Cavendish to Sky

TMR

greasedscotsman wrote:

Does anyone want to buy a Sky jersey?

Good timing, think we've just ran out of toilet paper...

nickwill

The Mad Rapper wrote:

FJS wrote:

Don't see why Wiggins couldn't do the same? Wouldn't rate Martin necessarily higher than Wiggins on GC and with his track experience Wiggins should be able to do some top level lead out work

Martin is younger, he's won more, shows more potential and already provides a great lead out for Mark.

You are forgetting that Sky is a British team, built with the aim of bringing British cyclists to the fore. Signing foriegn riders has been a pragmatic necessity but when all things are equal they are going to favour cyclists from these shores.
With regards to the futures of Ben Swift and Appollonio, the number of races that Pro tour teams have to ride (often concurrently) means that there is surely room for all of them.

bigmat

The Mad Rapper wrote:

FJS wrote:

Don't see why Wiggins couldn't do the same? Wouldn't rate Martin necessarily higher than Wiggins on GC and with his track experience Wiggins should be able to do some top level lead out work

Martin is younger, he's won more, shows more potential and already provides a great lead out for Mark.

Wiggins was part of Cav's lead out when he was at HTC and did a very good job of it. He's also done lead out work at Sky. And he's British, which is quite a big selling point for Sky. Maybe Appollonio will go. And EBH. I think Swift and Cav are different types of rider, if anything it is good news for Swift as it means Sky are likely to be more focused on sprinters at the big races, Swift can do lead out work on the Cav stages and then be top dog for anything with a couple of hills in it.

squired

Any bets on who will leave the team at the end of the season?

I'd be disappointed if EBH went as he seems to have a huge amount of ability and can no doubt improve more. Hopefully that ride on the the final climb in one of the Dauphine stages is a sign of him coming into form for the latter half of the season.

My bets for possible departures are:

Henderson
Sutton
Possoni
Pauwels
Lövkvist
Froome
Augustyn
Cioni

inkyfingers

Even before the news today I think i'd have said the following possibly won't be at Sky next year...

Lofkvist - He's been a massive disssapointment since joining Sky, was tied with Wiggins on that but at least now Wiggins has won a big stage race and was on the podium in another.

Henderson - Was a good signing by Sky and has got some good wins, but he's coming to the end of his career and they'd be better to concentrate on younger talent like Swift and Appollonio.

Sutton - Despite his win at KBK he just doesn't look like establishing himself as a regular top sprinter, maybe he needs a team where he'll get more opportunities.

Pauwels - Seems to have already fallen out with the management, has never really shone since joining Sky.

Possoni - I think he did OK in the Brixia Tour last year, enough said.

They'd be mad to let EBH go, he can go well in the races that Cav can't win (hilly stages and classics). There are enough races for Swift and Appollonio to gather good wins and they are young so they should keep them too.

RichN95.

I think it makes sense all round.

Cav almost has as many links with Sky as he does with HTC. His coach is there, all his training mates are there, his agent works for them. Even his girlfriend is employed by News International. It's a good fit.

As for EBH. First of all, he primarily went to Sky because they offered three times what HTC did, not to get away from Cav. While he can sprint, he's not really a sprinter and plenty of people have bemoaned Sky using him as one. The one thing I have noticed about him is he always wants to be involved whether for himself or the team. While his future would seem to be as a Gilbert/Bettini type, maybe even a Kelly type (without the GC riding), I'm sure won't object to mucking in with the lead out train once in a while. And he provides an option when the finale is too tough for Cav.

GC ambitions. Nothing will change. At the moment, I rarely see a sprint stage without Sky going for it. You should only build a team around a GC guy if it's Contador or Schleck. Everyone else just needs 2 or 3 people who can do a job in the mountains.GC guys and sprinters can co-exist.

Similarly, Cav doesn't really need all eight riders riding for him. He didn't have it at the Vuelta or Giro, where he still won and HTC got a GC top ten.

Now if Cav brings his three mates with him, as is rumoured, then Sky line up for the Tour 2012 could be: Wiggns, Cav, Uran, Henao, Renshaw, Siutsou, Eisel, Thomas and EBH. That's a mighty strong team with all bases covered.

jimmythecuckoo

iainf72 wrote:

So, no contract offer from HTC. Interesting.

Is Cuddly Bob throwing in the towel? Or has he got a different plan?

They have een struggling to get a new sponsor for a while apparently.

Shame if the team does go.

