Cavendish wins 6 sprint stages including the Champs D’elysees…Thor wins 1 stage and gets the Green Jersey.
I get the points system and the penalty the Mark got, and I think what Thor did going out through the Mountains solo to get points was awesome! But at the end of the day it just seems wrong that Mark didn’t get the Green Jersey.
A friend sent me this:
PezCyclingnews
It’s All About the Green
By Chris Carmichael
I forget exactly which year it was, but one of the six years that German sprinter Erik Zabel won the green jersey points competition he didn’t win a single stage. This year, Columbia HTC’s Mark Cavendish won SIX stages and DIDN’T win the green jersey. There’s little doubt that Cavendish is the fastest sprinter on two wheels, so it’s a testament to Thor Hushovd’s savvy as a competitor that the Norwegian captured the second green jersey of his career.
I know, I know, I really should be talking about the yellow jersey, the whole big-picture of the 2009 Tour de France, Lance’s comeback and his prospects for 2010. But I’ve talked about that a lot over the past three weeks, and today I’m more interested in the sprinters.
The interesting thing about the green jersey competition is that it’s the only jersey competition contested by riders who are not going to be high up in the overall classification. To win the polka dot jersey, you don’t have to finish in the top ten overall, but you generally finish higher up than the sprinters because to gain mountain points you need to be at, near, or off the front in the mountains – where the time gaps are huge. For example, the King of the Mountains this year – Franco Pellizotti - finished 37th overall, 56 minutes behind Alberto Contador. In reality it’s not really a great overall placing for Pellizotti, considering he was third at the Tour of Italy and previous King of the Mountains winners often did finish in the top 10 overall, but it’s a lot better than Hushovd or Cavendish who finished 2:45 and 3:21 behind Contador – and that first number is hours, not minutes.
The fact the green jersey point contenders are not able to ride at the front of the peloton during a significant number of stages within the race makes the competition more difficult to win. To win it you have to carefully pick the places where you are going to apply your best efforts. The obvious places are the handful of stages well-suited to sprint finishes. Cavendish certainly capitalized on those, crossing the finish line first on six occasions, including today. With 35 points for winning a stage, his victories alone earned him 210 points. For Hushovd to win the green jersey despite Cavendish taking maximum points on six individual stages is incredible.
There were three stages that made a world of difference in the points competition. The first was Stage 6 into Barcelona. The finish was at the top of a 1.5-kilometer climb. It wasn’t the steepest or longest climb of the race, but it was steep enough and long enough to blunt Cavendish’s speed. Hushovd capitalized on this and took his only victory in this year’s Tour de France. Cavendish finished 16th and earned 10 points to Hushovd’s 35.
The next stage of major significance in the green jersey competition was Stage 14 to Besancon. If you remember, that was the day George Hincapie missed out on taking the yellow jersey by just 5 seconds. His Columbia HTC team was trying to slow down the peloton in the final kilometer, but still needed to help Cavendish get across the line in front of Hushovd in order to earn green jersey points. Cavendish did cross the line ahead of Hushovd, but the race officials relegated the British rider for deviating off his line. As a result, Cavendish earned no points and Hushovd earned 13.
And finally, there was Stage 17 to Le Grand Bornand. Hushovd probably sensed that his lead in the green jersey competition was not enough to win in Paris if Cavendish won the final stage on the Champs Elysees (at that point Stage 19, which ended up in a sprint won by Cavendish wasn’t considered to be well-suited for the sprinters). As a result, he fought hard to get himself into the long breakaway on Stage 17, suffered his way over two major mountain passes, and took maximum points at both of the day’s intermediate sprints. That effort added 12 points to his total and Cavendish earned none.
