Team Sky 2011

BdeB

I read some where that they will have a squad of 30 for 2011. IThey have announced 5? newcomers so far and some departures can anyone work out how many more signings they need to make 30.

Sky 2010 squad
Kurt Asle Arvesen
John-Lee Augustyn
Michael Barry
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Sylvain Calzati
Kjell Carlström
Dario Cioni
Steve Cummings
Russell Downing
Juan Antonio Flecha
Chris Froome
Simon Gerrans
Matthew Hayman
Greg Henderson
Peter Kennaugh
Thomas Löfkvist
Lars Petter Nordhaug
Serge Pauwels
Nicolas Portal
Morris Possoni
Ian Stannard
Chris Sutton
Ben Swift
Geraint Thomas
Davide Viganò
Bradley Wiggins

New signings for 2011
Zandio
Uran
Dowsett
Hunt
Apollonio

Can't remeber who is leaving? 3 riders?

Does that leave 2 more riders to be announce?

Tom BB

Rogers seems likely to be riding for Sky next year going by what I've read on here!

wicked

Isn't it calzati, portal and vigano going?

RichN95.

wicked wrote:

Isn't it calzati, portal and vigano going?

Yeah, although Portal not exactly going, he's moving into management as an assistant DS.

BdeB

so that is 2 more places to fill. Rogers and ANother?

sportvan

Fabian Cancellara is the missing piece of the puzzle. What could have been if only they didn't waste the money in year 1. What could have been.

BdeB

Rogers confirmed so roster full or one more rider?

Tusher

Yeah, I thought they would have at least tried for Chinny- perhaps they did. Perhaps Dave B didn't like the look of his passport. Who knows?

FJS

Apparently Cancellara was approached by Sky, but preferred either BMC or Luxteam himself - it's not everyone's ambition in life to ride for Sky, and there are more teams with plenty of money to offer

Hibbs

Tusher wrote:

Yeah, I thought they would have at least tried for Chinny- perhaps they did. Perhaps Dave B didn't like the look of his passport. Who knows?

Perhaps Chinny didn't want his passport inspected by Uncle F.

pedro118118

Hibbs wrote:

Tusher wrote:

Yeah, I thought they would have at least tried for Chinny- perhaps they did. Perhaps Dave B didn't like the look of his passport. Who knows?

Perhaps Chinny didn't want his passport inspected by Uncle F.

From what I've read, Michael Rogers's passport is far from flawless, harking back to dark days at Telekom/T-Mobile, when he was winnig World TT titles for fun...

Turning to the Sky roster, having looked down the list, I was shocked at how many riders have been utterly anonymous.

Tusher

FJS wrote:

Apparently Cancellara was approached by Sky, but preferred either BMC or Luxteam himself - it's not everyone's ambition in life to ride for Sky, and there are more teams with plenty of money to offer

Can understand his preference, especially for Team Lux. He knows them all so well already.

Cumulonimbus

Article below about how Arvesen tried to get Cancellara to join up but Spartacus wasnt really interested.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/arvesen ... gn-for-sky

Cumulonimbus

pedro118118 wrote:

Hibbs wrote:

Tusher wrote:

Yeah, I thought they would have at least tried for Chinny- perhaps they did. Perhaps Dave B didn't like the look of his passport. Who knows?

Perhaps Chinny didn't want his passport inspected by Uncle F.

From what I've read, Michael Rogers's passport is far from flawless, harking back to dark days at Telekom/T-Mobile, when he was winnig World TT titles for fun...

A shady past perhaps but does the biological passport show anything that far back or would it just be 2008 onwards?

pedro118118 wrote:

Turning to the Sky roster, having looked down the list, I was shocked at how many riders have been utterly anonymous.

Interesting to compare their cycling quotient ranking with the ranking from the previous year

http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/te ... amcode=SKY

squired

I read somewhere that you are allowed 29 riders if you sign one neo-pro and 30 if you sign two. At present Alex Dowsett is apparently the only neo-pro and I believe Rogers is number 29. That would just leave one place for a neo-pro, unless there are yet to be announced departures.

FJS

Cumulonimbus wrote:

Interesting to compare their cycling quotient ranking with the ranking from the previous year

http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/te ... amcode=SKY

That is shocking - clearly proves it's not just down to one underperforming and and one injury-plagued leader.

