Big news: Euskaltel is no longer Basque-only

[issoisso]

According to Juan Guti it'll become a traditional trade team because it's unsustainable to be just a regional representative team in today's financial climate

https://twitter.com/#!/Juan_Guti

(To be fair the title should read "only basque". If a mod can add the "only", I'd appreciate it. Thanks)

La Fundación Euskadi se separará del equipo Euskaltel, que fichará corredores no sólo formados en el País Vasco.

Igor González de Galdeano estará en un cargo de responsabilidad en el proyecto del nuevo equipo Euskaltel, separado de la Fundación Euskadi.

 

[Havetts]

no.. no... no no no nono...




I guess it was inevitable.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Unacceptable.

It remains to be seen what the Basque view on this will be. Hopefully it's just a bit of arguing going on and will be resolved in a thoroughly acceptable form before it is time to sign people next year.

 

[Arnout]

There are talks about a split-up of the Fundacion and the professional team for longer due to financial reasons, it's no surprise for me. But I am not sure the journalist in question draws the correct conclusion, as I don't think the split-up is with the intention to make Euskaltel a mixed team.

I could be wrong though, in that case I would be very sad.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

a shame if true, but I suppose it would be better then the team leaving the sport completely.

I'm sure we'll see more devolpments in regards to Euskaltel throughout the season.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Unacceptable.

It remains to be seen what the Basque view on this will be. Hopefully it's just a bit of arguing going on and will be resolved in a thoroughly acceptable form before it is time to sign people next year.

At least this way they won't have to make up pretty pathetic looking excuses for some of their frankly non-Basque stars.

And stop the wailing and nashing of teeth whenever a basque rider commits the treachery of leaving.

But of course, it's only evil boring nationalism when it's English speakers, rather than Spanish bomb merchants.

 

[Arnout]

At least this way they won't have to make up pretty pathetic looking excuses for some of their frankly non-Basque stars.

And stop the wailing and nashing of teeth whenever a basque rider commits the treachery of leaving.

But of course, it's only evil boring nationalism when it's English speakers, rather than Spanish bomb merchants.

Had a bad day?

In case you're talking about Sanchez. He's not bought success. You should look up his results in the first years he rode for Euskaltel. Really really average. He was allowed to ride for the team because he completed the Basque youth circuit (and was and is quite a good friend of Madariaga).

About the nationalism thing. You're right about that, in a way. I don't have problem with English speaking nationalist teams. I do have problems with the way some present themselves to the press, as if they reinvented the wheel.

 

[The Hitch]

Yep, sad news, but we have to live with the fact that this thing of ours will give us bad moments as well as good ones.

About the nationalism thing. You're right about that, in a way. I don't have problem with English speaking nationalist teams. I do have problems with the way some present themselves to the press, as if they reinvented the wheel.

Agree. WS's favourite will obviously be SKy so I will admit that Sky have become one of my absolute favourite teams (having been one of the ones I liked least before).

They have epic lineups for all 3 grand Tours already, bring in all types of riders from all over the world and have been a bit quiet lately.

Garmin are cool, I like a lot of their riders and they take the whole year seriously too,

Dont read much about greenedge though they should not be allowed invitations to all 3 gts under any circumstances, though its not neccesarily their fault.

Team brunyeel on the other hand is a disgrace, and probably responsible for all the hate that goes to english teams these days.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Had a bad day?

In case you're talking about Sanchez. He's not bought success. You should look up his results in the first years he rode for Euskaltel. Really really average. He was allowed to ride for the team because he completed the Basque youth circuit (and was and is quite a good friend of Madariaga).

About the nationalism thing. You're right about that, in a way. I don't have problem with English speaking nationalist teams. I do have problems with the way some present themselves to the press, as if they reinvented the wheel.

didn't you get the memo? Sky revolutionised the sport

but for all of sky's stupid and idiotic comments when entering the sport I like how they have built thier team.

