Brits’ ‘dream team’ want first gold

LONDON - Agence France-Presse

Mark Cavendish, nicknamed ‘Manx Missile,’ is a favorite to win the road race and to win the hosts’ first medal in the Games. EPA Photo

Tour de France sprint king Mark Cavendish believes a ‘dream’ British cycling team can notch what could be the hosts’ first gold medal of the Games at the Olympic men’s road race on July 28. Only six days after Cavendish played a role in Bradley Wiggins’ historic yellow jersey triumph, the race’s 23-times stage winner starts as the favorite for the 250-kilometer men’s road race on the opening day of competition.

A host of challengers like Germany’s Andre Greipel and Slovakian Peter Sagan stand in his way, but Cavendish believes Britain’s five-man team have the edge.

“It’s the dream team,” said the 27-year-old from the Isle of Man. “If we wanted to win this race we couldn’t be in a better situation team-wise.”

Britain will line up with a five-man team notably including Wiggins and Scot David Millar armed with a plan to deliver Cavendish to the home straight in the perfect position for a bunch sprint.

If the plan comes together, the ‘Manx Missile’ - going on his recent form - will be hard to beat.

Crowned the world champion in 2011, when he beat Australian Matt Goss to the rainbow jersey in Copenhagen, Cavendish put some doubts over his form early in the Tour de France to bed with two, stunning late wins in the race.

Wiggins affirmed that any concerns Cavendish may ultimately pay for completing both the Giro d’Italia and the Tour in the last two months are well wide of the mark.

“We’ve got the fastest man in the world and I guess it’s for other people to combat that,” said Wiggins. When it comes to tactics, the road race, however, will be hard to predict.

It starts and finishes on the flat of The Mall within sight of Buckingham Palace, but with a circuit, which featuring the climb of Box Hill and will be raced nine times, Britain will have to be tactically astute.

Australia said the team won’t just be looking to put Goss in a bunch sprint.

“Most of the traditional cycling nations don’t want a sprint because they’ve got very limited chances of a medal, I expect the race to be aggressive early; otherwise it just plays into the hands of the Poms (British),” said Australia boss Matt White.

“We’ve got a team that can afford to be aggressive. If it doesn’t work out then we’ve always got Gossy for the sprint, we can work both ways.” Like Britain with Wiggins, Australia’s team of Goss, Simon Gerrans, Stuart O’Grady, Cadel Evans and Michael Rogers has been labelled the “best” ever by O’Grady, who is competing in his sixth Olympics.

“This is the best team Australia has ever had going into an Olympic road race,” said O’Grady.
Milan-SanRemo champion Gerrans, meanwhile believes believes one of their potential advantages is the pressure factor on the hosts.

“Yeah, definitely, and the fact they are going in with the current world champion (Cavendish) and Tour de France champion (Wiggins) as well, that’s obviously attracting a lot of attention,” said Gerrans.

“In the past they have seemed to handle the pressure fairly well, but I don’t think they have ever had pressure like this before.” As well as Cavendish and Goss there’s Sagan, Greipel, and Belgian pair Tom Boonen and Philippe Gilbert.

Sagan, who won three stages at the Tour de France including the sprinters’ green jersey, stands out because he will not to have the full five-man team at his disposal given Slovakia’s comparatively lower ranking And while he has been given a positive appraisal from world cycling chief Pat McQuaid, the Irishman said a Cavendish win would not go amiss.

“I want to see the best win, whoever it might be,” said McQuaid, the International Cycling Union (UCI) president.

“ ... But I have to show a certain bias. Mark Cavendish coming up that finishing straight would just be the icing on the cake for the first gold medal of the Olympics.”