 stages.

The fact that Mark Cavendish finished the overall race in 130th place, over three hours and 15 minutes behind Cadel Evans, and almost 55 minutes behind Jose Joaquin Rojas, does not matter as far as he is concerned.

The third jersey is the polka dot jersey, which is awarded for the best climber in the race. At the top of each climb, there are a certain number of mountain points available. The bigger the climb, the more points are available.

The natural climbers will often target this jersey. Even if they will struggle in other types of stages, they are able to race up the mountains faster than their rivals. Often the biggest names will appear high in this classification, purely due to the fact that they are some of the best climbers.

This year, the polka dot jersey was won by Samuel Sanchez, who also finished sixth in the overall classification. Andy Schleck, Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador also featured in the top five, with Jelle Vanendert being the only non-GC contender to appear. Vanendert finished in 20th place overall, but was able to win one mountain stage and regularly appeared toward the front of the race over many of the mountains.

The final jersey is the white jersey, awarded to the best young rider in the race. Any rider under 25 years old is eligible to compete for this jersey. It is awarded in an identical manner to the yellow jersey, but is focussed on the younger riders in the race. This year, it was won by Pierre Rolland, who finished 11th in the overall classification.

Going into the race, no rider will be targeting all of the jersey. In this modern day, it is virtually impossible for any rider to be the best climber and the best sprinter. So when people question why Mark Cavendish is winning so many stages, but seems to be at the back over the mountains and finishing low down in the overall classification, it is because he is a specialised sprinter, not a climber.

Compare it for example to athletics. Mark Cavendish is like an 800m runner. It requires some endurance, but the major part is a sprint finish at the end. Over the final 200m of a race, Cavendish is the fastest man on the planet. However, he has also often ridden over 200km to get there.

The likes of Cadel Evans, Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck are more like marathon runners. They will almost never beat Cavendish and the other sprinters in a short sprint, but over a 21 stage race, they will almost always finish above the sprinters.

On a slightly unrelated point, but to continue the analogy, track sprinters, such as Chris Hoy, would be 100m sprinters. Their events are purely based on sheer speed over a short distance.

In a track event, Chris Hoy will almost always beat Mark Cavendish. However, ask Chris Hoy to ride for 200km over hills before a sprint finish, Mark Cavendish will win almost every single time.

It is why Mark Cavendish will never win the yellow jersey for the best overall time in the Tour de France. However, criticising him for this misses the point. He is not racing to win the yellow jersey. He is racing for the green jersey. The Tour de France is like several races in one and each rider in the race has different objectives depending on his and his team’s individual strengths.

After the final stage, David Millar said that he feels that Mark Cavendish is the greatest sprinter in the history of cycling. It is undisputed that he is the greatest sprinter of his generation. He has now moved onto 20 Tour de France stage wins in only four tours. To put this into context, Thor Hushovd, one of his main rivals, has 10 stage wins in eleven tours. Erik Zabel, who is considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time has 12 stage wins in six tours.

Next year, he will likely overtake Lance Armstrong’s 22 stage wins and may even move into joint third on the all-time winners list with Andre Leducq on 25. Ahead of Leducq lies Bernard Hinault on 28 and then the legendary Eddy Merckx on 34. Given that Cavendish potentially has at least five or six tours left in him, it would be no surprise to see him eventually top this list.

At the end of the day, it is the lack of attention that the sport gets combined with the misunderstanding of how the sport works that means that Mark Cavendish does not get the credit amongst the general public that he deserves.

The Sports Personality of the Year award is often a decent indication of the recognition that athletes, particularly in the less mainstream sports, receive from the general public. Despite being a standout contender for this award, it would be a major shock if he were to win it. Elsewhere on the continent, he would be a big favourite to clinch the award. It shows the different attitudes toward the sport.

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Despite finishing stage 18 outside the cut off time Mark Cavendish has retained the green jersey, although his lead had be more than halved.

Cavendish finished the stage, 35'40" down on stage winner Andy Schleck, less than three minutes outside the cut off time.

