Cavendish: Boy wonder sprinter

SACRAMENTO – Thank you, Mark Cavendish, for winning Stage One of the 2010 AMGEN Tour of California and keeping it PG-13. It would have not been a good look, opening America's most prestigious cycling event with the winner acting like a sore loser.

Three weeks ago in Switzerland Cavendish won a stage race and crossed the finish line by thrusting up his right arm, extending two raised fingers as he crossed the finish line, the petulant gesture his off-color answer to those who were asking him why he had yet to win a race in 2010. His team subsequently removed Cavendish from the rest of the Tour de Romandie for the unsportsmanship-like action. He later apologized.

"When I cross the finish line," said the world's best sprinter, "it (reaction) comes out. It's impromptu."

Sprinters in cycling are like sprinters in track. They strut. They like to call attention to themselves. They are divas, showmen, who blossom like a peacock in front of a camera. When Cavendish stepped in front of the camera Sunday in the post-race press conference, he couldn't resist. From the podium he motioned to a man in the audience, presumably, and embarrassingly, a journalist. The journalist rose from his seat and brought to Cavendish a book.

It was Cavendish's recently published autobiography. That alone speaks volumes.

Cavendish is only 24 years old. Some NFL wide receivers could get tips from this guy on self-promotion – which would soon become readily apparent.

The Brit then propped up the book, its cover facing the audience, pointed to it and said, "It's a good book."

He smiled and he didn't stop smiling and he kept the book propped up for the couldn't-be-ignored photo op. Yes, maybe he had to squelch a defiant urge when he crossed the finish line but Cavendish couldn't be rung up for self-promotion.

And it's not that Cavendish is without merit. He's won 10 stages of the Tour de France, six alone last year. Those 10 French stages are two more than any British rider has won in a career. He's won six stages of the Giro d'Italia. He is a monster sprinter and would be called the best of all-time if it weren't for the fact he is only 24.

"If I am delivered to the right place by them," said Cavendish of his HTC Columbia teammates, "I will come in first."

So maybe it's not arrogance or grandstanding if you can do it and Cavendish can do it. Stage Two that will come into Santa Rosa today offers Cavendish another chance at a sprint finish, the weather notwithstanding. And any Cavendish victory offers another opportunity for the public to see the most controversial, flamboyant rider in pro cycling.

"I don't need help from anyone," Cavendish once told a sportswriter from the London Times.

Spoken like a true sprinter. It would be a sprinter because no one wins the Tour of California by winning Stage One any more than any baseball team wins the World Series by having the best record in April. So the riders who have the best chance – like prohibitive favorite Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie or Fabian Cancellera – would not risk life and limb in a race that sets up the rest of the tour.

Stay with the pack. Stay out of trouble. Don't take chances. Finish with all the moving parts still moving.

All the contenders except for Belgium's Tom Boonen did that. Boonen crashed with four other guys on the third and last lap through Sacramento. But since Boonen was able to remount and finish the race, however ripped red by road rash from the crash, he has the same time as everyone but the top three finishers.

"I can't tell you how many times," Cavendish said, "I heard in the peloton today: &‘What, and this is the easy stage?'"

That in itself is a compliment to the Tour of California. By moving the race from February to May, the organizers not only wanted to increase the commercial visibility of the event but also increase the difficulty. The scenery through Gold Rush country was matched in kind by Cavendish sprinting an eye-blink past Juan Jose Haedo of Team Saxo Bank, the winner sprinting like a fiend with all the wondrous, glorious baggage.

"If they do their job," he said of his teammates, "we will win."

The "we" of course is "Boy Racer", the title of an autobiography of a man who has reached the advanced age of 24.

For more on North Bay sports go to Bob Padecky's blog at padecky.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.