Cavendish and co disappoint in road race

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Mark Cavendish' reaction to your question was not only a sign of his disappointment but a display of his childish and aggressive arrogance, which I thought he had grown out of. The question was relevant because it was one that most people would have wanted to ask.

OH and by the way it wasn't his raw emotion snapping back at you when asked if the the Tour de France was a factor in the result it was the fact it WAS a stupid question and demonstrated that you were an ill-informed fool not worth his time.

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David please stop this pressure. Get with the country and stop this negative broadcasting. Dave

Completely agree with point 1. David you go what you deserved when you interviewed Cavendish. Lets hope your removed from sports editor soon as Wikapedia is more factual then your reporting! The GB team worked hard constantly without any help from other nations in the pelaton. These are not like footballers who prepare for major tournaments by going on holidays to Las Vegas! On another note Hugh Porter commentary was terrible.

David, I just wish you could find it to be positive in your news reports. Almost, without fail you spend at least 80% of any of your reports finding the negative before finishing with a minor positive. Clearly we want GB to do well - but if the GB team have a poor Sunday "questions will be asked" - what are you on about?

I really think you should sit down with some normal sports fans and review your reports - they are negative, barely accurate and as demonstrated today out of touch. Very poor!

Totally agree with comment above, David Bond is willfully portraying a negative view, he has no understanding or appreciation of sport. The news bulletins are mainly being viewed by those who have little interest in the Games, therefore he is giving those people a distorted view ie GB are hopless, not up to it etc. The report this evening is just the latest example.

"His raw reaction was a sign of just how disappointed he was following the race"

Incorrect. His raw reaction was a sign of just how stupid the question was.

Four riders alone, trying to catch a breakaway of 30+ was never going to happen. Not without help from anyone else in the peleton. That the gap stayed at a minute was testament to just how well they could 'hack the pace!'

As editor, I would suggest you put someone else to cover road racing. Perhaps someone who knows the first thing about it.

David, you are not the brightest, such a huge event and race and you did no research and obviously know nothing about cycling. The BBC ought to tear up your contract!! You are in a position to ask some insightful, interesting questions and you come out with 'has the TDF effected your performance?'!!! I know 3 year old children who could come out with better questions. Cav's response was tame compared to what he should have told you to do!!

The British team road the best race they could - it's impossible for 4 guys to control a race but they very nearly pulled it off today. Yes, it was a shame Cav was denied his moment to shine but why focus on the negatives? Why not congratulate the British team for the fantastic effort they all put in and the amazing support they received around the route.

Come on team GB, the whole nation is behind you.

Where's the blog david? Apart from saying that cav came 22nd, a largely irrelevant fact as anywhere behind the leading group would amount to the same, there is no analysis at all. Poor

BBC - can you please get someone like Chris Boardman to give us something insightful and accurate and credible - instead of this generalist rubbish to be frank.

David, Quite simply no other team in the Penelton was prepared to put the work in to hep team GB catch the break away group. - There is a limit to how much a team of 4 can do on there own to catch a breakaway. All the rest of you comments are simply twaddle.

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drk2aps - wel said. Yes, the result today was disappointing, but the BBC news reporting has been appalling.

I don't understand how the BBC can have knowledgeable commentators like Chris Boardman on one hand, yet allow the news team to paint a completely different (and inaccurate) picture of the result on the other. Don't the news and sport teams talk to each other?

At least Mr Cavendish treated Mr Bond's "Tour tiredness" question with the disdain it deserved!

If this is the standard of knowledge and quality of reporting required then maybe I should apply to be BBC Sports Editor.

I can't believe my TV licence pays for such basic coverage. Mr Bond clearly does not understand cycling. If he did he would have appreciated that the Olympic circuit was built to FAVOUR Team GB and ironically that was their downfall. France did not bother to send all their best cyclists for this reason, as Cavendish pointed out. Regarding Vinokourov's suspension for doping, what about Millar's? Please BBC a little objectivity would not go amiss!

Mr Bond, your reporting on this evenings news will have left the British public thinking that today's GB cycling road race performance was lacking to due to 1) Tired legs from the Tour De France and 2) Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome couldn't keep up due to the speed of the Peloton - OH DEAR! You must have been watching a different race to me or you clearly know nothing about cycling. Have a go at riding at the front of the field with no help from other teams for 250km and see how you get on.
I'm glad Mr Cavendish sussed you out and you broadcast his reaction.
Poor article Mr Bond.

