T of Cal

Gingerflash

sorry, should have googled first.

he's fine, lucky chap.

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011/05/ ... sto_174036

andyjr

The whole Cav to Sky lark goes against what they set the team up for in the first place- ie a british Grand tour winner in 5 years. Signing Cav would be going against this. At present Sky have 2 good sprinters in Hendo & swift. If you throw in EBH and Appollonio then arguably you have 4. If you weer Ben swift and you saw that Cav was signing, it would make me think about a change of team TBH. It comes down to what Sky want really. Pretty sure they wouldn't have problems money wise in signing him, it's more whether they want to.

andyp

How many GT stages have Sky won? Just the one I think, Wiggins prologue win in the Giro last year.

They need Cavendish.

iainf72

Lets remember they wanted him from day 1 and he let them down by re-signing with HTC. I also think Sky have reset their own expectations somewhat.

TMR

I can't imagine the SKY riders would be happy if Cav showed up. Especially Wiggins, as that's effectively saying 'You haven't delivered', which is true of course, but there are ways and there are ways.

mr_poll

andyjr wrote:

The whole Cav to Sky lark goes against what they set the team up for in the first place- ie a british Grand tour winner in 5 years.

To be fair I think DB said that kind of thing at a press launch to get some column inches how realistic that is their internal aim is different matter
Contracts usually last 2 years - can you see any Brit challenging in 2012/13? Neither can I, most promising Brit rider is Geraint and it's looking like he is shaping up as a classics guy rather than a 3 week GC contender. Dont want to write Wiggo off but realisitically I wouldnt putting my last fiver on him. After that there are a cpl of riders with promise but a good number of years away.

If the team are canny and want Sky's funding long term (think it was a 3 year deal) - they need very good press from high profile wins and that means getting someone to cross the line first in the TdF regularly. Cav would be a damn good guarantee of that during 2012.

takethehighroad

I still think Kennaugh is the man for Sky, but they're bringing him through slowly.

He's been brilliant so far in this Giro. Not exactly consistent but flashes of brilliance

inkyfingers

There will always be a difference between a teams sporting ambitions and what their sponsors will expect. Dave Brailsford had a lot of time and freedom to create the team GB track programme, and to be fair he was hugely successful. The difference is that much of that was money from lottery funding and the government, neither of whom is particularly interested in getting a financial return on their investment. With a fully sponsored team like Team Sky, they will want their brand on the TV, particularly in those all important 3 weeks in July.

I imagine that the managers of HTC Highroad would love to have the time to develop a young GC prodigy, who could slowly but surely make his way to the top step of the tour podium, however the sponsors can get the same effect, much quicker by having a big name sprinter who can win 5 stages and get as much publiscity as the winner of the tour overall.

This is the call that Sky have to make, the problem they had last year and look like they will have this year is that they will fall between the two stools. They do not have a top class GC rider who can win the tour (if Wiggins has a good year he might go top 10, but that's not good enough). Neither do they have a top class sprinter (like Cav, Farrar or Petacchi) who can win you four or more stages every year). By signing Cav they could tick one of these boxes straight away, if I was Dave Brailsford anmd acting purely as a team manger who is answerable to the sponsors, i'd bite Cav's arm off.

LangerDan

inkyfingers wrote:

This is the call that Sky have to make, the problem they had last year and look like they will have this year is that they will fall between the two stools. They do not have a top class GC rider who can win the tour (if Wiggins has a good year he might go top 10, but that's not good enough). Neither do they have a top class sprinter (like Cav, Farrar or Petacchi) who can win you four or more stages every year). By signing Cav they could tick one of these boxes straight away, if I was Dave Brailsford anmd acting purely as a team manger who is answerable to the sponsors, i'd bite Cav's arm off.

What would he use to hang on to team cars then?

TMR

LangerDan wrote:

What would he use to hang on to team cars then?

His Manx third leg?

Dmak

39 year old Chris Horner winning stage 4!

mididoctors

decent little stage

afx237vi

Disappointing ride from Van Garderen.

jp1985

afx237vi wrote:

Disappointing ride from Van Garderen.

It looked like he was riding OK but just did way to much work on the front too early on the climb and blew up towards the end because of it.

Impressive ride by Rory Sutherland though

mididoctors

loved some of the roads

liked the contrast to europe

Moomaloid

half decent stage... nice final climb... thank god!

Bakunin

I watched the stage tonight -- Versus falling all over Tommy D, Levi, Horner, CVV, Hancapie, Dave Z.

A decent stage, but the whole affair is dreadfully boring.

It needs Rock Racing.

Gazzaputt

Love Horner's riding style looks so gangly.

Cracking ride by him though and at the ripe age of 39! Hope for me yet

Abdoujaparov

For someone so small, horner uses ridiculously wide handlebars. Looks like he's riding a mountain bike.

Great ride though - he's always been desperately under-rated. Poor guy could have had a much better career.

blazing_saddles

When Cali was in February, it was no gauge of July form.
Watching last night and it's still no pointer to July form................is it?
Horner's 75 second gain over 6kms was better than Bertie on Etna.

Maybe we should ask Martinelli: Is Horner better now, than Lance ever was?!

le_patron

mididoctors wrote:

loved some of the roads

liked the contrast to europe

Me too. Before San Jose and the last climb I was trying to figure out where I would have thought it was, if I didn't know. Interesting mixture of a few things.

inkyfingers

The difference between Horner's attack last night and Contadors attack in the Giro is that in the Giro the chasing riders really care about losing time. Guys like Schleck are only in Cali for the beer, sunshine and some solid training.

frenchfighter

Andy Schleck was riding. He came 2nd which is good. Horner put 1min into him though.

Horner, class act, quality rider.

le_patron

At times it did look a bit like a sportive going up there (ie it was hard, they didn't look comfortable or that bothered).

inkyfingers

I think if Chris Horner rode for a different team he'd get a lot more respect than he does.

Radioshack are in danger of having quite a good season.

jamesfifield

Does anyone know if the footage from the Go Pro cameras is available anywhere? It would make interesting viewing I think!

mididoctors

another ok stage

RichN95.

I see everyone's largely ignoring this race.

But fair dues to the organisers, the Mount Baldy climb they're about to go up this evening has to be one of the biggest and longest climbs in mainstream cycling*




*(Yes, yes, the Tour of Colombia. But that's not really mainstream is it)

iainf72

I'm following it. Can't suck more than the Giro, can it?

afx237vi

Hincapie going in a breakaway trying to win a mountaintop finish... the guy has a sense of humour, anyway.