Monday Musette: The World Championships

Fotoreporter Sirotti

For today’s Monday Musette, we’ve got the World Championships on our mind. Here’s what we’re chewing on:

• So, Mark Cavendish is now the road racing World Champion. Those who love to hate Cavendish might have a sour taste in their mouths, but as Fabian Cancellara pointed out in a post-race interview, it was a sprinter’s course, and the fastest sprinter in the world won the race. That is appropriate in its own way. 

• Credit Cav with being committed to winning this race, despite his Vuelta disappointment and any pre-race vaccilation or avoiding his usual bombast. Clad in a skinsuit and with some sort of prophylactic-looking helmet cover, he was geared up to make himself as fast and as slippery as possible. 

• The course had a bit of elevation and a bit of technical intrigue – not the least of which was the uphill drag to the finish line that led to a number of slow-motion sprints over the past week – but even after 270 kilometers, its bumps and turns weren’t enough to cause damage and a group of 82 rode to the finish together. A crash half-way through had split the field, leaving riders including Thor Hushovd and Tony Martin stuck behind, but other than that, there was little meaningful attrition.

• It seemed as though much of the peloton had let the course determine the race long before the race was finished. Thomas Voeckler, Niki Sorenson, and Klaas Lodewijk’s late attack was joined by Johnny Hoogerland, but there was much looking around in between pull-taking.

•  Though Mark Cavendish was gracious in thanking his Great Britain teammates, including Bradley Wiggins and David Millar (both of whom did the lion’s share in the final laps), it’s worth noting that the late members of his looked to be a bit more multi-national. There’s some clucking on Twitter that Cav’s late lead-out train was comprised of members of Team Sky, thus circumventing the national affair of the World Championships, and tipping Cav’s home for the 2012 season. We’re unconvinced, but unsure. 

• Matthew Goss deserves kudos for a fine sprint, but from an overhead replay it looks like his patience in launching the sprint was at the expense of an opportunity to box Cavendish in. Behind those two, Andre Greipel beat Fabian Cancellara photo finish for 3rd place. Cancellara, it’s worth noting, was sprinting from the hoods. Far be it from me to teach Sparticus how to ride a bike, but were he in his drops, he could be disappointed with a bronz medal right now.

• Think there’ll be another crisis of Italian team  management after this year’s WC?

That’s what we noticed yesterday morning. What did you notice? Share your thoughts below.