Team GBs tactic didn't work. That takes nothing away from the team - in many ways it is a tribute in that everyone wanted to avoid a sprint finish and nullified Team GBs efforts. Just shows how exciting a sport cycling is.

Some advice Mr Bond - if you ask questions of that level to Wiggins, you better duck quickly. These men know their cycling, and they expect someone from the BBC ( as we do) to know it too.

It's a funny situation at the moment, mainstream media are getting interested in Cycling without actually really understanding it. Apart from a few specialists. Cavendish was right, it was a very dumb question. I guess it'll take a while for you (Mr Bond) to get up to speed with what is a very complex and tactical sport. I was a bit perturbed by the media hanging the gold medal around his neck before a pedal was turned. I guess you all thought Cav is so successful he's already won it! but it's much more complicated than that.

Just watched the 10:00pm news and I am shocked at your total lack of knowledge of the sport of cycling. However, what I find even more incredible, is your journalistic decision to openly criticise our athletes for not delivering medals from day one. I can only assume you are doing this to try and make your name as the editor of BBC sport. The look of glee on your face as you told a nation that team GB had let people down on the mall disgusted me. You are tacky and tabloid. Please BBC can we have someone who loves sport more than themselves reporting on athletes that have sacrificed so much in the name of dedication and British pride.

David the opening ceremony was not a "triumph", it is widely considered the worst in modern history.

As for Cavendish, everyone knows the British are good losers, humble and dignified in defeat, accepting inferiority without ever putting the blame on anything or anyone.


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alot of comments awaiting moderation above, doubt its due to saying your a wonderful reporter David!!!

As a complete novice to the sport, who also WATCHED the full race today. Even i laughed out loud at the terrible report you gave on the bbc news! very average! I expect more from BBC employees.

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The GB team gave everything they could today to make it a bunch sprint but unfortunately it would have been too much for any of the teams to do alone. The others knew that helping to bring the race together would increase the chances of a GB win and prefered to take their chances with whoever they had in the breakaway. Still, I'm so proud of the team and all the best to Brad in the TT on Wednesday. I'm sorry but this blog is least accurate and most outright tosh I have ever read on the BBC website. David you clearly have no idea about cycling and I would suggest that Cavendish was being extremely generous in his response by merely 'snapping' at you.

The report on todays road race, conclusions and coverage were very disheartening and alarming. Surely you research what you report on. It is very reminicent of Adrian Chiles asking Nicole Cooke if she falls off her bike much on an edition of Sports personality of the year.

David please research cycling and ask around about team tactics, don't jump to silly conclusions to ask such a stupid question to Mark Cavendish. Every country was wheel sucking behind team GB today after the Break away group got a decent time gap.

Don't lose faith so quickly in team GB!

AlbertRoland - you clearly don't know anything about cycling and those who do know that it was and irrelevant and stupid question - but I'll answer it for you. NO the Tour de France had no impact on the result. Why?
1) Most of the rest of the field was on the Tour.
2) What training do you think cyclists do? Do you imagine the twidle their thumbs for most of the day and then go for an hour or so pootle when they feel like it. They'd have been riding 4 hours a day anyway so may aswell do it sitting in the peleton going round France getting fitter over the mountains and practicising his sprint against the best in the world.

I have just seen David Bonds report on the road race on the 10 o'clock news. Maybe David should look at his own lacklustre reporting about an event he obviously knows little about!!! Your line of quetioning and reporting has continued in the same vein as your report after the opening ceremony... negetive and waiting an undertone of waiting for the GB team to fail!
The GB riders never got any help from the rest of the pack in chasing down the lead group - they were left to keep up the momentum between the five of them. Effectively it was GB verses the rest of the world!
To suggest that the Tour de France was the reason for failure to be in the medals is ludicrous!

We should all be proud of Team GB despite the disappointment of no medal. A peloton of effectively four working riders (half that of any other race such as the tour) trying to control an entire race and pull back a breakaway of 30 riders was never going to be easy.

