Is the Cav Sky move a done deal?

SLX01
SLX01 Posts: 338
edited September 2011 in Pro race
Everyone seems to be convinced that Cav will go to Sky once the transfer window is open. Is it possible that the BMC success in this years Tour will have any effect on changing his mind?
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Comments

  • TMR
    TMR Posts: 3,986
    BMC have the money. They have Big George, and they could easily accommodate Renshaw, Eisel and Cav. Who knows?
  • B3rnieMac
    B3rnieMac Posts: 384
    Maybe if cadel calls time on cycling after this win, bmc could become a more sprint-oriented side? Who knows.
  • r0bh
    r0bh Posts: 2,383
    On the nyvelocity Insider podcast a few days ago Richard Moore and/or Daniel Friebe were saying it is perhaps less of a done deal than many people think.

    http://nyvelocity.com/content/2011/tour-de-france-insider-podcast-6 last 5 minutes or so
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    And if there are 2 people who would know, it's them 2.

    I'd not be surprised to see him stay at HTC.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • inkyfingers
    inkyfingers Posts: 4,400
    I simply can't see why he would leave HTC, other than maybe money.
    "I have a lovely photo of a Camargue horse but will not post it now" (Frenchfighter - July 2013)
  • shinyhelmut
    shinyhelmut Posts: 1,364
    r0bh wrote:
    On the nyvelocity Insider podcast a few days ago Richard Moore and/or Daniel Friebe were saying it is perhaps less of a done deal than many people think.

    http://nyvelocity.com/content/2011/tour-de-france-insider-podcast-6 last 5 minutes or so

    We only think it's a done deal because Richard Moore led us to believe it's a done deal.
  • dg74
    dg74 Posts: 656
    Seriously love Cav to stay with HTC. Over the last two tours I've grown to this team and the way they literally are, "All for one".

    Fingers crossed for HTC to remain as they are.
  • Albirdave
    Albirdave Posts: 21
    If he goes to Sky they can wave goodbye to winning a tour.

    They won't beable to have a lead out train for Cav then expect to have people work for Wiggins or B Hagen in the mountains.

    Unless like the Ulrich and Zabel years,Zabel fought on his own to win the sprints if i remember correctly..........................I think Cavendish has the power to win without a lead train...........we will see.
  • WisePranker
    WisePranker Posts: 823
    iainf72 wrote:
    I'd not be surprised to see him stay at HTC.

    But haven't they lost their HTC sponsorship for next year or did they find one in the end?
  • Neil McC
    Neil McC Posts: 625
    I wouldn't be surprised if Cav had agreed 'in principal' or had some sort of verbal agreement to join Sky 'if' Highroad folded. It's been obvious for a while that Stapleton was struggling to get money and it would be prudent of Cav to get some assurances on his future from somewhere, and maybe that's where the story came from? So now we'll have to wait and see. I don't think it will be long until we find out though.
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    WisePranker wrote:
    iainf72 wrote:
    I'd not be surprised to see him stay at HTC.

    But haven't they lost their HTC sponsorship for next year or did they find one in the end?

    It seems Cuddly Bob has a sponsor for 3 years. Well, that's the rumour. I think if they could agree decent compensation terms with Cavendish, he'd stay.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • OffTheBackAdam
    OffTheBackAdam Posts: 1,869
    The teams that have tried to work for an overal GC contender & a sprint stage winner, haven't done that well historically.
    Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.
  • Scrumple
    Scrumple Posts: 2,665
    Neil McC wrote:
    I wouldn't be surprised if Cav had agreed 'in principal' or had some sort of verbal agreement to join Sky 'if' Highroad folded......

    I reckon this is the truth of it.

