Team Sky

racklever

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... /feb26news

"One of the new squad's aims is to produce the first British Tour de France winner within the next five years"

Place your bets now ....

afx237vi

racklever wrote:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id=news/2009/feb09/feb26news

"One of the new squad's aims is to produce the first British Tour de France winner within the next five years"

Place your bets now ....

...and I'll be happy to take 'em. You can even name your own odds.

markwalker

Team Sky is aiming to:

Create the first British winner of the Tour de France, within five years.
Inspire people of all ages and abilities to get on their bikes, through the team's positive profile, attitude and success.
Add further support to competitive cycling in Great Britain.


Ha ha ha ha ha

1 lets hope they have American/Spanish and Italian ped excellence.
2 ?? goal by comittee
3 by supporting even further than before the premier calender

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha rofl

Kléber

The cynicism starts already!

I wish them well. But as Robert Millar reminded British Cycling, road racing is not painting by numbers, it's not about how many watts you can produce for four minutes. The variability, like hundreds of riders, weather and changing terrain make it much harder for the infamous Brailsford control-freakery to master.

Still, it's worth a go. But beyond Cavendish and David Millar, there aren't any other British world class riders. Even Wiggins struggles to master the alchemy of turning track gold into success on the tarmac.

DaveyL

Ah, cynicism and knocking people with ambition. I knew I'd forgotten there was something to English culture other than morris dancing.

DaveyL

Kléber wrote:

I wish them well. But as Robert Millar reminded British Cycling, road racing is not painting by numbers, it's not about how many watts you can produce for four minutes. The variability, like hundreds of riders, weather and changing terrain make it much harder for the infamous Brailsford control-freakery to master.

I'm guessing this won't come as a shock to Brailsford...

moray_gub

Kléber wrote:

The cynicism starts already!

I wish them well. But as Robert Millar reminded British Cycling, road racing is not painting by numbers, it's not about how many watts you can produce for four minutes. The variability, like hundreds of riders, weather and changing terrain make it much harder for the infamous Brailsford control-freakery to master.

You say that as if Brailsford is just some punter they picked off the street.

MG

Kléber

Of course he's not. But that's why road racing is much harder than the track, where you have few variables and the standard is not so high, eg Wiggins only had to beat Roulston for Olympic gold, if Cancellara did the pursuit, you suspect he might well do a time worthy of lapping the entire GB team pursuit squad.

So the success on the track will be very difficult to replicate, not so our expectations need to be managed but those of the average British punter who might start expecting similar domination on the road!

Who are the 19-21 year old British riders to keep an eye on?

calvjones

I can think of a couple of young Commonwealth riders who might be in line for a British passport...

moray_gub

Kléber wrote:

Of course he's not. But that's why road racing is much harder than the track, where you have few variables and the standard is not so high, eg Wiggins only had to beat Roulston for Olympic gold, if Cancellara did the pursuit, you suspect he might well do a time worthy of lapping the entire GB team pursuit squad.

So the success on the track will be very difficult to replicate, not so our expectations need to be managed but those of the average British punter who might start expecting similar domination on the road!

Who are the 19-21 year old British riders to keep an eye on?

I agree but i I think DB is long enough in the tooth to know all that already and more.As for riders 19-21 who can tell but ask any one in here who are the French,Italian,Spanish riders of that age to keep an eye on i reckon they would struggle to come up with a few names.

MG

Kléber

Andy Schleck, Roman Kreuziger, Maxime Monfort, Pierre Rolland, Thomas Lovkvist, Taylor Phinney, Dan Martin to name but a few.

iainf72

I believe the team won't be as "British" as some people think it will be.

There are people from all over the world linked to it - They might have a core but I suspect the real "talent", certainly at this stage, will be drawn from other countries.

Now, about the sponsor....

jimmythecuckoo

iainf72 wrote:

Now, about the sponsor....

Well they have managed to bugger up most of our sports through throwing money at them so far. Why should cycling escape?

DaveyL

Better than getting Allen Stanford in. Just.

Kléber

Will they snap up the rights to road cycling from Eurosport and ITV?

jimmythecuckoo

DaveyL wrote:

Better than getting Allen Stanford in. Just.

iainf72

Kléber wrote:

Will they snap up the rights to road cycling from Eurosport and ITV?

Will they get Clarkson and Matthew Parris involved in commentry?

padonbike

yep I suppose it's over 20 years and we about due for ANC v2.0

Someone at Sky (bless them) is obviously confusing winning the odd stage at the Tour with WINNING the Tour.

A British rider cannot win the Tour in five years because - unless he explodes on the scene like Ullrich did - his class and potential would already have to be in evidence right now.

LangerDan

iainf72 wrote:

Kléber wrote:

Will they snap up the rights to road cycling from Eurosport and ITV?

Will they get Clarkson and Matthew Parris involved in commentry?

I can just imagine Jezza commentating on Andy Schleck

"Some say that he smells slightly of Barum tubulars and that his brother sends random gifts of money to doctors.
All we know is he's called "The Stick""

("Coat, please......")

iain_j

Good luck to them. Can't see it happening in that timescale though.

Gazzaputt

Kléber wrote:

Will they snap up the rights to road cycling from Eurosport and ITV?

F*ck I hope not as Sky are dismal hate the bastards. Rip off sodding merchants.

Be a sad day the day cycling is on pay to view.

