Mark Cavendish at the Tour de France 2012; one sprint stage, one stage win. The world champ was sensational in the finale of last night’s stage. He squeezed by “The Gorilla” Andre Greipel who ran off the back of a beautifully organised leadout train.
Over the years, the dominance of Mark Cavendish has been off the back of the best leadout train in the Tour, however back in 2010 he showed he could win solo after Renshaw was ejected from the race for headbutting and not holding his line (classy).
Tonight he showed that he can win when someone else is running a great leadout train.
One of Mark Cavendish‘s great advantages is how aerodynamic he is while sprinting (elbows in, chin virtually on his bars) so he needs to push a lot fewer watts to get to warp speed when compared to his rivals.
It will be interesting to see how he goes head to head against Greipel in later stages where perhaps he’s not pushing into a headwind
Smart money has to be that he will again find away to win.
He is a freak.