After his 28th career Tour de France stage win into Angers, Mark Cavendish did not mince his words about Team Sky and the mentality of others like them (Photo: Sirotti)
The winner of Monday’s third stage at the Tour de France in a big bunch sprint, Mark Cavendish has criticised non sprinters for getting involved in the action at the finish.
Race leader and world champion Peter Sagan has already called for the reversal of the 3km rule at the end of stages.
He argued when the general classification riders know they are not at risk of losing time from a crash they will look to mix it at the top of the bunch coming into the sprints in the hope their rival for the overall will be on the wrong side of time splits behind them.
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Singling out Tour favourite Chris Froome and his squad Team Sky, Cavendish suggest it was the mentality of some of the general classification stars and not the 3km rule that as seen them get in the way in sprints and being a danger to those going for the sprint victory.
Froome, centre, at the front of the sprinting bunch on the uphill conclusion to stage 2 on Sunday. But Cavendish says teams and riders with no sprint to deploy should take their general classification tactics - and themselves - out of the flat sprints for the pure fastmen (Photo: Sirotti)
"To be fair it's not really the 3km rule that causes (the danger), it's the mentality,” Cavendish said after his 28th career victory in the Tour.
“Like, Sky were in there today,” he added in clear reference to the team putting Froome at the top of the bunch when the sprint was getting underway.
Froome has been brought very close to the front by his team before losing some places in the sprints so far. He was 25th in the flat stage 1 sprint, 10th in the uphill gallop on Sunday and 22nd on today's sprint finish stage.
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Cavendish continued of the GC riders getting involved in the sprints: “I think the mentality has changed a bit in that some guys, not all GC riders; in the past they used to go to the back.
"Then it kind of evolved that splits happened so they didn't want to be caught behind the split.
"But now some riders actively want to be ahead of the split. It's not about not wanting to be caught out, they want to be up there and hope there's a split to get a few seconds.
"I don't think it's to do with the course, it's a rider thing."
Sagan says with the 3km rule, GC men are more willing to get in the mix to avoid losing time - and possible gain some - on their rivals, with no fear of losing time of they were to get caught up in a sprinters' crash (Photo: Sirotti)
But Sagan believed the 3km rule was instrumental in leading general classification riders to get involved in the sprint.
“I want to ask the UCI if it’s possible to turn back the rules of the last three kilometers, of neutralizing, that’s my question,” he said.
“I think it will be better for cycling, for our safety because there are a lot of GC riders here who want to make a good performance.
“When there are climbs it’s purely the legs that decide who is good and who is not good, but now for the first stages (the GC men) want to ride with the sprinters for the sprint.
“I don’t want to fight with sprinters and also GC riders. In the last 3km it’s very dangerous; everybody is taking risks because they don’t want to be dropped from the sprinters because if there is a gap or a flat tire it takes 6sec or 30sec.”
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