Comments on: Cavendish vs Kittel http://www.sportsleader.co.za/xylonvaneyck/2012/01/25/cavendish-vs-kittel/ Tue, 22 May 2012 10:37:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: JDunn http://www.sportsleader.co.za/xylonvaneyck/2012/01/25/cavendish-vs-kittel/#comment-27411 JDunn Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:35:03 +0000 http://www.sportsleader.co.za/xylonvaneyck/2012/01/25/cavendish-vs-kittel/#comment-27411 Cavendish is famous for having poor output numbers, so poor the GB Academy thought he had no chance of even being a professional. As his coach and mentor Rod Ellingworth has said, nobody has any idea why Cavendish is so fast in the sprints, he just is. Positioning and mental reaction times are part of it - Cavendish just has an instinctive talent for knowing where to be at what moment that many powerful rivals just don't have. There is something else though - I saw Cavendish overhaul Mark Renshaw on the final stage of the 2011 Tour of Britain in London from 14 metres back. It looked impossible, it was impossible. There is no rider on earth that could accelerate the way Cavendish suddenly did. He had got the corner wrong, was way back, and yet he summoned up a 250m surge that left spectators open-mouthed. Even Renshaw laughed. Watch it on YouTube. It convinced me that some riders, a tiny number, just have an 'ingredient X' that goes beyond simple wattage or 'being fast'. Cavendish is famous for having poor output numbers, so poor the GB Academy thought he had no chance of even being a professional.

As his coach and mentor Rod Ellingworth has said, nobody has any idea why Cavendish is so fast in the sprints, he just is.

Positioning and mental reaction times are part of it - Cavendish just has an instinctive talent for knowing where to be at what moment that many powerful rivals just don’t have.

There is something else though - I saw Cavendish overhaul Mark Renshaw on the final stage of the 2011 Tour of Britain in London from 14 metres back. It looked impossible, it was impossible.

There is no rider on earth that could accelerate the way Cavendish suddenly did. He had got the corner wrong, was way back, and yet he summoned up a 250m surge that left spectators open-mouthed. Even Renshaw laughed.

Watch it on YouTube. It convinced me that some riders, a tiny number, just have an ‘ingredient X’ that goes beyond simple wattage or ‘being fast’.

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]]> By: Cavendish vs Kittel http://www.sportsleader.co.za/xylonvaneyck/2012/01/25/cavendish-vs-kittel/#comment-27409 Cavendish vs Kittel Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:29:07 +0000 http://www.sportsleader.co.za/xylonvaneyck/2012/01/25/cavendish-vs-kittel/#comment-27409 [...] 11:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 [...] […] 11:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 […]

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