LangerDan

RichN95 wrote:

Now if Cav brings his three mates with him, as is rumoured, then Sky line up for the Tour 2012 could be: Wiggns, Cav, Uran, Henao, Renshaw, Siutsou, Eisel, Thomas and EBH. That's a mighty strong team with all bases covered.

A Briton, a Manxman, two Columbians, an Australian, a Belorussian, an Austrian, a Welshman and a Norwegian walk into a bar......

RichN95.

jimmythecuckoo wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

So, no contract offer from HTC. Interesting.

Is Cuddly Bob throwing in the towel? Or has he got a different plan?

They have een struggling to get a new sponsor for a while apparently.

Shame if the team does go.

I think they'll cease to exist, but they could be thinking financially scaling down and becoming even more the team that all the best neo-pros go to, to get their chance, before moving on to bigger teams.

As Wiggins might say - they don't want to be Manchester United, they want to be West Ham.

iainf72

RichN95 wrote:

I think they'll cease to exist, but they could be thinking financially scaling down and becoming even more the team that all the best neo-pros go to, to get their chance, before moving on to bigger teams.

Hmmm, maybe.

But why do they struggle to get a sponsor. Is Cuddly Bob too hard to negotiate with? They're a winning machine, so I just don't get it.

pat1cp

iainf72 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

I think they'll cease to exist, but they could be thinking financially scaling down and becoming even more the team that all the best neo-pros go to, to get their chance, before moving on to bigger teams.

Hmmm, maybe.

But why do they struggle to get a sponsor. Is Cuddly Bob too hard to negotiate with? They're a winning machine, so I just don't get it.

Apologies, not really been keeping up, but are HTC quiting at the end of the season ? Maybe they don't feel they're getting enough bang for their buck.

And, wasn't it rumoured a while back the Bob was speaking to Google ??

Percy Vera

HTC will be going to Sky with Cav

RichN95.

iainf72 wrote:

But why do they struggle to get a sponsor. Is Cuddly Bob too hard to negotiate with? They're a winning machine, so I just don't get it.

Perhaps the asking price is too high.

They're also a hybrid US/German team. Cycling isn't that big in the US (and they don't have much in the way of US stars) and Germany has turned its back on cycling. Their lack of any real (national) identity makes them a harder sell.

Abdoujaparov

Copenhagen should be interesting. Sky would LOVE to have the world champion.

They'd also love to have the green jersey winner at the Tour. Wonder if they'll be a bit helpful in July...

yourpaceormine

Re:HTC sponsorship ending...


Might be even harder to find a US backer at the moment - US cycling hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Since Lance retired some of the allure for sponsors went, now the golden boy might not be so golden after all has the sport got any allure left at all? Aren't Radioshack withdrawing sponsorship too at the end of this year?

Sky look quite a sound prospect; big rich multinational owners/backers. Have you noticed the team website is now available in Italian too? As a company Sky have the potentail to expand, there's another thread suggesting Gilbert might be Sky bound too. From a business sense if I wanted my company to expand into central Europe then having two of the 'biggest hitters' on my team would be essential. I'd doubt Appollonio would leave - one of the seemingly new wave of Italian clean riders, Sky will want to hang onto him for their Italian business. Would think he'd willingly be part of Cav's train to learn the game, to share in the win and then have free rein in other races.

thamacdaddy

RichN95 wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

But why do they struggle to get a sponsor. Is Cuddly Bob too hard to negotiate with? They're a winning machine, so I just don't get it.

Perhaps the asking price is too high.

They're also a hybrid US/German team. Cycling isn't that big in the US (and they don't have much in the way of US stars) and Germany has turned its back on cycling. Their lack of any real (national) identity makes them a harder sell.

That's what we hear here but I was in Berlin at the time of the Crit that Zabel organised there and not only was it big news for a week but the day of the race the amateur races were packed with both supporters along the route and competitors in the race. I could also keep up with the Giro because of the fact eurosport was still prominent there.

Its far more popular in Germany than in the UK so I am not sure I believe it's as extreme as Germany turned their back on cycling.

thamacdaddy

Abdoujaparov wrote:

Copenhagen should be interesting. Sky would LOVE to have the world champion.

They'd also love to have the green jersey winner at the Tour. Wonder if they'll be a bit helpful in July...

Something tells me that eyes will be on how Sky might work with Cav at the nationals soon

RichN95.

thamacdaddy wrote:

That's what we hear here but I was in Berlin at the time of the Crit that Zabel organised there and not only was it big news for a week but the day of the race the amateur races were packed with both supporters along the route and competitors in the race. I could also keep up with the Giro because of the fact eurosport was still prominent there.