The brutal stage, rated as a coefficient three (or intensely difficult) stage by organisers saw over 80 riders miss the cut off time as Andy Schleck powered ahead of his rivals to take victory and gain more than two minutes over all his yellow jersey rivals.

That was just not enough to wrestle the jersey from Thomas Voeckler who rode with every last ounce of effort to retain the jersey by just 15 seconds.

The group of riders who finished in the 'autobus' outside the cut off time was so large it was inevitable that race organisers would allow them all to ride on in the race, but the slow ride did not go unpunished as each of the riders, including Cavendish, had 20 sprint classification points taken from them.

Twenty points were removed as this is the number of points received by the winner of a mountain stage.

The big blow for Cavendish is that his main rival for the green jersey, Jose Joaquin Rojas finish the day just inside the cut off time and has seen the Spaniard move to within 15 points of Cavendish.

Belgian champion Phillipe Gilbert will be disappointed to finish in the same group as Cavendish.  The Omega Pharmo-Lotto man lies third in the points classification and remains 70 points behind Cav, a gap that is surely too big to overcome at this late stage.

With one more mountain stage left, finishing atop the famous Alp D'Huez, Cavendish will be desperate to avoid further penalty that could see him rise into Paris without the green jersey. 

An impeccable ride from the HTC-Highroad team was finished off by Mark Cavendish, who stormed over the line in Montpellier to take his 19th career win on the tour.

The day started with a predictable breakaway of five riders, including tour debutant and now three-time escapee Anthony Delaplace (Sojasun) and former stage winner Samuel Dumoulin. Dumoulin (Cofidis) attacked very early in the day, and although he stayed in front for a long period, he never really looked to be producing a stage win. 

The attendance of Mickael Delage of FDJ meant the French team maintained their record of having a rider present in every breakaway of the tour so far, with the team taking the combativity award for "Fighting Spirit" on five of the 14 occasions it has been awarded this year—something that has seen the relatively unknown team become one of the more popular teams in this year's tour. 

The main focus of the day, though, was on the sprinters, especially as peloton never let the breakaway group build a meaningful lead, with the gap only briefly reaching four minutes before the HTC team of Mark Cavendish formed a nine-man train that controlled the pace of the peloton for most of the day. 

Allan Peiper, directeur sportif of the HTC-Highroad team, speaking to letour.fr during the stage, claimed that having all of his riders at the front was simply the best way to keep his team safe in strong winds. He then commented, with a hint of satire, that it was a “chance to make the others a little bit nervous.”

But with today being the last viable day for green jersey-holder Cavendish to claim points in the sprint classification before Paris, it was the HTC team who were likely to be feeling the nerves, knowing that a slip up today could leave the door well and truly wide open for Phillipe Gilbert (Omega Pharmo-Lotto) to steal the green jersey in the mountain stages. 

The positioning of today’s intermediate sprint also added to the nerves, being under 50 km from the finish.

Although the gap had been closed to around a minute, HTC seemed happy to allow the breakaway riders to take the top five spots, leaving Cavendish and rivals Gilbert and Rojas (Movistar) to battle it out for the remaining points on offer. 

And it was indeed the three contenders for green who crossed the line ahead of the peloton, with Cavendish gaining one and two points on Rojas and Gilbert respectively as the three men sprinted to the line as if it were for a stage win. 

Changes to the regulations surrounding intermediate sprints have been a major success this year, with the introduction of a single intermediate with more points meaning that even after a leading group has taken the first few places there are still valuable points available for the sprinters. 

This has added extra excitement to the day’s racing, with today being a great example of that as the top three men in the points classification gave their all to take sixth place in the sprint despite its proximity to the finish line.

With a complex and very technical run to the finish, anything was possible. And with Cavendish taking a tumble in the mountains yesterday before a major struggle to finish only two minutes before the cut-off time (which Frenchman William Bonnet of FDJ missed), many of the sprinters in the pack will have fancied their chances of taking a stage win from the favoured Cavendish. 

