Originally Posted by culttvfan:
“I guess I'm the only one who's rather puzzled by Cav's transformation. He's been on the decline for years and last time he was up against Kittel in the Tour in 2013 Kittel destroyed him.
I can understand a GC contender improving in his early 30s but not a sprinter. Cav is showing the sort of explosive speed we haven't seen from him since he was a young man, and as everyone knows that's what goes first and it's nigh on impossible to get it back, especially at his age, not by conventional means anyway.”
Not really
For the last few years he's been riding predominantly the road and training to get over the high mountains to actually be able to finish the tour and be in with a shout of the green jersey - which blunts the pure speed. It's the reason Cippo used to veer off towards the beach whenever the road became even slightly vertical. This year, he's gone back to training for the track, so will be doing pure spring training. I imagine his ability (small though it was anyway!) to climb has diminished even further, but as he has ceded the green jersey to chief points truffler Sagan the intermediates are irrelevant for him so he can sit in the autobus and work out the cut off time.
Let's not forget either that Cav has a tactical mind second only to Sean Kelly. If he is up there at the end of a stage, it's because he thinks he can win. He doesn't need a lead out train, although they can come in handy. If he's up there at the last 500 meters, has the wheel of a nice wind block like Kittel and a gap my money would be on Cav every day of the week.