    If they continue, he knows he would be mad to leave MR and BE and his winning formula. Money talks, but I'm sure he will stay if the team have backing and bump up his pay a bit.
  • mz__jo
    mz__jo Posts: 398
    Problem is Cav is reported on the Tour as having currently a very bad relationship with Bob Stapleton (like they don't speak to each other). On the other hand HTC are reported as refusing to sponsor if Cav is not in the team (normal, his is the best-known image of the team).
    http://rctl.ffct.org/
  • Sirius631
    Sirius631 Posts: 991
    Cav should not go to Sky. Sky may have a big cheque book, but their stated aim is is the Tour overall, that means that there will be no lead-out train for Cav as there will need to be more people dedicated to serving the G.C. contenders.
    To err is human, but to make a real balls up takes a super computer.
  • Echo et les Boniments
    Echo et les Boniments Posts: 142
    Sirius631 wrote:
    Cav should not go to Sky. Sky may have a big cheque book, but their stated aim is is the Tour overall, that means that there will be no lead-out train for Cav as there will need to be more people dedicated to serving the G.C. contenders.

    You can say that again. Chatting with a couple of French journos, a rather disgruntled Peter Velits acknowledged HTC had a great Tour and that, well, the money was good. However, talking about about his personal situation, the Slovak apparently had that off-the-cuff remark: "I can be a GC contender or I can work for Cav all Tour long. But I will never, ever do both at the same time again."
    Velits is said to be talking about his future with Quick Step and Astana right now.
  • alanjay
    alanjay Posts: 363
    Sirius631 wrote:
    Cav should not go to Sky. Sky may have a big cheque book, but their stated aim is is the Tour overall, that means that there will be no lead-out train for Cav as there will need to be more people dedicated to serving the G.C. contenders.

    Really? Dowsett, Thomas, Swift plus whoever he brings with him - would easily become the new best lead out train..
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Echo et les Boniments wrote:
    However, talking about about his personal situation, the Slovak apparently had that off-the-cuff remark: "I can be a GC contender or I can work for Cav all Tour long. But I will never, ever do both at the same time again."
    Velits is said to be talking about his future with Quick Step and Astana right now.

    A common enough story. You get your chances in HTC, but on the biggest stage it's always going to be all for Cavendish.

    Question for people who know about these things (I rarely watch sprints, they bore me) Cavendish won 5 stages, which is excellent, obviously. However, I never saw any of the phenomenal wins with huge gaps I've seen in the previous years. Due to the finishes? Or has he lost a bit of top end speed? Or is this just because I don't really watch the sprints.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,461
    The latter.

    He's still a step ahead of the rest.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,241
    iainf72 wrote:

    A common enough story. You get your chances in HTC, but on the biggest stage it's always going to be all for Cavendish.

    Question for people who know about these things (I rarely watch sprints, they bore me) Cavendish won 5 stages, which is excellent, obviously. However, I never saw any of the phenomenal wins with huge gaps I've seen in the previous years. Due to the finishes? Or has he lost a bit of top end speed? Or is this just because I don't really watch the sprints.

    I reckon it's probably tiredness because he's had to do the intermediate sprints every day.
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    RichN95 wrote:
    iainf72 wrote:

    A common enough story. You get your chances in HTC, but on the biggest stage it's always going to be all for Cavendish.

    Question for people who know about these things (I rarely watch sprints, they bore me) Cavendish won 5 stages, which is excellent, obviously. However, I never saw any of the phenomenal wins with huge gaps I've seen in the previous years. Due to the finishes? Or has he lost a bit of top end speed? Or is this just because I don't really watch the sprints.

    I reckon it's probably tiredness because he's had to do the intermediate sprints every day.

    But would that tiredness not also apply to his rivals?

    I think the other teams are also getting closer to figuring out how best to deal with Cav.
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'
  • Jez mon
    Jez mon Posts: 3,809
    LangerDan wrote:
    RichN95 wrote:
    iainf72 wrote:

    A common enough story. You get your chances in HTC, but on the biggest stage it's always going to be all for Cavendish.

    Question for people who know about these things (I rarely watch sprints, they bore me) Cavendish won 5 stages, which is excellent, obviously. However, I never saw any of the phenomenal wins with huge gaps I've seen in the previous years. Due to the finishes? Or has he lost a bit of top end speed? Or is this just because I don't really watch the sprints.

    I reckon it's probably tiredness because he's had to do the intermediate sprints every day.

    But would that tiredness not also apply to his rivals?

    I think the other teams are also getting closer to figuring out how best to deal with Cav.

