I knew he had won when I came to watch the highlights but it was still one of the most exciting races I have seen. Edge of the seat stuff. Wiggins was staggering.

Up to now whenever I've seen road racing I've always kind of looked at the Brits as being a bit wet behind the ears. Cav has stood out up to now in terms of knowing how to deliver time in, time out.

Yesterday - GB owned the peleton. They were in charge. It was fascinating and exciting to watch 'patrons of the peleton' in red, white and blue. Everyone knew what they were going to do and nobody could stop them.

I think Wiggins and Millar deserve a lot of credit for yesterday. Wiggins is a proper road racer now and Millar - he's going to make a very good DS in a few years.

I think Cav might win it.

Darren Clarke's a good shout but both him and Rory McIlroy won golfing majors this seasonand they're both Northern Irish. I reckon those factors will split their vote.

wiggins was crucial to the win by cav, because he sapped the legs of potential breakaways in the 'danger zone' ie 10 to 20ks from home. an organised break here could have been decisive but his raw pursuit speed plus some nice weaving across the road meant nobody could spring off the front, millar did a great job of watching the breakaways mid race too. funnily enough the plan almost collapsed in the last 2 kilometres when cav went missing for a bit and thomas had to look around for him, but in his interview cav said he knew the aussie goss would be the main danger so simply took his wheel then attacked and took him in the sprint.
so back to the drawing board for the other teams for the olympics, should be a fascinating tactical battle as its now clear that to beat cav you have to either break away early or box him in in the last kilometre

on the sports personality thing, clarke and mclroy have really only shone in one event each this year, cav has won the green jersey, world champs, the olympic test event and key stages of the tour of britain, there should only be one winner, though as one poster has pointed out zara philips won it when perhaps others should have.
don't forget mo farrah too, athletics always does well despite years of underachievement. cricketers to win team of the year, unless a home nation wins the onion world cup, though the GB cycling team should be in there too. vettel for overseas win - can't remember if he won this last year, but this year he's been even better (messi is an outside chance for this)

nice to have so many candidates this time around

Well! Well done team GB for an absolutely awesome race. Each guy rode out of his skin to get Cav in the position to attack for the win. Cav may have the rainbow jersey, but it was their unselfish display of effort and determination which won the day. Not a single team helped them throughout the day. They and only they can take the glory for the win.

And so the tail continues on the will he won't he front. Apparently he is very close to signing for Omega pharma! Which is interesting seems as though Greipel left HTC to get out of Cav's shadow and may now be back under it!
It would seem that there are some "paperwork" issues which are getting in the way of Cav signing for Sky. From looking on the forums the discussion is the possibility of Specialized not being willing to let Cav and his high profile go missing from their rider roster. And as Sky are stuck in a Pinarello contract it may be causing problems.

Just One race lef as well in the fantasy cycling team game. It's been a good season and I may even just sneak a win to gain the rlfans title lol.

It'd be good if we could get a few names on it for next year. It makes the race season much more entertaining. you should all come and try it with us.

fungus - don't you think its a bit odd that riders have to ride a certain brand of bike in races - i understand its probably necessary for the sponsorship money and team funding et al, but as a rider myself i would always want to pick and choose my race bike myself - is is after all an true extension of the rider, much so than for example a formula one car's relationship with its driver

there again i'm not a cycling racer, just a normal rider. is there much difference between the brands of bikes at the 'top end' of racing?

From what I know of it. The bike manufacturers pay the teams for them to use their bike. So the best teams get paid to ride the best bikes. We must be talking millions (maybe!!) in terms of money that Specialized will pay to the now defunct HTC to use their bikes etc.... With that much money involved If spesh say to a team we want X rider than I presume the pressure is huge to ensure that X rider rides for that team that year.

I do know that last year when Scott were HTC's bike supplier they put Cav on a new machine that was supposed to make him even better ( think it was the foil) after a few high profile races it became apparent that Cav and the Foil weren't the winning match made in heaven they thought it would be and he went back to his Scott Addict. Riders will also use different bikes from their manufacturer for different races such as The Tour of Flanders and Paris Roubaix. Where it's not uncommon to see teams racing with aluminium frames or even cross bikes! But even then they will be the same manufacturer.

One thing you will find though during those 2 races is that a great number of the teams will use Ambrosia wheels ( an Italian wheel manufacturer known for building strong quality hoops) And cover up the ambrosia name and put their own wheel manufacturers name on them instead. Apparently this thing happened much more years ago even as far as bikes being labelled up as a different make so the rider got to ride the bike they wanted to!