I don't think British Eurosport would loose coverage as the right to TDF etc is owned by them as a French company. Big bucks for Eurosport showing cycling across Europe.

stagehopper

Given the troubles the sport has been in regarding sponsorship, this has to be a positive sign for both British and world cycling. From the briefings clearly given to various journalists it seems other sponsorship has already been secured alongside Sky and it'll be looking at having one of the largest budgets in pro-cycling so no half-arsed effort like some other previously poorly financed efforts. Scott Sunderland and Roger Legeay seem to be buzzing about the scene as well to give the necessary road expereince, and they appear to have done their homework with the UCI, ASO etc

Can it guarantee a British winner of the TdF in 5 years? Clearly not. But when launching + talking about your "vision" you don't deal in the harsh realities.

What it can do is act as a springboard into top level road racing for the new generation of UK riders that are tumbling out of the track programme. There seem to be more promising British riders entering the pro ranks now than I think I can ever remember and with the road programmes for younger riders now being in place on the continent (unlike say 5 years ago) that conveyor belt should continue.

Will be interesting to see which non-UK riders they bring in to balance the team. With guaranteed funding through to 2012 they'll be wielding a powerful chequebook.

GroupOfOne MkII

I believe ITV have got a long term contract with The Tour, signed last year, lasting until 2013, so we're safe...for now.

Think there'll be quite an Italian presence on the team, because Sky Italia have also been ramping up their cycling coverage through last season, heck they even mentioned ToB several times on their 24hr sports channel!

Be interesting though which Italian names they go for, CW mentioning Nibali, Ballan and Pinotti (though this is probably just 'lets pick 3 names out of the air and hope it sticks' journalism at IPC Towers), as presumably they'll want the pro team to be as respected and clean as the track team. E.g. Lhotellerie is mentioned as another signing, and we all know the rumours about him, and it would only take one accident to place a black mark against everything the team is linked to, on and off road. Interesting times.

Also has a national federation ever run a professional team before? Not including national teams in The Tour of course.

FransJacques

Team Sky for 4 (!) years? Yeah right.
- Team Brite
- Harrods
- Lynda McCartney
- Team Men's Health
- all other UK "super teams" that ended in disaster

GroupOfOne MkII

FransJacques wrote:

Team Sky for 4 (!) years? Yeah right.
- Team Brite
- Harrods
- Lynda McCartney
- Team Men's Health
- all other UK "super teams" that ended in disaster

You forgot ANC-Halfords

Though I'd suggest that Sky have slightly more finance and logistics behind them than any of those teams you mentioned, coupled with the experise of the national federation.

Kléber

None of those were superteams, they were probably all so dodgy that they woudn't have got Continental licences under the UCI rules today.

disgruntledgoat

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Also has a national federation ever run a professional team before? Not including national teams in The Tour of course.

Euskaltel? Cafe Columbia? I'm guessing.

Verbal

This kind of attitude really annoys me and is indicative of everything that is wrong in sport and the country as a whole. Why is it that everyone is so willing and eager to knock ambition and the pursuit of success in this country? We should be ecstatic that someone is willing to invest in the future of British Cycling with the dream of putting someone on the podium at the TdF. I agree that, realistically, their goal is out of reach for now and will take signficantly longer than the 5 years they're planning for, but that's no reason to knock what they trying to do. I don't see anybody else stepping up and commiting to investing in a home grown cycling team. Some folk may not have any love for Sky and I understand that but at the moment they're really all we've got and we should be thankful for it. Our support and best wishes is what's needed, not sneering negativity.

FJS

disgruntledgoat wrote:

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

Also has a national federation ever run a professional team before? Not including national teams in The Tour of course.

Euskaltel? Cafe Columbia? I'm guessing.

Rabobank also sponsors the Dutch cycling federation, and there's definitely some cooperation, with the pro-team profiling itself as a 'national team'.
In that respect I find it very surprising that the Team Sky proposal doesn't mention an U23/continental development squad, like Rabobank and some other teams have; you would think it would be a necessary part of a federation-managed project....

Kléber

Verbal, you're right but if the Belgians announced plans to send the first human to Mars, many would have a laugh instead of praising their noble exploratory and scientific goals.

FransJacques

GroupOfOne MkII wrote:

FransJacques wrote:

Team Sky for 4 (!) years? Yeah right.
- Team Brite
- Harrods
- Lynda McCartney
- Team Men's Health
- all other UK "super teams" that ended in disaster

You forgot ANC-Halfords

Though I'd suggest that Sky have slightly more finance and logistics behind them than any of those teams you mentioned, coupled with the experise of the national federation.

Agreed, I was being a little flippant as is the british way innit. But Sky is no different in any other company in that it is just as cparicious with discretionary spend when the sheit hits the fan.

However, with Brasilford's track record (pun not intended) and a natural crescendo towards 2012, this one should have some wheels (pun not intended).

But why not a British tour contendor? Because with the 5 year goal in mind I think we'd already know his name, and sorry boys/girls, we don't. There is no british hope a la Lance, Hunault or Lemond who is dropping jaws like these stars did 5 years before they won a tour, these guys were all "special" and we knew it well in advance.

However, maybe there is a formula for tour contender that you can break down into vertical meters/min for climbing, watts/cd for TTs , recovery for the long haul, or other parameters that I have no idea of. Mule to thoroughbread? We'll see, it could be really really interesting and might really benefit cycling in the UK. As the captain of a new cycling club, I hope it works out.