With 15 km to the finish, the French contingent of the breakaway were eventually caught leaving Dutchman Niki Terpstra (Quick Step) and Russian Mikhail Ignatiev (Katusha), both time-trial specialists, 30 seconds ahead with 10 km to go. 

Their efforts were in vain as Garmin briefly joined HTC at the front of the peloton through the dangerous swerves and roundabouts on the outskirts of Montpellier, catching Ignatiev first before a brave solo effort from Terpstra (which earned him the combativity award for today) ended with three km left to go. 

Just as Ignatiev was caught, Phillipe Gilbert launched a solo attack in an effort to disrupt the HTC train. For a few seconds it seemed that the nerves may have gotten the better of the HTC team as Lampre and Team Sky both made brief moves as Gilbert was caught and passed. 

But HTC regained their composure and prime position, allowing Mark Renshaw to launch Mark Cavendish into the final sprint for the line. Once at the front, the victory never looked in doubt for the Briton, who powered to his 19th career win and fourth of the 2011 Tour de France.

American sprinter Tyler Farrar (Garmin) finished a wheel behind Cav in second place, with Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre) coming in third. Young debutant Ben Swift of Team Sky came in sixth place to mark his highest finish yet. 

Cavendish has now won four or more stages in four consecutive tours and extended his lead in the points classification to 37 points over second place Jose Joaquin Rojas, who finished in fifth place. Phillipe Gilbert did not score at the finish, leaving him 71 points behind Cavendish. 

After suffering three days in the mountains, the contenders for the yellow jersey took advantage of the flat stage and kept themselves out of trouble, finishing together in the main pack. As a result, there is no change in the standings and Thomas Voeckler retained the yellow jersey yet again. 

When asked about his chances of winning the tour, Voeckler was quick to dismiss himself in a post race interview with ITV, claiming he had no chance to hold on to the jersey through the Alps and winning in Paris. Seven-time winner Lance Armstrong disagrees, letting the world know on Twitter that he feels Voeckler can indeed go on to win.

The race for the yellow jersey may still be wide open, but Cavendish is closing in on the green. Speaking after the stage to British television, the fastest man on the tour claimed his main motivation was not personal glory, but fear of letting down his teammates, who he described as "machines" who ride selflessly all day to set up potential victory. 

Heading into the second rest day of the tour, surely the only thing that can prevent Cavendish from becoming the first Briton to win the green jersey in Paris is the dreaded cut-off time in the Alps. If the Manxman can get over the mountains within the cut-off time, he will surely be a favourite to finish ahead of Gilbert and Rojas on the Champs Elysees.

It wouldn’t be the Tour de France if there wasn’t at least one ridiculous controversy to spring up during the race.

It’s nice to see that the organizers have jumped in early and needlessly stripped sprinters Mark Cavendish and Thor Hushovd of their points after the intermediate sprint on Stage 3.

According to the BBC’s website, Hushovd and Cavendish were stripped on their points for bumping into each other as they rounded a bend just before the finish line.

Overhead video shows Hushovd moving over to squeeze Cavendish to the left of the road and almost into the gutter. Cavendish responded by leaning back on Hushovd and pushing him away with his head.

It is the sort of thing that goes on in every sprint, but for some reason, the commissaries have decided to take a dim view of it.

Cavendish tweeted, "Just discovered Thor & I have been disqualified from the intermediate sprint today. Seriously no idea why?"

Hushovd was equally mystified and said in an interview with the BBC, "It's true we rubbed shoulders, but it's part of the race."

In a move that gives some indication of the character of the man, Hushovd apparently volunteered to accept sole responsibility for the incident as it was precipitated by him moving off line.

The commissaries did not feel inclined to take up his offer.

Sprinting in stage races is no place for the faint-hearted. It is a physical sport, and if riders don’t protect themselves or their line they will not win.

Worse still, hesitation results in crashes which, at those speeds, is going to bring down a lot of riders and cause some serious injuries.

When you are expending that much energy, there is not sufficient oxygen to hold a conversation. An elbow or gentle caress with the helmet is a sprinter’s way of saying, “Excuse me, you appear to be encroaching on my personal space” or words to that effect.

