2022 Transfers: Rumours & Facts

webboo

jimmythecuckoo said:

But Cav is riding bare eyed which is making people wonder if there is an Oakley and Astana eyewear sponsor issue still to overcome.

I never twigged that when looking at the pictures of him on the new bike.

dish_dash

Apparently Quintana hasn't found a new contract and will announce retirement on Wednesday

pblakeney

dish_dash said:

Apparently Quintana hasn't found a new contract and will announce retirement on Wednesday

Froome will miss him on the climbs. 😉

RichN95.

dish_dash said:

Apparently Quintana hasn't found a new contract and will announce retirement on Wednesday

This is appalling. He's 32 and as has plenty left to give. But he's forced out of the sport due to hysteria about tramadol, not even a doping offence. I realise it was late in the day and his wage expectations may have been prohibitive, but still.

wakemalcolm

Maybe interested teams saw him as a chameleon who is indeed a bad boy for life.

Pross

Or they didn't realise he was still only 32 as he's looked at least 50 since he first started out.

daniel_b

I suspect he will look the same age in 40 years time.

rick_chasey

RichN95. said:

dish_dash said:

Apparently Quintana hasn't found a new contract and will announce retirement on Wednesday

This is appalling. He's 32 and as has plenty left to give. But he's forced out of the sport due to hysteria about tramadol, not even a doping offence. I realise it was late in the day and his wage expectations may have been prohibitive, but still.

We're a long long way from the 00s now.

Pross

He'll end up in some second tier Portuguese squad I suspect.

blazing_saddles

rick_chasey said:

RichN95. said:

dish_dash said:

Apparently Quintana hasn't found a new contract and will announce retirement on Wednesday

This is appalling. He's 32 and as has plenty left to give. But he's forced out of the sport due to hysteria about tramadol, not even a doping offence. I realise it was late in the day and his wage expectations may have been prohibitive, but still.

We're a long long way from the 00s now.

We’re a long way from due process now, too.

rick_chasey

It's not worth the risk, is it?

mididoctors

dish_dash said:

Apparently Quintana hasn't found a new contract and will announce retirement on Wednesday

That's a shame.. I liked him ... The tramadol was dumb ..

drhaggis

Pross said:

He'll end up in some second tier Portuguese squad I suspect.

MA Lopez is in a team that still employs Oscar Sevilla, for goodness sake.

Also, I don't think the problem of Qintana is only Tramadol. He possibly has some contract aspirations that don't quite match his real performance in the last 5 years or so. It's like he was burnt by the time he turned 27, rather than consolidating his career.

blazing_saddles

Rob Hatch during Mallorca commentary said that Quintana has held a press conference to announce that contrary to rumours, he is not retiring.

yorkshireraw

blazing_saddles said:

Rob Hatch during Mallorca commentary said that Quintana has held a press conference to announce that contrary to rumours, he is not retiring.

Unless he lowers his expectations, he will be whether he wants to or not.

blazing_saddles

Johnny Hoogerland returns after 2,300 days in retirement.......

https://www.procyclingstats.com/article/johnny-hoogerland-returns-to-uci-racing

Lanterne_Rogue

Interesting interview with Chloe Hosking, who's been left without a slot after B&B Hotels cancelled everyone's booking. Seems to take as read that Cavendish was due to sign for them, though whether that's anything other than scuttlebutt is hard to know.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/jan/27/cyclist-chloe-hosking-my-career-is-facing-its-end-when-i-dont-feel-im-done

daniel_b

Sagan retiring end of this year.

Continuing MTB though aiming for the Olympics.

davidof

blazing_saddles said:

Rob Hatch during Mallorca commentary said that Quintana has held a press conference to announce that contrary to rumours, he is not retiring.

He's going to do sportifs?

Allaphilipe to a French team in 2024. The fat controller has pissed him off

davidof

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Interesting interview with Chloe Hosking,e

I didn't realise that Audrey Cordon was going to B&B, she's much less diplomatic than Chloe.

I am extremely disappointed. Extremely saddened. It calls into question the trust I can place in people. It makes me a bit wild, which is not like me. This story has marked me enormously.

We all felt like we were taken hostage. I would never understand. I would never understand either that they don't take responsibility when the only ones guilty are them [...] It's a crazy story. I still can't believe it. For two months, we've been messed around, played. When it comes to lying, we're on a Pro level, aren't we? Why is that? I'm still trying to find explanations: a vicious circle, a spiral, a descent into hell?

I believed so much in this project, I put my DNA into it. I'm moving on. I try not to think too much about what happened, it took so much out of us,"

- the double French champion 2022 (road and time trial) clearly has two people in her sights: the brothers Jérôme and Sébastien Pineau.

Audrey suffered a stroke racing last season but has recovered and was training with her team in January in Spain.