 

[craig1985]

It would be like Athletic Bilbao (BTW they have never been relegated with this policy) being allowed to sign non Basques, or those that are not Basque and didn't come up through their youth development system. As I remember in an article about the derby between Bilbao and Real Sociedad in FourFourTwo magazine, they interviewed a Basque fan and he said he would rather the team gets relegated than stays up by signing some mercenary Brazilians who don't care about the club.

There are plenty of Spanish riders who rode for Basque u23 teams but didn't come through the Fundacion (Contador being one of them), but maybe they can re-word the rule and include riders who rode for Basque u23 teams but outside of the Fundacion, if that makes any sense to what I'm trying to say.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

At least this way they won't have to make up pretty pathetic looking excuses for some of their frankly non-Basque stars.

They've been more or less consistent on this throughout - Basques (by the extended definition, so Iparralde and Nafarroa count), and non-Basques who have come through the Fundación Euskadi feeder teams. Not just Basque feeder teams otherwise Contador, Rodríguez, Cobo and others would be eligible for riding for teams like Iberdrola-Loinaz.

I really split down the middle on the whole national teams thing. Regionalist teams like Euskaltel and Bretagne-Schuller I see no problem with; they provide a system for riders to come up through and a way for riders who might not otherwise make it up to make it there. Teams like Sky and GreenEdge I worry about; it feels to me like they almost NEED to have the top British/Australian talent to justify their raison d'être, and as a result they become almost the default stop for riders from that country, even if it's not conducive to their development, in which case competition would be better for them as riders would then have a choice of which team to go to, and it would breed competitiveness between the teams which could strengthen the national scene. After all, that's why those 'treacherous' Basque riders move on - because they've outgrown the confines of the Fundación Euskadi or because they want to move in a direction that its limitations won't let them.

This has an obvious problem though, of course, and it's that it then requires either multiple teams stepping up at the same time (otherwise the first to the scene will stomp the subsequent upstarts) or an already-established strong national scene, which obviously these countries don't have otherwise they wouldn't be starting from this position, and it's a bit ridiculous to say that you can't have something unless you already have it. I fear that a team like Sky or GreenEdge may be a division killer in a way that teams like Euskaltel or Bretagne never can; Euskaltel always have the problem of at least one high-level local rival (Movistar are based in Navarre) that can poach the riders from them; Sky and GreenEdge only have the problem of poaching from overseas, but they have the tougher issue of establishing an identity without that full, expansive feeder structure that Euskaltel have been able to establish.

In fairness, the Spanish scene has been filled with regional teams in the last decade; Xacobeo-Galicia, Burgos Monumental-Castilla y León, Contentpolis-Murcía, Catalunya-Ángel Mir, Andalucía-Caja Granada, Extremadura-Spiuk, Fuerteventura-Canarias, Caisse d'Epargne-Illes Balears (these weren't even based in the area!), Comunidad Valenciana... Euskaltel would simply be turning into one of those, so they may well still have a majority of Basques, they just won't be as closed off in future.

When I asked what the Basques would make of it, I didn't mean the government or the team management, I meant the public. After all, on September 9, 2011, the top 2 stories on ETB's evening news program were 1) Igor Antón won the Vuelta stage in Bilbao, and 2) Igor Antón's victory was made by his attacking in his hometown of Galdakao. They replaced ad breaks and filler programming with repeats of the closing stages of the stage all night. It may be difficult to get that level of passion for the team if its Basque identity is eroded, and that would be a shame.

 

[craig1985]

Fuji's stage win at the Vuelta was the highlight of the race for mine, opportunities to win near your home town don't come along that often and I often think of the Basques as up there with the Flemish in terms of support of cycling and you can't really alienate them.

I'm not too comfortable with it and I hope this is just a way of forcing sponsors to stump up the cash to keep to the Basque only policy or the alternative of signing non-Basques.

 

[Der Effe]

At least this way they won't have to make up pretty pathetic looking excuses for some of their frankly non-Basque stars.

And stop the wailing and nashing of teeth whenever a basque rider commits the treachery of leaving.

But of course, it's only evil boring nationalism when it's English speakers, rather than Spanish bomb merchants.

