Ben Swift

sing_for_absolution
sing_for_absolution Posts: 1,908
edited September 2008 in Pro race
So, surely this guy's got a professional contract for next year?

Comments

  • yes he will.

    new div2 team coming on, might be English or lowlands license,

    But Brailsford is restricting the UK riders by pressuring them to sign 1 year contracts.

    Stannard, Thomas, Bellis and Swift (plus Kennaugh)

    Those young riders need more stability and surety with a 2/3 year deal, so they do not have pressure.
  • richa
    richa Posts: 1,631
    But Brailsford is restricting the UK riders by pressuring them to sign 1 year contracts.
    How?
    Rich
  • RichA wrote:
    But Brailsford is restricting the UK riders by pressuring them to sign 1 year contracts.
    How?

    Brailsford is attempting to sell a Protour team to Brit corporates. He is trying to dissuage the young guys from signing two year deals.

    Cav is the key to the deal. When his contract with Stapleton expires, Brailsford intends to use him as the salesman.

    But every other young guy, Stannard, Thomas, Swift, Bellis, Kennaugh et al.

    How? Well he is national coach of the track program and is probably the most powerful peron with Cav, in UK cycling. Hoy and Wiggins have much sway also. But as a selector, and individual with influence, he can deter them, and make them follow his direction.
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    Cav is the key to the deal. When his contract with Stapleton expires, Brailsford intends to use him as the salesman.

    I get the impression Cav has a lot more time for Stapleton than he does for Brailsford at the moment. I reckon Cav is coming to the conclusion that track medals don't mean that much in the grand scheme of things.
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • DaveyL
    DaveyL Posts: 5,167
    4 years is a long time for even the most stubborn individual to remain in the huff. I'm sure we'll see him at the velodrome in 2012. Maybe iain will even have warmed to the track events by then!
    Le Blaireau (1)
  • iainf72
    iainf72 Posts: 15,784
    I'm loathe to say it, but Columbia are one of the best quality teams out there at the moment and Cav is their star - I cannot see why he'd go off to an upstart? Uncle Bob will just sic the lawyers on BCF again.

    I'll never like that hippy nonsense.
    :P
    Fckin' Quintana … that creep can roll, man.
  • richa
    richa Posts: 1,631
    He is trying to dissuage the young guys from signing two year deals.
    Sure, but they have trained for many years to secure a decent money pro contract. If they get offered one why turn it down? One year deals are bad for sportsmen, what happens if they get injured, etc.

    If BC are asking them to wait, then maybe BC will sign them up now for 2010, this would give them the reassurances required to sign 1 year (2009) deals...
    Rich
  • iainf72 wrote:
    Cav is the key to the deal. When his contract with Stapleton expires, Brailsford intends to use him as the salesman.

    I get the impression Cav has a lot more time for Stapleton than he does for Brailsford at the moment. I reckon Cav is coming to the conclusion that track medals don't mean that much in the grand scheme of things.

    you are right.

    However. Brailsford wants the Protour squad.

    And Stapleton has gone and signed Bernhard Kohl. He picked up Renshaw, and has lost Gerdemann and Ciolek to Milram, and Eisel to FDJ.

    My point is, even with Lovqvist, Hansen, Wiggins, Hincapie, Renshaw and Greipel pulling, there will always be a GC objective with Kohl and Kirchen.

    A UK Protour team, will not have GC ambitions in the medium term future, until Dan Martin comes of age.

    So Cav can have Wiggins, Hammond, Clancy, Stannard, Thomas, Bellis, Burke, and Swift, all pulling for him in a dedicated leadout train.

    I would prefer to ride for my own team, with no conflicting objectives.
  • jim one
    jim one Posts: 183
    iainf72 wrote:
    Cav is the key to the deal. When his contract with Stapleton expires, Brailsford intends to use him as the salesman.

    I get the impression Cav has a lot more time for Stapleton than he does for Brailsford at the moment. I reckon Cav is coming to the conclusion that track medals don't mean that much in the grand scheme of things.

    you are right.

    However. Brailsford wants the Protour squad.

    And Stapleton has gone and signed Bernhard Kohl. He picked up Renshaw, and has lost Gerdemann and Ciolek to Milram, and Eisel to FDJ.

    My point is, even with Lovqvist, Hansen, Wiggins, Hincapie, Renshaw and Greipel pulling, there will always be a GC objective with Kohl and Kirchen.

    A UK Protour team, will not have GC ambitions in the medium term future, until Dan Martin comes of age.

    So Cav can have Wiggins, Hammond, Clancy, Stannard, Thomas, Bellis, Burke, and Swift, all pulling for him in a dedicated leadout train.

    I would prefer to ride for my own team, with no conflicting objectives.

    Eisel is staying with columbia- http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?id= ... aug07news2

    Eisel re-ups with Columbia
    Bernhard Eisel has extended his contract with Team Columbia for two years, through 2010. The Austrian sprinter talked to other teams but said that the deciding factor was "that I can ride the Classics Paris-Roubaix and the Ronde van Vlaanderen, my main goals for the next two years.

    "The second point is that we have a really good team, where everyone helps everyone and everyone understands each other," Eisel said on his website, eisel.com. "And our success shows that we are doing something right: together with the women's team we already have over 100 victories."
  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    .

    A UK Protour team, will not have GC ambitions in the medium term future, until Dan Martin comes of age.

    So Cav can have Wiggins, Hammond, Clancy, Stannard, Thomas, Bellis, Burke, and Swift, all pulling for him in a dedicated leadout train.

    I would prefer to ride for my own team, with no conflicting objectives.

    I'm sure several of the proposed squad would prefer to be focussing on their own strengths rather than launching Cav in bunch sprints. The problem with such a one-trick squad is that if anything happens to Cav - injury, illness, whatever - it becomes difficult to quickly switch to anything else. Wiggins has had the misfortune to have coincided, in road terms at least, with Cancellara so hunting road TT wins is out. Hammond has probably reached his "Best Before" date for the Spring Classics. Therefore the younger squad members need to be given sufficient scope to develop.

    I think the original BC timetable for a ProTour squad (2012- 2013?) was probably correct. Let the younger riders be blooded (no pun intended) by the other squads and then you'll know exactly what you have.They all be in their mid-20's by 2012. Brailsford seems to be rushing to try and cash in on Cav-mania.

    People handing over millions to fund cycling teams usually aren't dim. If Brailsford can show a good stable of race winning riders, he'll get the money. If all he has is Cav and a lead-out train, the guys with the money may start asking "Great, but what if....?"
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'