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Fri 8 May 2009, 5:25 pm UTC

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Cavendish: 'Garmin's team trial trial fixation disrespectful'

By Daniel Friebe, Procycling

Mark Cavendish today stoked the (mostly) friendly rivalry burning between his Columbia-Highroad team and Garmin-Slipstream, calling Garmin’s apparent fixation with the 20.5km team time trial that kicks off the Giro d’Italia on Saturday “disrespectful”.

Garmin recently spent three days at their base in Girona, Spain, working solely on team time trial drills.

“The thing about it is that the Giro’s 21 days,” Cavendish said on Friday morning. “I think it’s a bit disrespectful to the race [Garmin staking so much on this]… Your race is going to start on the first day and end on the first day, and that’s what Garmin are fundamentally doing. They’ve said their season starts tomorrow. Their sponsor’s paid money for the first six months of the year [sic]…and I think that’s highly respectful to those guys. It’s May. Their season starts tomorrow and I think it’s going to end tomorrow night. I mean, come on..."

Cavendish was speaking to a small gathering of journalists in the hotel Westin Palace, close to Venice’s world-famous Piazza San Marco. At the same press briefing, Colmubia chief Bob Stapleton added further spice to what is shaping up to be a fascinating duel between the two American-based outfits, pointing out that his team won 16 individual time trials in 2008, as compared with Garmin’s year-end total of 12 victories of any description. Garmin did, however, beat Columbia by seven seconds to win the equivalent team time trial in last year's Giro in Palermo.

Bradley Wiggins, who joined Garmin from Columbia at the end of last year, commented of this year's TTT on Thursday, “as long as we beat Columbia we'll be alright…”

Although agreeing that preparation was vital for a technical event like tomorrow’s, Cavendish claimed that his team had done little in the way of practice.

“We did none really last year and we’ve done nothing again,” he said. “We’ve got a versatile team, though. We’ve got 21 races in this Giro, 21 chances. Garmin have got the TTT and what else?

“The TTT is a series of short efforts,” the Milan-San Remo champion continued. “You need to learn how to ride it. It’s not about getting nine riders from A to B, it’s about getting the team riding together, and that’s how you’ll get the best out of the team.”

Speaking about the Giro in general, Cavendish reckoned he would probably have “four or five” chances of sprint wins. Having never previously sported a prize jersey in a major tour, he revealed that a stint in the pink or ciclamino (points) jersey could also be among his ambitions for this race.

Columbia are the first team due on the start-ramp tomorrow, at 15h35 local time. Garmin are fourth off at 15h50, while the final team to start, Astana, begin at 17h20.

Follow the Giro live May 9 -31 on Cyclingnews.com.

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar.

User Comments

There are 14 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 14 of 14 comments

  • So Mark cavendish is now the voice of respect and reason in the peloton? I think this guy is in love with the sound of his own voice.

  • I still can't wait to see him crush the field in Florence!

  • I love the guy, finally a brit who speaks his mind and can deliver the goods.

    nothing wrong with that, perhaps we need to re-consider our national obsession with knocking those who do well.

  • never! were english! try hard but lose.

  • i bet most of Garmin make's it to the end when he might get the old "knee" trouble into the HILLS....what a PUSS

  • mighty stuff

    cav is getting brash.

    dont care. columbia and garmin are two clean teams.

    finally it is going to come down to ability , not doctors.

    www.bikepure.org

    the future of cyclesport

  • I do not understand why such an egocentric and pre-madonna personnality like him get to judge what is good for a team and not good for a team.

    if he want to race his bike and be a sprinter, nobody will start downsizing his goal and ambition but he should focus on himself and forget establishing team and individual goal for other team thatdoes not belong to him.

  • [trolled]

    Think most of you have taken the bullet as well...

    Isn't that part of sport? To amp up the others, to try and get people angry, flustered, anything but to focus on what's at hand?

  • go cav. give an opinion instead of some sanitised soundbite. he is allowed to have opinions and we can agree or disagree.

    I personally think he's spot on.

  • To right liversedge...its his opinion...but your right his spot on !

    His a pro afterall, can talk to talk as well as walk (ok ride!) the walk !

    Full fath in him kicking some serious ass ! ...and yeh a Brit who can...something we should all be well and truelly proud about :-) !

  • Isn't cav expected to drop out after stage 13? Thought it was a 21stage race? Hypocrite.

  • coachpat - cav a prima donna? pfft!

    check out his interview on BBC's Inside Sport:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/inside_sport/8037577.stm

    he promised to buy himself an audi if he won milan san-remo. he won it. but he didn't buy the car, as he was worried that it might lead to even a slight change in his lifestyle. by all accounts he's resisted attempts to make him the 'wayne rooney' of cycling.

    so he does a bit of trash talkin? good. it stirs things up a bit. and he wins.

  • nobody complained when the " lion king " was brash and outspoken , the sport needs characters ..... bring it on Cav ...

    did anybody see the sport special( its the one in Chubbos post ) with Geoff Boycott on it making comments regarding Cav ... he basically said that if you dont believe your the best then dont bother .... if Cav was Italian they would adore him so why should we give him a hard time ....oh sorry ...its not the British thing is it to swagger .......can I therefore claim asylum rights in Italy ?

  • Yeah, go Cav, talk it up, Garmin can have their say. Two interesting, hard-nosed teams that can back it up, I love it.

    I think they're both on the right track, a TTT ridden well is truly awesome to watch and is a genuine show of skill and power.

    On the other hand, Cav's right that Garmin are in danger of being a bit one-dimensional.

    Good stuff all round

  • 1

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