Spanish bomb merchants? You're a bit thick, aren't you? To speak on your level, it's still better than colonizing entire cultures, isn't it? There's quite a difference in investing in local talent, or people who came to your region and thus have a feeling it than wait until you finally have a few good cyclists, then get them into one team and act like you've invented cycling. When in fact, apart from sponsoring, you've done **** all for the sport. Teams like Euskaltel should be treasured.

 

[greenedge]

Unacceptable.

It remains to be seen what the Basque view on this will be.

The ETA shall invade Spain and conquer it, only to find there is no money there either.

That is sad that the team is no longer Basque

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Although I agree that the none-too-subtle ETA reference wasn't exactly the best way to go about things, I don't think that we ought be too aggressive. After all, Euskaltel and Sky are two completely opposing ends to the requirements and actions of a pseudo-national team.

Euskaltel are a team based in somewhere where cycling is a major sport. As a result, they are essentially a local team, an umbrella organisation that can bring riders through the ranks so that they can compete at the top level. As the Basque people are already in love with cycling, they have for most of their history been able to protect their local identity at the top as there is turnaround of talent and enough fan interest to justify the continuation of the sponsorship.

That fan interest, turnaround of talent and love of the sport is a luxury not afforded Team Sky. In their homeland, cycling is not an ingrained sport, and so they do not have an energised base to call upon for replenishments. Hence Team Sky are needing to energise that base themselves. The logical method for this is to gather all of the talent that will be of interest in their target market (in this case Britons) in order to maximise the opportunities for them to gain attention for the sport, hopefully energising and developing the fanbase and providing more turnover of talented riders. However, at the time of beginning the team, because of that lack of an energised base, there are not enough talented riders from the target market in order to provide a full team that can compete at the desired level, and so a full national identity such as that afforded Euskaltel was not really an option as the team could not be self-sustaining until the national scene was developed.

It would be impossible for Team Sky to create an identity like Euskaltel's, and so it would be unfair to expect them to. Team Sky are a multinational, moneyed team which is Britain-facing. I expect over time it may create feeders and satellite teams in the UK in order to bring riders through the ranks, like Katyusha, Astana or Rabobank.

 

[search]

what exactly is the financial reason behind this? are they willing to attract non-basque (co-)sponsors? Euskatel itself is a basque company owned by the basque state financed by the basque people anyway - so in a marketing point of view they won't gain anything from attracting more interest by getting better results by signing non-basque riders

 

[Anonymous]

didn't you get the memo? Sky revolutionised the sport

but for all of sky's stupid and idiotic comments when entering the sport I like how they have built thier team.

One thing I do like is that Cavendish is the first genuine star they have bought. Despite their alleged cash theyve never gone after a contador, a schleck, a basso etc..

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Ok a lot of people angry, but for what?

To me it's still very vague and unclear what will happen. So before shouting random nonsense like the rest here i'd rather wait and see how this develops and what this actually means.

 

[Kazistuta]

Kudos to Libertine for an well-argumented post. Right on the money I'd say!

No need to start a mud contest, let's focus at the problem at hand. Even though I've always thought of Euskaltel-Euskadi as a different type of cycling team with it's obvious charm and appeal - that being sad I've always wondered why they didn't try to expand their rider approach just a tiny bit (fx. to be somewhat ready for the northern cobbled classics) - this might turn out to be a good thing.

So if this rumour is not just about another team who might surrender to the financial crisis, and instead it's a sign of winds of change (No Scorpions pun intended) I'm all for it

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

One thing I do like is that Cavendish is the first genuine star they have bought. Despite their alleged cash theyve never gone after a contador, a schleck, a basso etc..

well that is debatable. Wiggo was very much in the spotlight with his tour performance. But both him and cav are gbr spearheads in the sport so who could argue with sky wanting them on the team.

ANd they signed some very decent signings. I mean unless your criteria is limited to superstars. Then well not many teams have signed such... AC, Canc, gilbert, cav, valverde...

 

[Mambo95]

In the next few years Euskaltel have to decide what they want to be. Either a fully Basque Pro Conti team or a mostly Basque World Tour team.