Comparisons will be made to the incident from the 2010 Tour, when Mark Renshaw—Cavendish’s lead out man—was sent home for head-butting Julian Dean—lead out man for Tyler Farrar.

In that incident,  Dean appeared to try to force Renshaw toward the barriers, by continually moving across on Renshaw. That tactic was designed not only to slow Renshaw down to avoid a crash but also blocked the way for Cavendish to come through to finish the sprint.

Renshaw responded by leaning back on Dean but also threw three headbutts at him as well. It is that action that attracted the attention of the referees and has resulted in Renshaw being ousted from the Tour.

The Cavendish-Hushovd incident was nowhere near as serious as last year’s effort. Cavendish pushed with his helmet, nothing more. The stripping of points seems to be a little draconian.

To add insult to injury, Cavendish’s run to the finish line was seriously impeded by Romain Feillu, wrecking the Brit’s run at the line and costing him any chance of claiming a stage victory which ultimately went to fierce rival Farrar.

While there are lots more points on offer, each missed opportunity makes the job of securing Cavendish’s first green jersey that much more difficult.

Cavendish is in danger of becoming cycling’s version of Lewis Hamilton with controversy never too far away. There is no doubt that he’s the fastest man in cycling and it would be a real shame if he didn’t claim the sprinter’s ultimate prize to prove it.

After the previous four days of climbing through the seemingly endless mountains of the Pyrenees, the peloton could again relax as the Tour approached its final three flat stages.

With many sore and fatigued bodies, the teams of the two leading general classification riders—Saxo Bank and Astana—could leave others to set the pace for the stage.

Stage 18 was one for the sprinters.

The almost completely flat, 198-kilometer ride from Salies-de-Béarn to Bordeaux is tailor made for the fast men of the pack, and they did not disappoint. Teams HTC, Lampre, and Milram formed up at the front of the chase group to ensure that their teammates were in the best possible position to be launched at the line.

Andy Schleck spent some time with the race doctor late in stage and was keen for the cameras to be trained away from him, suggesting that he either didn’t want Astana to see that he had a serious problem, or it was an embarrassing problem that required him to expose parts that he would prefer to keep unseen.

That will be one to watch.

The predictable breakaway again came early with a group of four establishing themselves a lead of between two and three minutes.

As is almost always the case, this group was doomed to failure and was kept in check by a peloton determined not to waste too much energy and with about 30 km to go, the peloton decided that it was time to bring them down.

Three of the breakaway were swallowed up with about 12 km to go, but Liquigas rider Daniel Oss made a brave break for home, trying to maintain a 30-second lead on a peloton that was pumping along at 70 km/h.

He failed with five km to go.

Mark Cavendish again proved just how far ahead of the pack he really is. Despite losing Mark Renshaw who normally shepherds him to the line, Cavendish has proven again that if he is in the first half dozen riders at the end of the stage, then there isn’t a rider who can go with him.

It was a blisteringly fast finish into a headwind and yet Cavendish was still accelerating away from his rivals as he crossed the line.

In the general classification, there has been no change from yesterday and so we go into the time-tria with Schleck needing to make up an unlikely eight seconds on Alberto Contador. Fatigue and soreness will play a big part in the time-trial and any mechanical problems or a crash will mean the yellow jersey will be lost.

As a side note, what the hell were Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz doing on the podium with Alberto Contador? Surely they get enough media exposure without crashing Contador’s party. Disgraceful.

From there, it is the final day ride into Paris,where there is a convention to not challenge the yellow jersey,meaning we will know the winner of the 2010 Tour de France when Alberto Contador crosses the line as the final time-trial rider.

A lot can happen in the interim. It will be another fascinating day.

Standings after Stage 18

1.    CONTADOR A.              88h 09' 48"
2.    SCHLECK A.                00' 08"
3.    SANCHEZ S.                03' 32"
4.    MENCHOV D.               03' 53"
5.    VAN DEN BROECK J.      05' 27"
6.    GESINK R.                   06' 41"
7.    RODRIGUEZ OLIVER J.    07' 03"
8.    HESJEDAL R.                09' 18"
9.    KREUZIGER R.               10' 12"
10.    HORNER C.                 10' 37"

Stage 13 of the 2010 Tour de France, from Rodez to Revel, is one of the last remaining stages that the sprinters can use to boost their points before the caravan hits this year's most difficult stages through the Pyrenees.

