THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING »

Get the VeloNews Email Newsletter FREE

  Learn More | Archive
Home » Top Stories » Road » » Tour de France

Inside the Tour - Cavendish about to emulate Hoban

Published: Jul. 14, 2009
Number 7.
Number 7.
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Editor's note: The Tour de France recently honored John Wilcockson for his remarkable 40 years of reporting. VeloNews.tv took the opportunity to salute him.

Should stage 10 winner Mark Cavendish of Columbia-HTC win again on Wednesday, he will equal the British record of eight Tour stage wins held by Barry Hoban for more than 30 years. Hoban won eight stages over a period of nine years, but only half of them in field sprints, while all seven of Cav’s victories in a three-year period have come in bunch gallops.

Cavendish is a much faster sprinter, but Hoban gained his sprint wins in similar fashion: using great acceleration on a lower gear rather than using a long wind up on a high gear. Also, both started their cycling careers on the track. Like Cavendish, Hoban was a team and individual pursuit specialist who then moved to the Continent to gain experience before turning professional.

The two men also have similar personalities. Hoban, who is retired and lives in the mountains of central Wales, is a garrulous character. And while Isle of Man native Cavendish speaks with a Liverpool accent, like the Beatles, Hoban has a strong Yorkshire accent — he’s from the once heavy coal-mining region on the east side of the Pennine hills. And Hoban was never shy about his ambitions, just like Cavendish.

The first two of Hoban’s Tour stage wins were not in sprints. The first, in 1967, was a very particular one. It came the day after the death of Tom Simpson, who was Hoban’s best friend (he would later marry Simpson’s widow, Helen).

After Simpson died on Mont Ventoux, the peloton wanted to honor his passing, so they decided that one of Simpson’s British teammates would win the stage. On a flat stage to Sète on the Mediterranean coast, Hoban was riding at the front when he suddenly found himself alone — the other riders had all sat up and allowed him to continue. He rode into the finish, head down and tears in his eyes, a couple minutes ahead of the somber peloton.

The very next year, in the Tour’s final year of national teams, Hoban won another solo victory. This was a very different, athletic effort. He escaped a small breakaway on a stage in the Alps and gained enough time to finish first after the climb to the Cordon ski station above Sallanches. That win showed the all-around capabilities of the dark-haired Brit.

Hoban’s most memorable sprint wins came at Bordeaux, when the Tour stages used to finish on the city of wine’s outdoor velodrome. He brilliantly used his track skills to come off the last banking to out-speed the Tour’s more traditional road sprinters. And if outdoor velodromes were still featured as stage finishes, Cavendish would no doubt employ his fine track skills to win.

What is unique about Cavendish is that he is a combination of different types of sprinters. He uses a superb lead-out train (made up of special individuals like Mark Renshaw, George Hincapie and Tony Martin), but he uses it to wind up the pace — unlike rivals Tom Boonen and Alessandro Petacchi, or former master sprinter Mario Cipollini.

At this Tour, Cav' comes off Renshaw’s wheel and immediately accelerates, putting distance between him and his pursuing rivals. But he doesn’t just rely on a burst of speed like Robbie McEwen or, in the past, Erik Zabel; the brilliant Brit keeps on going at top speed.

On Tuesday in Issoudun, the finish was slightly uphill before and after two fast, tricky turns, and once he went, Cavendish simply stayed out of the saddle, pulling hard on the bars and using his enormously powerful quads and glutes to continue pulling ahead of a well-beaten Thor Hushovd.

There’s a much straighter run-in to St. Fargeau on Wednesday. The faster approach (unless there’s a strong head wind) will better suit Cervélo’s Hushovd and Garmin’s Tyler Farrar, but Cavendish will likely make use of the straightaway rising 100 feet in the last 500 meters to win again — and take his eighth Tour victory to draw level with Barry Hoban.

HOBAN STAGE WINS CAVENDISH STAGE WINS
1967  - Sète  2008 - Châteauroux, Toulouse, Narbonne, Nîmes
1968 - Sallanches  2009 - Brignoles, La Grande Motte, Issoudun
1969 - Bordeaux, Brive
1973 - Argelès, Versailles
1974 - Montpellier
1975 - Bordeaux

Follow John’s twitter at twitter.com/johnwilcockson. His latest book, “Lance: The Making of the World’s Greatest Champion,” is available at www.velogear.com