Cav has left Quickstep

Johnsqual

Senior Retro Guru
Not really sure if this is on topic for this forum, but if you don't like Cav you've got something wrong with you.

Seems he's left QS for what was MTN-Qbeka and is now Dimension-something-something. Wow, I should've been a cycling journalist.

Anyway, I think it's a good move. QS was too full of talent to make a well-structured team. E.g. Stybar is clearly a candidate Paris-Roubaix/Ronde winner but he has to hold himself back for Boonen, etc etc.
 
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First off I'll admit I don't really like him too much but do admire his talent and skill. That said I think he'd have been better staying with QS, I reckon as a cyclist he could have developed into a Boonen type, ex sprinter now classics man and QS was the place to learn the trade. I'm not the biggest track fan and hate it when good roadmen go back to the boards, Geraint Thomas for instance I truly believe he could have had a couple of classics in the bag by now if not for his Olympic sojourn.
 
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Hm, I think QS is much more heavily oriented to the classics with a couple of contenders for the Tour classification.

Boonen was always a bit more multi-dimensional than Cavendish I think, he wasn't just a pure sprinter. I don't know if a pure sprinter like Cav would be a likely winner for Paris Roubaix or the Ronde. I think that Boonen was always well suited to the Northern Classics so he fitted better at QS, maybe that's why Cav never was completely at home.

Also, Greipel seemed much stronger in the last tour, maybe because Lotto didn't have any major GC contenders, so again having a team built around one rider seems vital for the sprinters these days.
 
I don't mind Cav but while the move to MTN has been rumoured for a long while, its just that MTN had to find more sponsorship or Cav had to bring some with him if his deal was to include Renshaw and Eisel, I don't see the motivation for it. Its a weird move, I mean really, the guy could have got a top place at most teams out there. I don't know whether they have the top lead out potential even with Renshaw and Eisel. It might spark some new life into Tylar Farrar etc and that's as long as they all gel. Could be a case of two many sprint divas if they don't work together.
I don't agree that Quick Step is too full of talent to be well structured. Cav has been very successful there, far more than he was with Sky, he was always top man. The same goes for being at home, he always seemed happy. As for Stybar, he has been given a pretty open run the last 18 months, Boonan is not the only protected rider in the classics these days, even Boonan says he has diminishing returns as each year passes. He also said next year may be his last. Even during the world championships he was singing the praises of and saying they may need to back the young Belgium guy who is 22.
Time will tell as it seems there is a fair bit of movement, team changes next year. Might be good to mix it up a bit and there is also a lot of the younger guys coming through as well.

Jamie
 
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Js, maybe Boonen was a bit more adaptable but I think Cav's singlemindness could see him develop into maybe a good classics man or at least a GT stage soloist something like Hushovd has became. Maybe I've listened to too much media bollocks though, he's still the fourth best sprinter according to the rankings, I thought the young guns, Griepel Kittel, Kristiff et al were killing him. I'll also admit that sprinting for me has been a bit of a sideshow, certainly a classics rider has a load more kudos in my eyes than any sprinter.

Jamie,I don't think QS (as in Lefevere) were going to support Cav wanting to train for the Omnium at Rio, thus the change of team. I mean honestly the Omnium, who gives a chuff.
 
JD: The comparison between Sky and Quickstep is missing the point a bit. Cav was most successful at HTC Highroad which seemed like a team that was more built around him (he was also younger which of course played a part). Just look at his wins when he was with HTC compared to either Sky or QS.

The young guns have the advantage of being young, but again Giant Alpecin is from a country with a focus on sprinting and doesn't seem bothered about the GC so much. Lotto didn't have the distraction of helping Jurgen Van den Broeck achieve a mediocre position in the GC in the tour this year, so that meant they could focus on Greipel. I still think sprinters need well organised teams.

As for Stybar, he probably got a free run at Paris Roubaix this year because Boonen was out with a dislocated shoulder. Otherwise I think there'd be pressure to help Boonen win a 5th race and beat the record, even if he's getting a bit old for it.