It is a 196 km ride through the foothills of the Pyrenees, with a scattering of category three and four climbs. It's similar in profile to the stage two from Brussels to Spa, although the weather is expected to be significantly better with a mild 24 degrees and overcast forecast, and hopefully there will be nowhere near the carnage.

The General Classification riders will be looking to conserve energy ahead of four days of hellish climbs, so look for a breakaway amongst lower-placed riders to succeed, although Teams Lampre, HTC, and Cervelo will be looking to chase down any escapees to protect their respective sprinters, Alessandro Petacchi, Mark Cavendish, and current green jersey holder Thor Hushovd.

It will be interesting to see how Mark Cavendish handles the loss of his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw. The combination has been all but unbeatable over the last two years and the change may well have finished Cavendish’s chances of a green jersey.

Other than that, we can expect a quiet stage today, with little movement at the top of the GC and another frenetic bunch sprint.

Famous last words.

“Everybody just went ‘Whoah…who the hell is that?’ when he shot out of the bunch,” explains Kjel Schokked of the Columbia-Highroad squad. “Immediately the speculation began. Riders began whispering he’s probably leafing. ”

Leafing is the common slang of the pro-cycling peloton for eating spinach—the iron-laden vegetable banned for its potent and often unpredictable performance stimulation.

WADA has yet to perfect testing protocols to detect the presence of the highly nutritious leafy green. Abuse is feared rampant among pro cyclists, however only the most seasoned riders are able to avoid suspicion by controlling the boost in strength that eating a packet of spinach can bring a rider.

“Some say he popped a LEG (leafy edible green) packet back among the team cars,” continues Schokked. “The surge of vitamins and nutrients made his legs swell abnormally. I guess he’s more of a climber, but when he went by me, he made (Eric) Heiden look like (Alberto) Contador. They were circus-freak massive.”

WADA is frustrated in their efforts to catch leafers.

“There are no effective tests for leafing,” bemoans WADA president, Dick Pound. “In the absence of the ability to directly detect spinach, we look for external signs. Sudden and often violent performance bursts are key indicators. Freakish swelling of leg muscle tissue is usually a dead giveaway. Add to that an unhealthy attraction to abnormally skinny, homely, and whiny women and you’ve probably got yourself a case of leafing.”

Other tell-tale behaviors can betray a potential leafer.

“Sometimes a leafing rider goes into a mysterious, euphoric state and can only utter ‘Ack-yuk-yuk-yuk-yuk’ repeatedly. Strangely, we’ve often found a corn cob pipe in the possession of riders suspected of leafing, but we’ve yet to determine its purpose.”

The shroud of mystery around the rider doesn’t stop at leafing, Pound continues.

“We believe he was also gussing (loading up on asparagus before a race) to benefit from the combined effects of the two incredibly healthy and vitamin-rich vegetables,” Pound suspects. “But again, gussing is something we’re unable to test for. No-one will go near their urine sample.

“Man, does their pee stink.”

Yes, there is immense dismay amongst certain British people when anyone British wins anything! Especially if the winner does not know his station in life and does not grovel to the media with his gratitude and modesty.

Allow me to offer an ironical comment on some of my British fellow countrymen: "Who is this working class lad from the Isle of Man with a bit of a Liverpool accent? How dare he win four stages in the Tour de France at the age of 23 in 2008? An another five at 24 in 2009?

"Good gracious, he actually has the temerity to speak to the media and have an opinion, too. He's not modest! Damn the man. Reminds me of that Daley Thomson character who showed no respect to the Queen when winning two decathlon Olympic gold medals."

I am sure if Mark Cavendish was Italian, French, or from the United states, there would be wall-to-wall roadshow promotions telling us he is the best sprinter of his generation and so on.