Its far more popular in Germany than in the UK so I am not sure I believe it's as extreme as Germany turned their back on cycling.

I don't mean the actual German people, I mean the companies and media.

T-Mobile - gone
Gerolsteiner - gone
Milram - gone
Tour of Germany - gone
ARD/ZDF Tour coverage - gone in 2012

TMR

thamacdaddy wrote:

Something tells me that eyes will be on how Sky might work with Cav at the nationals soon

Why? That makes no sense. Surely Sky should be working for themselves?

paulcuthbert

It's in the Daily Mail. It must be true! :roll:

Slimbods

iainf72 wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

But why do they struggle to get a sponsor. Is Cuddly Bob too hard to negotiate with? They're a winning machine, so I just don't get it.

inner ring covered this recently:

http://inrng.com/2011/06/htc-highroad-sponsor-team/

It could just be representative of where the sport is. Radioshack are going, Leopard haven't got a title sponsor, Saxobank struggled this time round, Cervelo had to merge...

Might just be the money isn't around.

iainf72

paulcuthbert wrote:

It's in the Daily Mail. It must be true! :roll:

Did you read who the author was?

Doobz

thamacdaddy wrote:

Something tells me that eyes will be on how Sky might work with Cav at the nationals soon

He got dropped like a sack of sh|t last year @ the nationals and it was only the 3rd lap.

Nationals don't really work like that anyway. You usually go there to ride for yourself.

cogidubnus

iainf72 wrote:

paulcuthbert wrote:

It's in the Daily Mail. It must be true! :roll:

Did you read who the author was?

Richard Moore:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... m-Sky.html

No_Ta_Doctor

Re HTC dropping out as sponsors - maybe they got wind that Cav was on his way out anyway? It's a good team, but the best coverage they get is through Cav.

Abdoujaparov

RichN95 wrote:

thamacdaddy wrote:

That's what we hear here but I was in Berlin at the time of the Crit that Zabel organised there and not only was it big news for a week but the day of the race the amateur races were packed with both supporters along the route and competitors in the race. I could also keep up with the Giro because of the fact eurosport was still prominent there.

Its far more popular in Germany than in the UK so I am not sure I believe it's as extreme as Germany turned their back on cycling.

I don't mean the actual German people, I mean the companies and media.

T-Mobile - gone
Gerolsteiner - gone
Milram - gone
Tour of Germany - gone
ARD/ZDF Tour coverage - gone in 2012

Yep, true about the companies.

Interesting how much the people love it though. I remember when I lived there a few years ago I was wandering through Muenster town centre when there was some crit on - no idea what it was. The crowds were heaving.

FJS

Doobz wrote:

thamacdaddy wrote:

Something tells me that eyes will be on how Sky might work with Cav at the nationals soon

He got dropped like a sack of sh|t last year @ the nationals and it was only the 3rd lap.

Nationals don't really work like that anyway. You usually go there to ride for yourself.

:?: national championships with dominant teams like Sky, Rabobank, Saxobank, etc are the ultimate playground for deals within teams, pay-back for earlier favours, and sometimes free play for all, as long as at least someone from the main team wins... or someone who might be there next year....

Yellow Peril

I'm pleased to see Cav at Sky but does it represent a change of ambition for Sky? what happened to the grand tour aspiration?

Does anyone think DB is under pressure to get some high level results from the sponsor?

I know that Wiggo showed enough enthusiasm to grab a good win at the Dauphine but do people think that the thinking is that some quick fire stage wins might be a way of taking the weight of expectation off the team?

Percy Vera

Yellow Peril wrote:

I'm pleased to see Cav at Sky but does it represent a change of ambition for Sky? what happened to the grand tour aspiration?

Does anyone think DB is under pressure to get some high level results from the sponsor?

I know that Wiggo showed enough enthusiasm to grab a good win at the Dauphine but do people think that the thinking is that some quick fire stage wins might be a way of taking the weight of expectation off the team?

According to DB Wiggo will win the Tour this year (mission accomplished), then next year the focus will be on getting lots of wins with Cav.

RichN95.

Cogidubnus wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

paulcuthbert wrote:

It's in the Daily Mail. It must be true! :roll:

Did you read who the author was?

Richard Moore:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/others ... m-Sky.html

I think Iain's well aware of that. His point was, if you want to judge a story's veracity, look past the masthead and look at byline.

There's no journalist better connected to Sky than Richard Moore.