PEDAL DANCER GUIDE PAGES

18 March 2011

The look of a Sprinter

A Sprinter should look fast
Have you noticed that Mark Cavendish hardly looks like Cav this year? Mario Cipollini claims that it is because Cavendish is not in form this year, but I think he doesn't look right in that Specialized helmet and those black sunglasses of his. He looks bland, and to turn Mark Cavendish's own words back on him, "nothing worse than a bland person". A Sprinter should look fierce, or in the least have character (like Cipo!).

Last week I was wondering if Cavendish was ready to paint over his old Scott road bike to look like his current team sponsored Specialized bike (to get his performance back), when finally yesterday Specialized announced Mark Cavendish will be testing out the new McLaren Venge (manufactured by Specialized) for Milano-Sanremo. Perfect, just what every coach warns about - don't experiment with new equipment on the day of a big race. Mark Cavendish is going to. And at Milan-San Remo!

Specialized claims this new aero-road bike of theirs (that took 4.5 years to design) to be much faster than the old standard team Specialized Tarmac SL3. BikeRadar reports Specialized claims, "watts saved by the Venge range from 3W at 20km/h to a whopping 23W at 45km/h, and presumably a lot more than this at Mark Cavendish's sprint speed of around 70km/h".

I hope the new bike works to keep Cipo off of Cavendish's back, but I think it might take McLaren's entire design department to work on a new helmet and sunglasses for Cavendish to really make him fast. As a fan I would like to request an image update for Cavendish in 2011! Only please don't take four and a half years to get the job done. Pull an all-nighter, Milan-San Remo begins tomorrow morning!
Race Biblegazzetta.it  The Milano-Sanremo race (La Primavera) should end between 8:45 and 9:27am(MST) discover links to live coverage at Steephill.TV. If the links are restricted on Steephill, read through Twitter for the latest live feed, the twitterati are great at sharing the latest links.
Venge (vĕnj) vb To avenge. 
Read more about the new McLaren Venge on Bike Radar: Specialized McLaren Venge aero road bike launched

Cavendish's Look over the years:
Cavendish in 2011- This is one of the fastest men in the world, and he looks like the guy riding his bike around the local park. Come on Specialized & Oakley give him some character.
Cavendish in 2010
Mark Cavendish (and David Zabriskie) ATOC 2010  Photos by PedalDancer.com
Cavendish in 2009
Mark Cavendish (and Mark Renshaw) ATOC 2009   Photo by PedalDancer.com
Mark Cavendish and Erik Zabel
Cavendish in 2008
Mark Cavendish ATOC 2008   Photo by PedalDancer.com/SyS
Mario Cipollini at ATOC 2008 - he looks cool just sitting around!  Photos by PedalDancer.com/SyS
Cavendish in 2007 - he was on the T-Mobile team wearing pink!

Video of Mark Cavendish on Cycling.TV