But we British so like to lose well. Perhaps we think there is more achievement in shaking hands as the "good losers" than celebrating being the best in the world? Is there a deep malaise in the British character, a split that is based on the old class divisions which never really accepted that the working classes should be able to beat their "superior" public school cousins?

Then all those foreigners started playing those games that we invented and started beating us!

Deep down, does this flow from a yearning for the days when "The sun never set on the (British) Empire"? When we British were so supremely confident of our rule over a third of the planet that we could afford to pretend that we were still jousting like Knights under King Arthur, and a good loser was as good as a winner?

Mark Cavendish is the best sprinter in the Tour de France. He is unbeatable in most circumstances and showed two days ago that he is breaking new boundaries by starting his sprint from 200 metres out and holding off all comers.

I think it is wonderful to have a winner from road cycling from Britain to celebrate about. From all the hype and the millions of words in the Press you'd think that Lance Armstrong had won something this year.  

Cavendish seems to me to be a very likeable sort of bloke, he wears his heart on his sleeve. No stiff upper lip from him. Some British people are uncomfortable with that. So it's easy for the media to lay traps for him, to quote him out of context.

I know it's hard for the media to give up their addiction to Lance Armstrong's PR operation. (I think that a lot of the commentators fall for the Armstrong road show because they are past it, too, and identify with the idea of going back to the past and re-living past glories.)

I also wonder if some of the posters on the cycling sporting discussion boards know anything about the Tour de France? Especially when they state that Cavendish would be nothing without his Columbia team, as if this makes his achievement any the less!

The unpleasant personal attacks on Mark Cavendish that flow from some of their keyboards suggest serious jealousy. Maybe they are old(er) men (whose powers are waning) and who resent the triumph of youth?

The headstrong nature of youth is part of the chemistry of Cavendish. Sprint cycling can be seen a celebration of the fountain of energy that youth and life has bestowed on certain individuals. Take away Cavendish's enthusiasm and joi de vivre and you take away an ingredient of his character.

I don't want to hear, "Oh, he gave a really well crafted interview, isn't he well spoken? And he did so well to come third, too." Forgive my sarcasm. Give me a winner from Great Britain who makes an odd infelicitious remark any day, rather than someone who the PR spin doctors have neutralised. Cavendish is an original.

The "Nay sayers" may have to feel bit more discomfort this afternoon as Le Tour finishes on the Champs Elyssees, as Cavendish has a fair chance of winning the last stage. But if he does not, in the years to come there will be many more Cavendish wins.

Mark Cavendish is a phenomenon in British road sprinting, probably the greatest ever. For their own enjoyment, I advise people to reconcile themselves to the brilliance of Cavendish and to forget their quibbles about his celebratory routines, such as polishing his green sunspecs! 

I remember when Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe and later Steve Cram were breaking middle distance world records every other month, a commentator (I think it was Ron Pickering) said that we should all realise that this was a very special situation, that we would probably never see it again in our lifetimes. How right he was.

So I urge those who have taken against Cavendish for whatever reasons, to try to find a historical perspective and to realise that what they are seeing today will be the stuff of legends in the future. Don't waste the opportunity.

"Grandad, what did you do when Sir Mark raced on the Champs Elysees after five stage wins in the Tour de France in 2009?"

(Grandad tries to forget that he wrote mean and carping contributions to the message boards.)

"Oh, er, nothing, lad, I was walking the dog".

Cavendish has already written his name into the annals of British cycling history and will probably inspire thousands of kids, some of whom will become future champions, whether in the maillot vert or some other colour.

Finally, I judge that Cavendish has behaved very well in giving credit to his team mates after every stage win. There is an example for some allegedly greater competitors to emulate, for one would think that certain winners did it all on their own.

Mario Cippolini "Super Mario", often cited as a past great, always abandoned prior to the first mountain stage or very soon into the Tour. Cavendish is a better champion cyclist already than that.

Allez!, Allez Cav!. Bon courage! Champion de Cinq Etapes 2009. Chapeau Monsieur! Incroyable!