quote:
Sky should back Cavendish says Zabel
THE CHANCES, IN MY EYES, ARE MUCH, MUCH HIGHER TO WIN GREEN WITH CAV THAN WIN YELLOW WITH WIGGO.
ERIK ZABEL
Sky is set to enter the Tour with a two-prong attack that will see Wiggins vie for his maiden overall title and new recruit Cavendish try to defend the maillot vert.
Zabel and his former teammate Jan Ullrich were the last pair to pull off that dual-jersey feat 15 years ago at the 1997 Tour.
“If I was responsible at Sky I would send Cavendish with at least six riders for him and then I would send Wiggins with (Vuelta a Espana runner-up) Christopher Froome for the yellow,” Zabel told Cycling Central.
“I would tell Wiggo to follow the Schleck brothers, don’t lose time in the mountains and beat them in the time-trials so then logically you are in yellow.”
Cavendish opened his season account at the Tour of Qatar last week winning two stages, which doubled as his first for new team Sky and as world champion.
The 26-year-old headlines the British-based outfit that will start the six-stage Tour of Oman tomorrow.
Zabel as a team adviser at the now defunct HTC-Highroad worked closely with Cavendish who in fours year won 20 stages of the Tour de France with the outfit.
The two have ended their professional affiliation with Zabel joining Katusha as a sports director this year and Cavendish now employed at Sky.
“The chances, in my eyes, are much, much higher to win green with Cav than win yellow with Wiggo,” Zabel said when asked if the jersey double was still possible in cycling today.
“Cav is the best sprinter in the world and he won already last year, the green jersey, so he’s the title defender. I would say he has shown already this year that he is in good shape, he’s world champion so he deserves to have 100 per cent support.
“Wiggo is maybe a top five contender but not the big favourite for yellow in my eyes - that is more the Schleck brothers and (Australian Tour champion Cadel) Evans. But if Wiggo is able to follow in the mountains, he’s the better time-trialist from those names so on paper it’s easy.”
Zabel says his green jersey victory at the 1997 Tour – the second of six consecutive – was a bonus for his Telekom outfit that went into the race with one objective.
“I would say we did it in the opposite way how Sky have to do it because we focused completely on the yellow jersey for ‘96 for Bjarne Riis and ‘97 for Jan Ullrich,” he said.
“I was just there with one or two wing-men in the final so they helped me but in general the team go for yellow.
“I sacrificed a little because, for us, yellow was the priority and the rest was just on top but if you have Cav in your team, like Sky, there’s no doubt about what you have to do in a flat sprint stage.”
Cavendish and Wiggins are largely accustomed to racing at the Tour as undisputed leaders. Sky has supported Wiggins’s yellow jersey ambitions since he joined the outfit in 2010 on the back of a fourth place overall finish at the 2009 edition of the race. Highroad provided Cavendish with its best engines for his stage exploits in France.
Asked why no other team had been able to do what he and Ullrich did more than a decade ago Zabel reasoned it was because cycling had become a more specialised sport.
“That’s the Lance Armstrong factor. He asked to have a team completely just for him, just to be focused on the yellow jersey. I would say that was for several years the art of cycling,” Zabel said. “Then you have (Mario) Cipollini with his Saeco team. The sprinter was the road captain and of course there was a GC rider but he was just there to be there.
“I would say now Sky has a luxury problem with Cav and Wiggo but I would say 75 per cent the Cipo system and just 25 Armstrong system would be good enough to be successful.”
SBS
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