David, As sports editor. You must surely have some idea of the commitment and dedication required by our athletes. I found your comments on tonight's news at ten totally unnecessary and unsupport of the GB team. We are all disappointed by the cycle teams result, but you don't over react by kicking them in the teeth. Please get supportive and positive it's not too difficult try it.

David, David, David I am fearful for the barrage of criticism coming your way. You might do well to listen some of the BBC's own commentary to assist in future editorial summaries. It is near impossible for 4 people to chase down 20+ on a bicycle with rest of the field as passengers. They almost managed it. Personally I am proud of our boys...you should be too.

David Bond do you not realise the winner of the road race also completed this years tour de France? The reason Cav snapped at you is because your questions highlight your ignorance of the sport and are an insult to the monumental performance the GB guys put in today.

This is one of the worst pieces of journalism I have ever seen. You obviously know nothing about cycling. What is happening to the BBC?

Can I encourage everyone to officially complain to the BBC about this blog and his piece on the news.

Seems to be a fair amount of ill informed opinions in these comments as well. As a cyclist, I think its pretty poor to blame the peloton for not setting up your sprinter for a win! Team GB paid for a lack of flexibility in tactics - continued with Plan A (keeping the entire team together to shield and set up Cavendish) even when it was clear that this was not going to work. Other teams, with riders up the road, are not going to be silly enough to set up Team GB. Why did they not attempt to get their own riders up the road to counter? Why did they not attempt to join Matthew Rogers in his attack? Very strange to criticise the Australians for negativity when they at least sent riders up the road - Team GB did not at any stage.

Mr Bond, having just seen your piece on the news I question if you have ever watched any road racing in your life. Why did you just focus on the people who were present, as a cycling fan I don't care about Seb, Boris or David C but about the great cycling race that took part in London and the unbelievable ride by Vinno.

I have just created an account specifically to reply to this 'article'.
As has been pointed out Mr Bond, Cavendish snapped at you because it WAS a stupid question. How embarassing for you to reveal your complete lack of knowledge of the sport at such a moment. Your report for the news was also laughable (if it wasn't so irritating) for any cycling fan.....and you are 'sports editor'??

Totally agree with posts 1 & 9 - how is David Bond allowed to report on cycling?

and while I'm at it the coverage wasn't great, with all the timings e.t.c. I know the BBC are blaming somebody else, but maybe you could have worked that out beforehand. Just saying.

Tonights report was embarrasing to say the least, you have no grounds to suggest that questions will be asked. Who the hell do you think you are? You made a fool of yourself this afternoon with Cavendish and tried to justify it with this unsubstantiated assertion tonight - it was as incisive as Garth Crooks! You have enviable access to the greatest sports stars, do yourself a favour and use it wisely.

Abysmal journalism. Cav was absolutely correct to comment upon your question. Zero knowledge of the sport. More worrying is BBC appointing you, allowing you to interview the cyclists, and finally giving you website space to comment even more...
I'd be professionally embarrassed.

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Cavendish was right - your question was stupid, and shows that you have no understanding of how cycling works. For a kick off, Vinokourov also rode the TDF, riding in breakaways on some stages, which would have exhausted him, yet he won today. The breakaway he rode in consisted of over 20 riders, all riding for themselves and willing to take a share of the workload to give themselves a chance of winning by keeping the peloton (er, that's the bunch to you) at arm's length. Over 20 riders rotating the effort between them can save more energy, and so maintain their effort for longer, than one team of 5, the number of riders in the GB team who had to take the workload on behalf of the whole peloton.
If you'd taken the time to research the sport for 5 minutes you would understand this. Instead you sell our cyclists, and the BBC, short, by going for an easy line on "country versus career". Shame on you.

The good news David is that you are not alone in asking stupid, thoughtless questions during interviews. Sadly most of the BBC's sports commentators are doing it. But do you know what, I think you are the worst of the lot. I am sure there is something you are good at, but it's not sports journalism. So put us all out of our misery - please leave the BBC and promise to never come back. Yes, it really is that bad.

Comment 26 (nibs) - I'd be interested to see your sources for "widely considered the worst in modern history"; most of the international coverage I found this morning seemed pretty positive.

