August 24, 2011 by Irish Peloton
If there’s a man who has a right to be tired…
Mark Cavendish had a chance to make a bit of history this week. There have only been three riders in the history of the sport who have won a stage in all three Grand Tours in the same year, Miguel Poblet (1956), Pierino Baffi (1958) and Alessandro Petacchi (2003). Having already won two stages of this year’s Giro and five stages at the Tour, Cavendish had only a stage of the 2011 Vuelta to cross off his list to complete the hat-trick.
But, as we now know, Cavendish abandoned and in doing so forfeited his chance of joining the trio of riders who have achieved this remarkable feat. But the question is, should we really be all that surprised?
The route of the Giro d’Italia was insane. The race director Angelo Zomegnan lost the run of himself and in his quest to create as mythical and ‘epic’ a race as possible, he killed it. With so many mountaintop finishes, all the route did was enhance the truism that we already were aware of, that Alberto Contador was the best climber in the race.
Miguel Poblet - The first rider to win a stage in all three Grand Tours in the same year.
Granted, Cavendish left the Giro d’Italia before the end of the race. Choosing to depart, as did most of the sprinters, after Stage 12. But he still had to tackle three big mountain stages before abandoning.
Following this, the 2011 Tour de France was probably the most demanding of Cavendish’s career so far. He finally won the green jersey which is evidence that he was constantly on guard battling it out for points at the finish. But because of the new green jersey rules he also found himself sprinting twice a day on some occasions.
The battle for the G.C. between Evans and the Schlecks was also so intense that the gruppetto of which Cavendish was a part, missed the time cut on two consecutive Alpine stages.
Cavendish may have had his best ever Tour de France, winning five stages and the green jersey, but it was also the toughest he’s ever had to ride.
Cavendish completed his toughest ever Tour this year
Of all the riders who started the Giro, just 29 of them started the Tour, with just 17 of those completing both the Giro and the Tour. Both of these figures are about half of what they usually tend to be, which is a measure of just how tough the team managers thought tackling both Giro and Tour would be this year.
Moving on to the Vuelta then, of the 29 riders who started both the Giro and the Tour, just four decided to also take part in the Vuelta. Those four riders are Sebastian Lang, Tyler Farrar, Alessandro Petacchi and Mark Cavendish.
Incidentally, Sebastian Lang is the only rider at the Vuelta who completed both the Giro and the Tour and as such is the only rider this year in with a chance of doing a Lejarreta.
Sebastian Lang could complete all three Grand Tours this year.
So only four riders in world cycling even started all three Grand Tours this year. Petacchi abandoned the Giro on the same stage as Cavendish and Farrar abandoned after Stage Four due to the death of his friend Wouter Weylandt. Petacchi won a stage in the Giro and Farrar won a stage in the Tour. But only Cavendish had the strength to win stages in both.
It’s one thing to say that a rider took part in a couple of Grand Tours this year, but considering the actual number of race days completed by each rider gives a much more defined idea of how exhausted they must be.
Before Mark Cavendish abandoned the Vuelta a Espana on Stage Four, he had racked up 76 race days in 2011. Of the other 197 starters in the Vuelta, only four of them have raced more days this year than Cavendish. Those four are Nicki Sorensen, Sergey Lagutin, Tyler Farrar and surprisingly for his young age, Jakob Fuglsang.
Cavendish’s 76 race days only include UCI races of category 1 and above. They don’t include the post-Tour criteriums for which, having won the Tour’s green jersey, he would have been in great demand. These races would have taken him well over the 80 mark.
So to sum up, Cavendish is one of only four riders who took to the startline of the Giro, Tour and Vuelta this year. Of the 198 riders in the Vuelta, there are only four riders who have raced more days than him this year. He also raced plenty of criteriums after the Tour de France, winning three, more than any other rider.
Really, it’s no wonder he is tired.
TH - August 24, 2011 @ 4:41 pm
Pierino Baffi, not Adriano.
Irish Peloton - August 24, 2011 @ 5:23 pm
That’s really weird. I had Pierino typed in and thought it looked wrong so I changed it to Adriano. Where did I get Adriano from?
John E Dunn - August 25, 2011 @ 9:11 am
You’ve hit the nail in reminding us that Cavendish’s Tour de France was unusually demanding this year and unlike his stage-racing rivals (Farrar for instance) he was consistently ‘up there’.
Personally I thought he was mad to take on the baking, mountainous Vuelta when the majority of star riders gave it a miss. There are some great riders in it but it’s noticable that the riders who are starring are ones who’ve been missing for the rest of the year.
Irish Peloton - August 25, 2011 @ 10:07 am
I presume his decision to ride the Vuelta is because it’s proven to be the best preparation for an assault on the World Championships, which is fair enough. He probably planned on abandoning after Stage 12 anyway.
What’s perhaps more surprising was his decision to ride the Giro. He said his two goals for the year were the green jersey and the rainbow jersey. None of the Tour G.C. guys rode the Giro (apart from Contador, but that’s because he thought he was going to be banned for the Tour), so why did Cavendish decide to ride that gruelling Giro if his goal was the Tour too?
He’s certainly spread himself too thin. Rumours abound that it’s not just fatigue, that he’s actually been struck down with an illness too. I wonder now will he recover in time to reach another form peak for Copenhagen.
John E Dunn - August 25, 2011 @ 3:40 pm
Cav rode the Giro because it’s a prestigious preparation for his main goal of the year, the Tour de France, following that up with a fitness ride in the Tour of Switzerland. I think he got that right.
As to the Vuelta, I’m not so sure that the old rule about preparing for the Worlds using this race is as important for sprinters as it is for GC riders. As your article so rightly said, the Tour 2012 was an unusually tough race for any Green Jersey contender because of the intermediate sprints.
I hope he isn’t ill with a mystery virus because it’ll be curtains for the Worlds if he is. Another one who has struck me as being well below his potential for some time is Goss. Might they have the same affliction?
John Murphy - August 26, 2011 @ 1:51 am
I think he rode the Giro to rack up more qualification points for Britain for the world championships so he could have a stronger team with more riders.