Kaiser: Agree that classics are more important than Tour Stages. I just don't know if the real Monuments are suited to Cav. Even Milan San Remo which he's already won has changed now with more climbing.

I think maybe Cav has a choice between either going for another true classic race, breaking Merckx's record for tour stages, or going after track wins. I think the tour stage record is the most prestigious of those alternatives (breaking a record set by Merckx!) but also the most difficult.
 
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I'm no fan of Cavendish.

I also don't know much about MTN other than Steve Cummings, thanks to him winning a stage at the Tour! Good race that one!
However, if I was in the most successful, consistent, single-day teams for many years, then I would be very reluctant to leave it.
I don't really know him, but I'd guess that he'd rather be a bigger fish in a smaller pond, where everyone works for him, rather than an option depending on how a race pans out. Lefevre is a good manager (owner?) for Q/S, which has shown in the results over the years. And with Peeters ( a hero of mine) as a d/s the pair have a good ability to read a race and relay info to the riders too.
Just my opinion FWIW

Mike
 
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Hi guys
I do see what you guys are both saying. I forgot about Cav going for the Omnium, and I think I'm in the same camp as yourself on that one Kaiser.
I realise Cav was most successful at High Road but the couple of years at Sky were a waste really and now he is on the downward point of a sprinters limited time at the top. I think Griepel started slower and will go a bit longer relatively to Cav but both have the younger guys coming up and most times getting their measure.
I like Stybar, he is, or will be a great classics rider and considering that the majority owner of the team is his long time cyclocross backer I am not the only fan :)
Lefevre letting Kwiatkowski go is another strange one. He is so talented and again I don't think it will be best shown by joining Sky. The guy is too young and too talented to turn into a super domestique.
Maybe with the cash that letting these two stars go will open up more places for up and coming riders, maybe young classics riders. That is what they do best, but I think with teams like Topsport Vlandereen winning more and more and to a lesser extent Wanty Gobert, they have some real talented teams coming at them from within Belgium. Its not just Lotto anymore.
Anyway I digress.

Jamie
 
I'm not a fan. Given the choice, I'm sure Cav would have stayed at Etixx - it's by a mile the best team for him - but having had a terrible Tour with about as much support as he's going to get anywhere, Lefevere (and Specialized?) has clearly had enough, already having wasted no time in signing Fernando Gaviria after seeing him twice beat his man in (early season) San Luis this year.

Cav simply isn't the rider he was. His one-time HTC team-mate handed him his ass at the Tour this year, and he still hasn't won any race ever after beating Kittel in a sprint. He's never winning another MSR even with a friendly route, and has almost no hope of catching Eddy's Tour stage record. There's talk of him turning into a different kind of racer, but he's almost always needed an armchair ride to the finish for his best wins, so I can't see this move working too well.

Above all else, I hope this doesn't compromise the chances of MTN's African riders. Their main GC hope, Louis Meintjes, has wisely already left, and I'm not sure where the likes of Merhawi Kudus and Daniel Teklehaimanot go from here. Bigger and better teams, hopefully.
 
Interesting discussion so far. Thanks for all the replies.

I think it's clear Cav is at a difficult point, and has to try and make a decision about how to get the best out of his last few years as a prof. As others have said, going for track events at the Olympics seems like something of a cop out. Maybe having come through the British cycling system has the effect that track events mean more to those guys - some sort of nostalgia or something.

I'd personally like to see him have a few more goes at TdF and Giro sprint stages. Having a well-organised team is essential for that with the sprint trains and so on, I think every sprinter needs that. One thing Cav maybe does have is more tactical insight than the others. His analyses of his wins when he's interviewed are really incredible, he can reel off the names of the people around him and what they were doing.

As for MTN's African guys, that's an interesting point. I hope too that they get given a chance elsewhere although I would worry that the nationally based teams generally tend to give priority to riders from their own country, especially when it comes to GC. Even the support for Quintana from Movistar was a bit half-arsed at some points.
 

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