I reckon that top end bikes are so similar nowadays that unless you need an especially stiff bike for sprinting etc... the difference in performance is negligible. Obviously that's my own uniformed opinion with no actual evidence to back it up with.

Glad the Cav circus is now settled.

cheers for that, very interesting. i take it cav will have to ride pinarello from now on

had a look around and found [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/team-sky-move-means-new-bike-for-mark-cavendish-32026this[/url article about cav and a potential new bike. wonder if he dosn't like it whether pinarello will put together a brand new machine?

For 1 year at least as Sky signed a 3 year deal. The whole Specialised thing was a bit of a mountain out of a molehill IMO, didn't HTC ride Scott bikes until this year?

It's technically Cycling this.



[url=http://www.kiaoval.com/news/big-cricket-ridePair of ex-cricketers involved in a big charity bike ride[/url

An RLFans member will also be joining them for a couple of legs.

interesting news on the route for le tour next year. not so many mountains and double the mileage for time trials from last time, could be wiggins best chance of glory. only trouble is contador and evans will like this too. six or seven stages look good for Cav to rack up some more stage wins

Yep it's definitely a Wiggins friendly route but then as you say it's also Contador and Evans friendly too. Not to mention Tony Martin! I presume Evans and Contador will have a support role to play in the olympics ( if any role) whilst the TT is a going concern for Wiggo and Martin.
It may also help Sky in it's multi role off helping Cav get green and Wiggo on the podium. Less support needed on the hills. Though it's interesting that they won't have G to help out, as he is solely aiming at the olympics next year.
Even though it's not been mentioned I'm pretty sure he'll be aiming for some classics glory at Flanders or Paris Roubaix. Can't wait for that! The classics are with out doubt the highlight of the season. The racing is simply spectacular.

Sky announce tour down under team. [urlhttp://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,17553_7314925,00.html[/url

Now that is a strong team and a surprise that they are holding back Cav at the moment. Unless they are going to have him in the Tour of Qatar line up to start getting him ready for Milan san Remo.

Geraint Thomas is more than capable of winning a spring classic next year. I just hope he does set up his season to peak twice.

Funny feeling that Cancellara won't make the same mistakes as last year. It'll help that he has a smart DS this year in Bruyneel.

I'm doing Paris Roubaix next year too but can't see me ripping up the cobbles somehow!!

went to the revolution series in manchester on saturday to see some of the stars and also to pay tribute to rob hayles who did a retirement lap and interview. nice touch for his former madison team mate cav to present him with a present. cav duly won the longest scratch race but team sky riders seemed to be off the pace and going through the motions a bit (thomas and dowsett esp.) clancy and tennant rode a blindingly fast madison time trial (if this is their event in the olympics watch out for them.) however like most there i was impressed most by the talents of 15 years old emily kay - bit too young for london 2012, but remember the name
overall can well recommend this for an entertaining evening out - decent beer at the refreshment stands too

Watched the highlights on Monday night on ITV4. Some crash for the two Rouleur riders, relieved to see them both walk away, though the 3rd gave an admirable effort on his own for the rest of the night. Bet he was sore the next day!

I wish that the year would end and the classics season hurry up. I'm even looking forward to watching borefests such as the tour of Qater!!!!!

Cav4SPOTY!!!!

All those bets earlier this year when he was at 40/1 - I just wish I'd put more on him now.

If this does happen then I expect cycling to explode in this country next year.

If I'd have known those odds were available I'd have lumped on too!

He's certainly getting himself in the public eye. He's done plenty of TV interviews in recent weeks, which isn't typical of him at all.

So with the recent announcement around the teams securing World Tour status is anyone else as dissapointed as me to not see Europcar not on the list?

With Voeckler being majestic in last years Tdf and the new French hope of Pierre Roland it seems a shame they are not being given their chance to shine. No doubt they will get a wild card for the Tdf but I can't see the Giro handing a wild card to them.

KERRRRRRCHING!!!!! Thank you to the folk of Betfair who wrote him off in early June not realising that he was looking good for the World Championships as all other contenders for SPOTY fell by the wayside.

However - the question now is will cycling explode? Is Cav the man to make this happen?

OK - Fantasy Cycling time of the year again. For those interested in joining the RL Fans league the ID is 75485. Anyone can join - and it adds a lot of fun to the season. fantasy.road.cc/

OK - Fantasy Cycling time of the year again. For those interested in joining the RL Fans league the ID is 75485. Anyone can join - and it adds a lot of fun to the season. fantasy.road.cc/