Mario Cipollini believes Mark Cavendish is not performing to his abilities
Italian cycling sensation, Mario Cipollini briefed that Mark Cavendish is one of the greatest sprinters in the history of cycling. He also stated that the cyclist is not justifying his immense talent.
Mario Cipollini is considered as one of the most accomplished road cyclists of all times. He won the Road World Championships in 2002 and also has as many as 42 stages of Giro d’ Italia to his credit.
It was Cipollini who managed to break the 70-year-old record of the most stage wins at the Italian grand tour.
His 42nd stage win at the Giro d’ Italia 2003 took the honours away from his compatriot, Alfredo Binda, who reached the milestone in 1933.
Mario retired from professional cycling on April 26, 2005, and started his own brand of cycling for Team ISD-NERI. He is nicknamed as Super Mario, Mario the magnificent and Lion King by his fans across the world.
During a recent interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, he briefed that Cavendish is not making the most of his immense talent.
He said, “He’s one of the absolute very best, even if I’m still convinced that sometimes he wastes his talent, I’d say that he’s among the greatest of all-time along with Van Steenbergen and Van Looy. I hope that you might also put me at that level”.
Mario was 35 when he won the bunch sprint at the Milan-San Remo but he suggested that the Manx professional cyclist had won it at a significantly young age.
The 44-year-old praised Mark’s performance and also appreciated his overall victory at the UCI World Championships. He also admired the tremendous efforts by the number one ranked cyclist at the 2011 UCI Elite Men’s category Philippe Gilbert.
Cipollini was quoted as saying, “If he wins as much as he did this year and with the same quality, he’s the new Eddy Merckx. I think he’ll confirm himself at a very high level. And I like Philippe because he rides in a spectacular way and excites people”.
The former Italian cyclist believes that Cadel Evans and Alberto Contador are two main athletes who will dominate the 2012 grand tours.
He mentioned that Andy Schleck is too cautious in his approach which makes him less favourite for the Tour de France 2012.
Robbie McEwens also casted his vote in favour of Contador and Cadel Evans, however, his third favourite for the grand tour is Bradley Wiggins. He agrees with the idea that Andy Schleck will not make it through to the top five general classification finishers
of the race.
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