Today, standing on the podium resplendent in green, Hushovd won the points competition by a mere 10 points. It is often said that the green jersey is won by the most consistent rider in the Tour de France, but this year I don’t know if that is true. For consistency, you have to look to Cavendish, who won more than a quarter of the stages in the whole race (even more if you only consider the road stages and remove the two individual time trials and the team time trial). Instead of consistency, Hushovd’s path to the green jersey had more in common with Alberto Contador’s path to yellow: He kept his rivals close at all times, and found a few key places where he could turn big efforts into maximum gains.
As we reach the end of another Tour de France, I want to congratulate Alberto Contador on his second yellow jersey, Andy Schleck for a fine performance and his second white jersey as Best Young Rider, and Franco Pellizotti on his victory in the King of the Mountains competition. And of course, congratulations to Lance Armstrong on a successful return to the Tour de France. I would also like to thank Richard Pestes and everyone at Pezcyclingnews.com for their tremendous coverage of the Tour de France and for the honor of being able to contribute to that coverage. I hope everyone enjoyed the 2009 Tour de France, and that like me, you’re looking forward to another great race in 2010.
I agree. Its the same with NASCAR (I know ppl here don’t care), and other sport rankings, you’ll get a guy who isn’t dominate but is more consistent win the overall points. Because Thor was more consistent and got points in almost every stage, he won over a guy who dominated the Tour. I think Cav should have won, and winning a stage should give more points than it does, but then there would be less incentive for teams to fight for second and you’d have the points jersey wrapped up by stage 10.
There’s really no answer, but a guy winning 6 races and not winning the green jersey is baffling.
It’s an interesting system that makes for more opportunities, more story lines and more sensation. I think it is an exciting one and I enjoy it. Cav was absolutely incredible- a great athlete and a sensational character. So much panache. So good to see his regard for his team mates. A fine sportsman.
Everyone talks about the green jersey as if its the “Sprint” jersey. It isn’t, its the “Points” jersey. You win it by consistently placing highly on all stages and at key points during the race.
Assume Cav won it this year and Thor was second. “How did Cav win the points jersey. He was one or two places ahead of Thor at six key places in the race and Thor was 50+ places ahead of him at 20-30 key places.”
Final sprints are given a priority, but all around performance is also very important. Next year I think it will be lesson learned and Cav will win it easily.
Styrrell
as said above it’s the Points Jersey. same holds for the Yellow, you can win the Yellow without ever winning a stage in the Tour.
It always comes down to math.
Cav’s goal was to win stages, it wasn’t until he had the Green Jersey that he stated he wanted to keep it. The Polka Dot jersey generally doesn’t go to the best climber either. Both jerseys are usually won be people who set out specifically to win that jersey.
Thom
I’m a huge Cav fan, but he didn’t deserve to win the green jersey this year. The green jersey is for the winner of the points competition, not the winner of the most stages or the best sprinter, and Cav put all his effort into getting maximum stage wins, not maximum points.
You could change the points system to reward winners of stages by a greater margin (and if Cav was French they would likely do so…) but you could also argue that winning a stage is reward enough in itself. As it is, under the current rules, Thor was the more worthy winner of the points competition because he was the stronger and more consistent all-round rider. He also got an awful lot of 2nd places despite having to improvise because his team couldn’t provide anything like the lead-out that Cav gets.
With 10 stage wins under his belt in 2 years, including the Champs d’Elysee, I reckon Cav will be a lot more focused on the green jersey next year.
It’s a tough dilemma. I understand preserving the history of the green jersey. But I also think that Cav’s 6 wins are an equal if not greater accomplishment.
I propose a new jersey for the rider with the most stage wins. It’ll be called the BAMF jersey. All black with “BAMF” in white block lettering.
the green jersey is its own contest
the stage wins are their own contest
just think, if the green jersey WASN"T weird, we wouldn’t have had the thor dram in the mountains!
Cavendish wins 6 sprint stages including the Champs D’elysees…Thor wins 1 stage and gets the Green Jersey.