In our house David Bond is known as the "voice of doom", every time he makes a comment about any British sports event there's always the rider added that "its all going to go wrong soon". His predictions about how awful everything is going to be get very annoying. His comments about the performance at the olympic road race has just changed his nickname to the "prat of doom" Get him off BBC

Agree with stuart, Hugh Porter was awful !!!!
at least give us a commentator who follows road cycling !!
So often he is clueless as to what is going on, cant identify cyclists from number or jersey, Uran was russian for a couple of kilo's !!! and also know the strengths of the pro riders . It is not much to ask is it ?

Please don't ever write an article about cycling again as you clearly have zero knowledge of the sport.

In any case, it should never have been built up in the media as a nailed on Gold medal as road cycling is far too unpredictable for there ever to be any such thing.

Agree with the vast majority of the comments so far.
I could understand this kind of reporting from a tabloid, but expect far better from the BBC.
You clearly have no idea about cycle racing, so find out from someone who does before posting such drivel. Better still, don't bother.

Nothing 'clearly went wrong'? They rode the race perfectly and even more strongly than the Worlds in my eyes. Every nation rode to make sure they lost is all!

I know nothing about road race cycling. Comments posted here suggest a wealth of knowledge. So how did the chap who won, win and why did our supposedly great team not......and why did they need help from opposing teams? Either way.....Mark Cavendish is still the World Champion and Bradley Wiggins won the Tour de France. If the Olympics is not the very pinnacle of their chosen sport, then the sport should not be in the Olympics. Good luck to the Women's team tomorrow.

I am amazed at the insensitivity of your line of questioning to Cav after the race and it deserves the contemp it deserved - get your facts sorted before passing any of your negative comments!

David, your bit on news at ten was the worst bit of sports reporting I have seen in a long time.
Four guys bury themselves for 6 and a half hours at the front of the peleton with no help from any other nation.
You report they couldn't keep up with the pace of the group.
Who allows you to get away with reporting on events you are so ignorant of.
Cavendish's retort to your question was driven by his loyalty to his team mates.
He understood that the guys in the GB team just put in a huge shift for him and did all that they could have.
I presume you didn't watch any of the race, and just turned up to belittle some of our finest athletes.

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I love it when you guys in the UK criticise the BBC commentary and journos. Living in New Zealand, we'd love to have people of that calibre. When watching the road race last night, one of our commentators even used the phrase, "my bad", when she realised she had made a mistake, as obviously in NZ we have ditched the Queen's English in favour of South Central LA ghetto slang. And in regards knowledge, our commentators are similarly ill-informed. Do I blame them? Not really. Some of these sports only get on television once every four years.

Then again, the rugby journos and commentators aren't much better!

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I have to agree with the other post in saying that you clearly know nothing about road racing.
I think you'll find 99% of the true cycling followers in Britain would rather see a British rider winning the Tour de France than the Olympic Road race
Don't get me wrong I'm sad for Cav but I doubt even he would give up many of his tour stages for the Olympic road race
Even to hint at criticism at Dave Brailsford or the Sky team for giving us a British winner in under 4 years is unbelievable.
If there was a scale winning the tour would be 100 and the Olympic road race would be about 15 at most.
I think it's going to be a theme of this Olympics that the BBC are going to be thin on depth of knowledge for all but the most mainstream sports.
If not winning the gold in this was a bad start for team GB then this reporting was shocker for the BBC. Dave Bond didn't hack the pace

A very poor article, lacking depth and clearly highlights the authors complete ignorance regarding the sport. I'm not surprised Cavendish snapped at you.

BBC, please consider hiring someone who actually knows the sport.

@nibs #26
Don't you ever get bored of embarrassing yourself by criticising everything British relentlessly? Using silly phrases such as "widely regarded as the worst opening ceremony" lol. I m in US and 90% of the media are very positive. Sure you can find some negative but for every one of those ill find you 9 positive.

Worst piece of sports journalism I have ever read. All the cyclists in the race will be in awe at what the team did today, most of the racers clung on to their shirt tails in the hope of taking advantage of the free ride at the death.

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Hey Nibs not sure what opening ceremony you watched but last nights was one of the cleverest I have seen for a major sporting event.

Too many people bought into the media hype about the medal haul, judging from the comments on here.

