Blog Post #3
In the summer of 2021, something clicked for me that had taken me over a decade to figure out. It happened while I was watching the Tour de France—a phenomenal race during an exceptionally strange year for innumerable reasons. Of the many extraordinary performances seen in this 108th edition of the Tour, few could match the spectacular return of Mark Cavendish. After a several year hiatus from winning Pro Tour races and 12 months after a near career-ending contract fallout, the “Manx Missile” won 4 sprint stages, tying Eddy Merckx’s overall TdF stage win record, and claimed the overall points jersey at the ripe old age of 36. It was not Mark Cavendish to whom I owe my revelation, however. It is to another veteran sprinter: Peter Sagan.
In the summer of 2021, something clicked for me that had taken me over a decade to figure out. It happened while I was watching the Tour de France—a phenomenal race during an exceptionally strange year for innumerable reasons. Of the many extraordinary performances seen in this 108th edition of the Tour, few could match the spectacular return of Mark Cavendish. After a several year hiatus from winning Pro Tour races and 12 months after a near career-ending contract fallout, the “Manx Missile” won 4 sprint stages, tying Eddy Merckx’s overall TdF stage win record, and claimed the overall points jersey at the ripe old age of 36. It was not Mark Cavendish to whom I owe my revelation, however. It is to another veteran sprinter: Peter Sagan.
To win a bike race in a sprint finish takes a huge amount of skill, preparation, and fitness. Luck, however, takes the lion’s share of the credit. Lucky not to crash in the hectic opening stages of the race, lucky to make the split, lucky your teammates can control the race and bring the break back 100m before the finish, and on and on. The luck factor is what makes Cavendish’s 4 stage wins all the more stunning. Sagan’s 2021 Tour could not be further from Cav’s in one identifiable way: he was extremely unlucky. Among other things, it was bad luck that saw Sagan on the ground at the finishing corner of Stage 3, where fellow sprint phenom Caleb Ewan undercut him after making contact with stage winner Tim Merlier. Ewan abandoned the Tour that day. Sagan, however, limped on with an ever-worsening knee infection until Stage 12, and it was at this point of abandoning the race that I had my revelation.
Blog Post #2
In the summer of 2021, something clicked for me that had taken me over a decade to figure out. It happened while I was watching the Tour de France—a phenomenal race during an exceptionally strange year for innumerable reasons. Of the many extraordinary performances seen in this 108th edition of the Tour, few could match the spectacular return of Mark Cavendish. After a several year hiatus from winning Pro Tour races and 12 months after a near career-ending contract fallout, the “Manx Missile” won 4 sprint stages, tying Eddy Merckx’s overall TdF stage win record, and claimed the overall points jersey at the ripe old age of 36. It was not Mark Cavendish to whom I owe my revelation, however. It is to another veteran sprinter: Peter Sagan.
In the summer of 2021, something clicked for me that had taken me over a decade to figure out. It happened while I was watching the Tour de France—a phenomenal race during an exceptionally strange year for innumerable reasons. Of the many extraordinary performances seen in this 108th edition of the Tour, few could match the spectacular return of Mark Cavendish. After a several year hiatus from winning Pro Tour races and 12 months after a near career-ending contract fallout, the “Manx Missile” won 4 sprint stages, tying Eddy Merckx’s overall TdF stage win record, and claimed the overall points jersey at the ripe old age of 36. It was not Mark Cavendish to whom I owe my revelation, however. It is to another veteran sprinter: Peter Sagan.
To win a bike race in a sprint finish takes a huge amount of skill, preparation, and fitness. Luck, however, takes the lion’s share of the credit. Lucky not to crash in the hectic opening stages of the race, lucky to make the split, lucky your teammates can control the race and bring the break back 100m before the finish, and on and on. The luck factor is what makes Cavendish’s 4 stage wins all the more stunning. Sagan’s 2021 Tour could not be further from Cav’s in one identifiable way: he was extremely unlucky. Among other things, it was bad luck that saw Sagan on the ground at the finishing corner of Stage 3, where fellow sprint phenom Caleb Ewan undercut him after making contact with stage winner Tim Merlier. Ewan abandoned the Tour that day. Sagan, however, limped on with an ever-worsening knee infection until Stage 12, and it was at this point of abandoning the race that I had my revelation.
Welcome to Persona
In the summer of 2021, something clicked for me that had taken me over a decade to figure out. It happened while I was watching the Tour de France—a phenomenal race during an exceptionally strange year for innumerable reasons. Of the many extraordinary performances seen in this 108th edition of the Tour, few could match the spectacular return of Mark Cavendish. After a several year hiatus from winning Pro Tour races and 12 months after a near career-ending contract fallout, the “Manx Missile” won 4 sprint stages, tying Eddy Merckx’s overall TdF stage win record, and claimed the overall points jersey at the ripe old age of 36. It was not Mark Cavendish to whom I owe my revelation, however. It is to another veteran sprinter: Peter Sagan.
In the summer of 2021, something clicked for me that had taken me over a decade to figure out. It happened while I was watching the Tour de France—a phenomenal race during an exceptionally strange year for innumerable reasons. Of the many extraordinary performances seen in this 108th edition of the Tour, few could match the spectacular return of Mark Cavendish. After a several year hiatus from winning Pro Tour races and 12 months after a near career-ending contract fallout, the “Manx Missile” won 4 sprint stages, tying Eddy Merckx’s overall TdF stage win record, and claimed the overall points jersey at the ripe old age of 36. It was not Mark Cavendish to whom I owe my revelation, however. It is to another veteran sprinter: Peter Sagan.
To win a bike race in a sprint finish takes a huge amount of skill, preparation, and fitness. Luck, however, takes the lion’s share of the credit. Lucky not to crash in the hectic opening stages of the race, lucky to make the split, lucky your teammates can control the race and bring the break back 100m before the finish, and on and on. The luck factor is what makes Cavendish’s 4 stage wins all the more stunning. Sagan’s 2021 Tour could not be further from Cav’s in one identifiable way: he was extremely unlucky. Among other things, it was bad luck that saw Sagan on the ground at the finishing corner of Stage 3, where fellow sprint phenom Caleb Ewan undercut him after making contact with stage winner Tim Merlier. Ewan abandoned the Tour that day. Sagan, however, limped on with an ever-worsening knee infection until Stage 12, and it was at this point of abandoning the race that I had my revelation.