I get the points system and the penalty the Mark got, and I think what Thor did going out through the Mountains solo to get points was awesome! But at the end of the day it just seems wrong that Mark didn’t get the Green Jersey.
it used to be that there was a red jersey for intermediate sprints and the green jersey points were only awarded the end of a stage.
In this system, Thor would have easily won the red jersey and Cavendish the Green which would more accurately reflect each of their performances.
Any idea what happened to the red Jersey?
btw, I like the fact that no time bonuses were awarded for either intermediate sprints or top finishes in a stage. That was a good move by the organisers in my opinion.
“btw, I like the fact that no time bonuses were awarded for either intermediate sprints or top finishes in a stage. That was a good move by the organisers in my opinion.”
I actually like having the time bonuses for mountaintop finishes. It forces riders to race to the line and makes the finishes interesting for more than just the stage win. To hold onto a close GC position, it’s the difference between simply marking a threat and having to beat him.
I don’t really care about time bonuses for sprints, just the mountaintop finishes.
Cavendish would have - and should have - won the green. I disagree with the penalty they gave him. Then again, it was also stupid of him not to be more careful during a sprint for 6th place (which is when he got the penalty, as the breakaway finished). Especially in light of every other team being unwilling to help, because they weren’t even willing to try to beat Cav. Otherwise, he might have won 8 stages. Or, he might have faltered. I thought it was really lame how the other teams just gave up. Schleck didn’t give up on trying to attack and drop Contador. It is a real shame that Cavendish didn’t win green. The penalty sullied it for me, but even more, the other teams “well, I’ll just take my ball and go home” attitude was even more disappointing on some of those breakaway stages.
A fine sportsman? Is it correct that at one point Cav confronted Thor and told him he didn’t deserve to be wearing the Green Jersey? Maybe there is some background I didn’t catch but to me, that is NOT the behavior of a fine sportsman.
maybe thor would have gone nuts on a 2nd mountain stage if he needed to though.
or managed 2nd on the champs
so we don’t know what would have happened for sure
Cavendish would have - and should have - won the green. I disagree with the penalty they gave him. Then again, it was also stupid of him not to be more careful during a sprint for 6th place (which is when he got the penalty, as the breakaway finished). Especially in light of every other team being unwilling to help, because they weren’t even willing to try to beat Cav. Otherwise, he might have won 8 stages. Or, he might have faltered. I thought it was really lame how the other teams just gave up. Schleck didn’t give up on trying to attack and drop Contador. It is a real shame that Cavendish didn’t win green. The penalty sullied it for me, but even more, the other teams “well, I’ll just take my ball and go home” attitude was even more disappointing on some of those breakaway stages.
A fine sportsman? Is it correct that at one point Cav confronted Thor and told him he didn’t deserve to be wearing the Green Jersey? Maybe there is some background I didn’t catch but to me, that is NOT the behavior of a fine sportsman.
x2
He is an INCREDIBLE sprinter. But he is also a prima donna and, at times, a whiny 23 year old.
A fine athlete. NOT a fine sportsman.
I think we need a new Jersey… lets say the “Pink” (or purple) jersey. It would go to the rider that won the most stages in the Tour.
Keep in mind that what separates these guys is 1 or 2 seconds and in some cases fractions of a second. So wining a sprint one day and then placing 40 minutes behind the next day is not a very consistent performance. Overall Thor was more consistent and that is why he won the Jersey. Cav was more spectacular of course.
Rappstar
As a Norwegian I have to disagree with you. It was fun to see how Thor outsmarted the whole Columbia team and ended up with the green jersey. He could not win stages with flat finishing stretches due to NO support from his Cervelo team. As Thor said to Norwegian media, you do not beat Cav by clinging onto his wheel, you need a team to put you in a position to win. Do I understand your argument, absolutely 
Why do I like Thor? He is outspoken against doping. Not many cyclists are.
By the way, his VO2 max is 85.5 on the bike. Not bad for a fat Norwegian.