Same as ever with us-we always think we're going to win it, whatever it is, regardless of the competition.

Having seen the advertising and the ludicrous opening ceremony, it seems everyone is daft enough to believe it. A few athletes who just get on with it might help, but it must be difficult to relax enough to do that.

Seems to me that the team were geared up to bring cavendish home with no plan b......That has worked in the past but in a one off event like the
Olympics results such as this will always happen....you should never judge on a single performance .... The Tour remains the defining mark of the riders qualities and cavendish,wiggins and co have proved their quality at the highest level

The focus should be on why the winner was allowed to compete at all with a doping background...a great sport and spectacle continues to be tainted by its association with drugs.

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The race itself is about tactics, very few teams of five riders minus 1 (Cav), so thats four, can control a race for 250 km. Team GB were always going to get attacked the peleton were not going to bring Cav to the finish that was HIS teams job!
The GB boys made a calculation that they and HOPEFULLY, with the help of others, between them could cover any breakaways. It was a miscalculation. Hey! that's road racing.
Cavendish let himself down very, very badly in his post interview with his most ungracious comments not once did he congratulate the winner. He just moaned how the whole world was out to stop them " he said "even if another nation couldn't win they would be happy just to see that GB wouldn't win"...
The Brits as always are triumphant before they have actually done the business the media, the public, Cavendish himself had the medal pinned on already... Ridiculous.. Look at Cancellara crashing out illustrating than anything can happen in a race

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#26:
"it is widely considered the worst in modern history."

Really? Please provide some evidence to back up this statement. I'd be interested to read some of your source material, considering most of what I have read so far has been very positive.

This blog and your report on BBC news tonight show that you are not qualified to report on this sport, and frankly undermines any credibility that you might have to report on any other sport.

You asked Mark Cavendish if it was the effects of the Tour De France that stopped a nation's top 4 riders try and pace the world's best sprinter up Box Hill 9 times and chase down every attack for 250km with no support from any other team... each of which would seemingly rather lose than see Cav win again. You wonder why he snapped? I'm surprised he didn't swing.

The worst thing for me was that in the news report you gave the viewers the impression that Froome and Wiggins couldn't keep with the pace; them both having given everything super-humanly possible to deliver Cavendish to the Mall.

You've misrepresented a sport, and a team of individuals that proved today that the Olympic spirit is alive and well.

If I wanted a sensationalist report, trying to bask in the glory of success but quick to destroy the hopes of a nation if success is not delivered, then I'd be paying for Sky.

Unbelievably bad reporting.

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I have worked in Financial Services all my life and haven't ridden a bike since I was about 15 (a long time ago) and I reckon, given the opportunity I could produce a far more informative and accurate report than DB. Cup half empty comes to mind and that is where DB seems to be with a passion.

I googled 'BBC News Olympics stupid questions' to see if anything came up as I was wondering if I was the only one who was incensed by your uninformed, totally ridiculous and, at best, shamefully insensitive (both to MCav and to a Public who don't actually want to start negative speculation about our medal hopes on day 1 of the Olympics, based on one, embarrassingly unqualified person's dictate!) interviewing and reporting 'techniques'.

I am relieved to find that I'm not the only one with this strength of feeling about your incompetence and with a great desire NOT to see or hear from you through the rest of the games...or ever after, for that matter.

And the same goes for the woman who interview MC and the others at the end of the race and her monumental bodge up of a 'question' about his relationship with the Olympic Games...shocking!!

I can't believe that you two are the best reporting 'talent' Britain has to offer. Please resign so that we can watch the Games in peace, with reporters who don't offend, undermine or upset the athletes and who actually have something positive, sensible and constructive to say.

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I am glad to see I am not the only person who things David's reporting of cycling (and sport in general for that matter) was dreadful, how at least after watching the race you could not form an informed opinion is beyond me, and why was Chris Boardman not asked to do the 10pm news.

It was always going to be difficult for Cav, Olympic Golds have tendered not to go to the big sprinters in the past due to the difficulty in controlling races, great effort from GB shame that ultimately they didn't have a chance. Fingers crossed for the TT, we will be behind you Team GB no matter what, we won't unlike david bond be 'asking questions'!

PS hope Cav has a swing next time rather than point out the error in your questioning!