    Yep but IIFC he didn't really contest the intermediate sprints in years gone by. Plus, I think he probably kept more in reserve at times, you don't get any more points for thrashing your rivals in the sprints...
    You live and learn. At any rate, you live
  • luckao
    luckao Posts: 632
    Some of the finishes weren't as favourable as they've been in recent years. Combine that with other teams imposing themselves on the run-in and it made it difficult for HTC to continually dictate all of the finishes like they're accustomed to doing. One stage saw Renshaw still dragging him through the field towards the very end, and there was another where he came from nowhere. The prestige of a green jersey on the Champs-Élysées is no doubt his best victory, but coming from nowhere to win like he did on stage 5 was his finest in terms of performance.
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,241
    LangerDan wrote:

    But would that tiredness not also apply to his rivals?

    How many intermediate sprints did you see Farrar, Greipel, Petacchi and EBH do? A couple in the first week maybe?
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • rebs
    rebs Posts: 891
    I don't know why but I always have this weird feeling that BC/Sky have always devised a way to help Clancy get over speed bumps. If he could master this art. He'd be perfect as part of a leadout.


    Where ever Cav goes. Him and Eisel have been fun to watch. I can't find the video but their is a clip of them moaning at each other while going up the road on a Tour mountain stage arguing like an old couple.
  • Tom BB
    Tom BB Posts: 1,001
    If Clancy managed to finish the first stage of this years Tour within the time limit I'd have been amazed!....There's no way on Earth that he would ever complete any World Tour stage race, let alone a GT........he was 10 meters off the back of the peloton going up Gunn Hill in last years Tour of Britain......the bunch were rolling up as the break were on the way to taking 10 minutes out of the peloton!

    Back on topic, I cant help but thinking that Sky with Wiggo, EBH and Cav in the same Tour team just wouldn't work......you've got 3 very ambitious riders their, and biggles hit some real form at the Tour this year. He seems to be second in line only to Wiggins in the food chain at Sky....and didn't he leave HTC to get away from Cav in order to get his own chances?
  • lloyd_bower
    lloyd_bower Posts: 664
    If HTC continue in some form or other, Cavendish would be mad to move to Sky. He's got 100% support where he's at, and a move to Sky would only be for money. Hope he doesn't go.
  • derbygrimpeur
    derbygrimpeur Posts: 822
    Yesterday was a very good example of how good Cav is. EBH was in the best place - on Cav's wheel. Gave it his all, moved out to come past Cav but as soon as he was out of Cav's slipstream he made no progress and had to settle for second.

    Greipel seems to be the rider the challenges Cav the most and Cav one 3 out of 4 head to head srpints they had in this tour.

    I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Cav stay with HTC (whether or not HTC remain the sponsor). Nice bit of advertising for them yesterday wasn't it...

    bettiniphoto_0086939_1_full_600.jpg
  • mroli
    mroli Posts: 3,622
    Everyone talks about the lead out train being Renshaw and of Eisel being his best mate etc. But I think you can't forget that the whole HTC team has to work on every flat stage - that includes the likes of Bak and Pate riding on the front for the first 50-60km of every stage. Its hard work being part of Cav's lead out train - the work starts at km - 1, its not about Thomas handing over to Swift handing over to EBH handing over to Cav.... Sky would need some hard men early doors too.
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    http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
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  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,204
    RichN95 wrote:
    iainf72 wrote:

    A common enough story. You get your chances in HTC, but on the biggest stage it's always going to be all for Cavendish.

    Question for people who know about these things (I rarely watch sprints, they bore me) Cavendish won 5 stages, which is excellent, obviously. However, I never saw any of the phenomenal wins with huge gaps I've seen in the previous years. Due to the finishes? Or has he lost a bit of top end speed? Or is this just because I don't really watch the sprints.

    I reckon it's probably tiredness because he's had to do the intermediate sprints every day.

    Plus he just hasn't needed to do it. As the commentators pointed out yesterday he has that second kick if he needs it and he used it when EBH put him under pressure yesterday. I think a few of his wins weren't as close as they first looked and other than that first one in the uphill finish he was comfortable. That late effort after he ran out of lead out riders on Stage 2 or 3? showed what he is truly capable of if necessary, came from miles back across a gap on his own and another 20m would have possibly seen him take the win.

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