What is especially worrying is that the youngsters (Kennaugh, Swift, Stannard, Augustyn) didn't make a significant step forward. Thomas is an exception, but even his main results are in national races.

Henderson, Possoni and Flecha had decent years, and Russ Downing definitely used the opportunities given to him, but for the rest it's collective underperformance

shinyhelmut

sportvan wrote:

Fabian Cancellara is the missing piece of the puzzle. What could have been if only they didn't waste the money in year 1. What could have been.

Apparently the drive shaft of his electric motor is incompatible with the bendy seat stays on the Pinarello.

inkyfingers

I think with addition of Rogers, a fit EBH and the fact that Wiggins has said he's going to race more than just 1 day prior to July could see them improving considerably in 2011.

Hopefully they have learnt from their mistakes as they have the making of a strong team, certainly capable of challenging in the classics and shorter stage races.. Their biggest problem last year was their poor performance when riding for GC in the stage races. They were right up there in the cobbled classics and had some decent stage wins (Giro, Paris Nice, Tirreno Adriatico and the Dauphine), especially considering they lack a top class sprinter - Henderson and EBH are good sprinters, but clearly a step or two below Cav & Farrar.

As for the young Brits....Swift wona stage and the overall in theTour of Picardy, not a big race admittedly but still a good result for a 22 year. Stannard was 3rd in KBK, which was a proper hard nut race, plus he was 3rd in the national road race championship. Swift, Kennaugh and Stannard were also all in the ill fated Vuelta line up so they obviously lost out on a good chance to show what they can do.

Kléber

They should do better and they will learn lessons.

I'm not 100% convinced on the recruitment decisions, Mick Rogers is a very similar rider to Wiggins. In the same way they've got many sprinters who are able to crack the top-10, especially on a hard day (Swift, Henderson, Appollonio) but nobody who is going to give Cavendish or Farrar a headache.

Given the budget I still think they'll improve in 2012. It's taking Katusha some time to get going.

Cumulonimbus

They've got a decent ttt team there actually. EBH, Wiggins, Thomas, Rogers, Lovkvist, Henderson....depending on their team they could have a chance of winning the one on stage 2 of the tour next year and assuming any time differences in the uphill finish are small then there is the chance of yellow.

Agree with Rogers being a similar rider to Wiggins. Rogers himself says that he will probably end up trying for the overall at Calif and/or switzerland. In the tour its uncertain what role he will be playing although he will be there.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rogers- ... l-with-sky

Kléber

Cumulonimbus wrote:

They've got a decent ttt team there actually. EBH, Wiggins, Thomas, Rogers, Lovkvist, Henderson....depending on their team they could have a chance of winning the one on stage 2 of the tour next year and assuming any time differences in the uphill finish are small then there is the chance of yellow.

Yes, this is quite a plausible scenario. But HTC, the Luxembourg mob and Garmin will have their say too.

stagehopper

If Rogers can repeat for Sky what he did for HTC this season it'll already be a major step up. Appollonio was a good pick-up, had a really good end to the year.

Be interesting to see what they do in the cobbled classics - might it be time for Thomas to step up and start getting major results?

pedro118118

For me, there's a whole lot of pressure on EBH again next year, as he's the only rider with true winning potential. I'm sure the likes of Rodgers, Lovqvist, Hendo, Flecha will deliver placings, but there's no-one else really capable of challanging the big guns in the monuments and the grand tours.

thamacdaddy

This years performance might cloud most people's judgements but I think we will see much more from sky next season, especially in the classics. The addition of hunt, add in wiggins possibly doing a few like roubaix and with stannard who was good support last year I think riders like Thomas and flecha will have far more support in these events.

Kennaugh and swift are top talents and dowsett is a massive addition to the young Brit talent on the team. As others have mentioned the amount of TT skills have also been strengthened.

If they go out to perform in each race as opposed betting the bank on the tour I think we saw even last year you would see sky riders in the mix just often the lack of support meant the placings didn't always come. I am not sure sprints will be key unless EBH fancies his chances but if that's the case I think out of the riders they have a really strong lead out can be put together.

I think they have a much better mix now and I am really hopeful for te next season

lucybears

Sky Team, the big disappointment of the season

http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... mporada%2F