RichN95.

It’s being reported by Gazzetta that Dom Pozzovivo is on the way back with Israel PT

m.r.m.

On one hand, so nice for Pozzo, on the other, wtaf are Israel doing? Do they never learn with the old past their prime riders...

wakemalcolm

m.r.m. said:

On one hand, so nice for Pozzo, on the other, wtaf are Israel doing? Do they never learn with the old past their prime riders...

He'd immediately slot in as their 2nd highest ranked rider, though.

Probably not a bad shout if you're looking for a GT support rider or someone to cruise around shorter stage races reliably mopping up some minor places.

Time will tell.

Mad_Malx

James Cleverly to Astana

daniel_b

World-Champion Tobias Foss leaves Jumbo-Visma


World time trial champion Tobias Foss will no longer compete for Jumbo-Visma as of 2024. He is currently preparing for the Giro d'Italia, where he should lead Primož Roglič to pink. Foss had doubts about his sporting future earlier this spring. He has since decided to leave the Dutch team after four seasons, multiple sources confirm to WielerFlits.

The 25-year-old Norwegian is one of the few classification riders free on the market. Given that fact and as a reigning world champion, Foss had a good negotiating position. According to our information, he will sign a multi-year contract for an amount around one and a half million euros. Which team was finally chosen is not clear at this time. INEOS Grenadiers, UAE Emirates, Bahrain Victorious and Israel-Premier Tech remained last in the battle for Foss' doodle. Given the many front-runners at the first two teams, one of the latter two seems the most plausible.

At Bahrain Victorious, there is a need for a new, young leader. The contract of Mikel Landa (33) is expiring, while other classification riders such as Pello Bilbao (33) and Damiano Caruso (36) are also coming of age. Jack Haig also celebrates his 30th birthday this year, while the contracts of Santiago Buitrago (23) and Gino Mäder (26) also expire. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the Swiss is looking at his options for a departure, with Fabian Cancellara's Tudor Pro Cycling appearing to be the first option. ProTeam Israel-Premier Tech does not even have a leader for the grand tours at all.

Foss experienced mental problems in 2018 and thus remained a promise for another year. It didn't hurt him, as the strong Norwegian won the Tour of the Future in 2019. In the corona year 2020, he debuted for the Dutch team with silver at the Norwegian time trial championships, a fifth place in the Tour of Hungary and a surprising fifth place in the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia. A year later, he finished ninth in the final classification in Italy after George Bennett slipped through and Foss became a double Norwegian champion.

Last season the Norwegian got off to a promising start, finishing sixth in the Volta ao Algarve. A month later, he fell hard in the International Cycling Week Coppi & Bartali, suffering a concussion. The rest of the season (except for a new Norwegian time trial title) went by the wayside, until, to everyone's surprise - including Merijn Zeeman - Foss became world time trial champion. Early this year, he openly doubted a longer stay with Jumbo-Visma, due to the lack of his own chances. In 2023 he got them in Algarve (fourth) and next week in the Tour of Romandie.

No Uno-X

One of the teams also angling for Foss' services was his old employer Uno-X. Team boss Jens Haugland informs Eurosport Norway that financially, however, he cannot compete with the wealthy WorldTeams. "I want to wish Tobias all the best for the wonderful career ahead of him. He has every right to benefit from his world title. For us it does not make sense in the short term to invest in a classification core within our team."

Indeed, Haugland sees that there are relatively few UCI points to be earned for classification riders compared to one-day riders. Because Uno-X would like to make the step to the WorldTour in 2026, they will focus mainly on one-day races in the coming years. And in that, Foss is not a specialist. "Moreover, the world's top teams have almost monopolized the market around the best classification riders." Another additional fact: there are not very many good or talented tour riders free after the current season, which drives up the price further.

andyp

I think touting Foss as a GC rider is stretching things a fair bit.

RichN95.

andyp said:

I think touting Foss as a GC rider is stretching things a fair bit.

He was 9th at the Giro a couple of years ago, so there's something there to work on.

andyp

RichN95. said:

andyp said:

I think touting Foss as a GC rider is stretching things a fair bit.

He was 9th at the Giro a couple of years ago, so there's something there to work on.

And 54th when he returned last year to lead the team.

He's clearly got a decent engine, but I personally don't see him being a realistic GC contender in three week races.

RichN95.

andyp said:

RichN95. said:

andyp said:

I think touting Foss as a GC rider is stretching things a fair bit.

He was 9th at the Giro a couple of years ago, so there's something there to work on.

And 54th when he returned last year to lead the team.

He's clearly got a decent engine, but I personally don't see him being a realistic GC contender in three week races.

No, but for a smaller team he can consistently get results in races with a TT. Which in the days relegation is important.

RichN95.

Is it possible that Chris Froome has quietly retired?