Giro d'Italia: Stage 18 (stage specific no spoilers req'd)

ednwireland

Stage 18 map and profile

Stage Eighteen - Thursday 24 May

San Vito di Cadore-Vedelago

139 kilometres, flat stage

Rovi

Last chance for the sprinters.
Cav has to be the big favourite.

ednwireland

Rovi wrote: »

Last chance for the sprinters.
Cav has to be the big favourite.

and hes only 1 point ahead of j-rod in the magllia rossa

Rastapitts

yea Cav must win today if hes gonna claim the maglia rosa. then its down to how many points Rodriguez can get on fri and sat. both riders wont pick up any in the final day on sunday in the time trial

Rofo

I normally like the guy, but Cav's made himself look like a massive twat with that reaction after the finish.
Can't understand what he was complaining about. Great sprint brilliantly timed by Guardini.

Rastapitts

What happened? in work

Lumen

Don't see the problem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNbsqRT8eMU&t=570

irishbuzz

Either his reaction came across wrong or more likely he's had a chance to calm down:

Mark Cavendish ‏@MarkCavendish
Pretty angry to be beaten when my team set me up like today. I was lazy & left the sprint 50m too late. @andreaguardini was FAST! Congrats.

Leroy42

Don't particularly like Cav, but cut the guy some slack.

Everyone thought (himself included I bet) that given the position the win was a given. His reaction was more down to disgust with himself but we all like to blame others first.

He shouldn't have been beaten, his team set him up perfectly and he blew it. Thats the pressure of being a top sprinter, you get one chance to make it right first time, and to be fair he usually does.

Nice tweet from him afterwards.

Still think he's a tw&t

Rofo

Yeah it looks like he's calmed down from that tweet. It looked to me like he was gesturing angrily at Guardini, cos that's exactly what he was doing. I must learn to cut people who behave like a$$holes some slack if they tweet nicely about it afterwards.

furiousox

His initial reaction made him look like a bad loser and a bit ungracious.
I'm sure his answer to that comment would be " Of course! I am a bad loser!"

ednwireland

i thought he was annoyed with himself tbh

furiousox

Oh yeah that's what it was, but before seeing the replays it looked like he was giving out to Guardini about something as they crossed the line.

ednwireland

furiousox wrote: »

Oh yeah that's what it was, but before seeing the replays it looked like he was giving out to Guardini about something as they crossed the line.

yeh something like ' what the hell you doing beating me !'

Chips Lovell

Guardini's a serious talent. That will not be the last Giro stage he wins.