Good evening, Mr Bond. In thirty years of watching cycle racing, I have never seen a team of nine ride at the front of a race for as long as the five man GB squad rode at the front of the peloton today, without any significant help from other teams. Their effort was awesome. If I had been in Cav's shoes I would probably have punched you, Mr Bond. As for the criticisms in the comments of Hugh Porter-he was working from the same TV pictures as we were. How the hell was he supposed to know what was going on when none of us knew what the time gaps were?

If you spend the best part of a year telling everyone what your plan A is and stick rigidly to it, don't blame the competition for not playing along. GB missed a trick not getting anyone in the initial break to cover it then paid the price later. Sorry Cav, you're the fastest guy in the peleton, eventually the rest were always gonna come up with a plan to stop you. Deal with it.

David Bond,do you know anything about sport? Your predicessor(spelling?) knew just as little. It seems to me that if ever there was a sport of left wing unionised rugmunching the BBC would be the leading medal winners.

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Just to answer Cav's question: you David clearly are totally ill-qualified to say anything about cycling and I'm having doubts that you are qualified to say anything about sport. Medals don't just appear from thin air, especially in road cycling.

Do us all a favour and learn something about the sport before daring to report on it again. And the idea that questions are going to be asked if GB don't win a gold medal soon is ridiculous. If anyone is Nowhere Man it's you David.

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I have to say, that after watch Le Tour for the past couple of weeks, the coverage of the road race was terrible. Porter and Boardman did what they could, but they had no rider info or timings to work with.

Rubbish coverage, dissapointing result - then ignorant reporting. I shal stay away from the telly tomorrow!

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Having watched Eurosport cover cycling for years I cringed when I heard your report. The BBC has to understand that this is a far more nuanced sport than "get on you bike, ride fast!" Sport is watched and supported in UK like nowhere else in the world but I feel the BBC has got left behind (in certain sports) on what is expected by sports officiandos, it was always the "go to" station in the past, your report confirms the feeling that those days are gone. Please raise your game, not for you....for us!

This really is a shocking article and something that clearly exposes the BBC's lack of real interest in professional cycling. If David Bond had even listened to Chris Boardmans' comments during the race, he might have realised what happened. On the day, the only unit really working as a team, got their game plan wrong by 40 seconds despite getting no real help from the Germans who ought to have been getting Greipel in to position. Countries with serious riders in the breakaway were never going to show an interest in the progress of the peloton. That's professional road racing.

To imply that the TdF victory was to the detriment of Olympic chances was childish. The TdF win was far more important and will remain so even if Wiggo doesn't win the time trial. Personally I was sorry to see Cancellara get injured, him v Wiggo would be an awesome battle. Also, an experienced broadcaster would know that interviewing Cav immediately after a defeat can be difficult. The man is a winner and takes defeat badly. Leaving a bit of time would have allowed him to calm down.

I don't understand why the BBC didn't try and bring over the whole of the ITV commentary team for the Olympics, poor old Hugh Porter was out of his depth.

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I don't think you can really attribute the result today to post (or is that apres) tour tiredness. Vinokourov completed the tour also.

I watched them for all 9 laps arounds Box Hill and every time the peloton passed both on the uphill and the descent it had a TeamGB lead out train with the addition in later laps of Team Sky colleague Bernhard Eisel of Austria. It seems that none of the other teams were prepared to put a in shift (as Cavendish said in his interview) at the front to give the peloton a chance of catching the breakaway. Thus the efficiency advantage of riding in a large group was negated for TeamGB.

In hindsight one could consider that they should have realised they were not going to have any allies in the field and therefore worked harder in the early stages to prevent any breakaways. This is however easier said than done when you have to cover 250k as a team of 5 rather than 8.

I was hopeing for a Cavendish win but frankly I had an excellent day out in the Surrey countryside and in the end don't really care who won.

Official complaint sent regarding this blog and the news piece. I feel it was very justified. This comment will be removed I am sure.

The BBC reporters dont seem to be able to ask orginal questions. Sometimes they are just rude such as the woman who interviewed the winner opening remark was 'well this isnt the result the uk wanted' - that was appalling. I wish the BBC would realise its not all about Britain and the medal table! The reporters are the ones who disappoint