Sanchez is 34 next month and he can't go on forever. Last season he contributed two thirds of EE's WT points and those results will need to be replaced. While Anton and Nieve may improve, it's unlikely to be enough and there doesn't seem to be sufficient talent coming through for them to remain competitive (there seems to be a relative dearth of young talent across all of Spain). You can point to the Izagirre Insausti brothers or Sicard, but they need someone like Sagan, EBH or Rolland coming through.

Their position is similar to Yorkshire in English cricket. They used to have a policy that you had to be born in Yorkshire to play for them. In the early 90s, after over twenty years of rarely getting close to winning anything of importance, they realised they had to drop the policy to remain competitive. However, they didn't have to completely abandon their identity - of their current squad of 26, 21 were born in Yorkshire.

 

[Ryaguas]

ah man... that is sad... and it represents the lack of talents and young talents in the team... as other posters said Samu is not inmortal and He is 34yo already, The team seriously need a winner and a replacement for Samu... Come on Sicard... less party more training!

 

[Francois the Postman]

Just to say that ''only'' has been added'to the thread title as requested, and...

......... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Inevitable, when the annual points-grab auction and opportunistic top-table seat-grabbing is thoroughly encouraged by the policies of the (cough) visonaries in charge of this merry circus of ours, and is thoroughly trumping history and long-standing proven enthusiasm, results, and, I fear, supporter-loyalty and fan-base creation for teams.

It has been amazing to see what this orange band of locals with their wonderful fans has managed to throw at the cherry-picked teams that we are getting so used to in cycling, and other sports.

Nevermind that I regret that the point-system more and more obscures the fact that when a rider X got the lion-share of the points, the entire team is likely to have played some part in bagging that.

Nevermind that I regret that the structure of who can and must race where, and who can't, is creating problems, focus, and costs that are, or should be, no problems, focus or costs at all.

Nevermind that I regret that the point-system discourages investment in potential that needs time to mature and encourages cherry-picking.

With the riders becoming this flexible about where they show up next year, and teams change looks, names, and sometimes team-base as quickly as the counter on ACF's total post number, there was something lovely permanent about the Basque outfit.

Being enthused by a champion rider is one thing, backing a team is something precious, as you are inevitably facing success years and lean ones. Loyalty that isn't for sale is wonderful, to me anyway.

Backing a truely local team, in the world we have built ourselves for millionaires and corporations, at the highest platform, it's like shepparding the whole village pub team into the bus to Manchester United... and sometimes winning. Magic.

The sort of magic that is unlikely to come back, once it is gone.

I am sure it won't mean that they will suddenly change course and reverse the policy they have had, by peddling straight into the opposite direction, but, to me, this is news I hear with some sadness.

We are becoming increasingly rider-orientated, and swing our ''loyalty'' and enthusiasm-focus from team to team, at the blink of a contract-switch.

Not a bad thing per se, but it does make teams less attractive for sponsors who want to commit for a longer term, when teams can lose their natural fan-base rapidly. Team loyalty means teams remain attractive to sponsors even in the lean years, and this means that they are more likely to be places that can afford to invest in the creation of new stars, rather than just poach the most promising point-generator you can afford to snatch up. For a year or so. Until they merge or move.

When it becomes hard to keep up with where the ones you got used to are at, or what they loook likem, this year, an increasing problem, certainly for our more occasional fans, but for the more dediacted ones too, certainly that can't be good for baudience-building.

It's like taking the whole Premier League after a season, stick all players in a blender, do the same with the shirts, mix it until it is hard to recognize, and then let fans figure out which shirt to buy for the upcoming year.

It's not that we can visit our ''local stadium'' each week either. With riders racing increasingly globally, and showing up in foreign places that mean less and less to the casual observer, I do wonder how much ''local loyalty'' we can afford to lose without also losing some of the healthy local support for the stars of the future.

The policy switch at Euskaltel will not trigger an earth-quake that will create this problem there. It might actually be needed to heed that.

But I do think we lost a bit of magic here. And I do think cycling and its legend is mostly built around magic, not global competitions.

 

[Arnout]

Once again I say, do not be premature. I see comments that Euskaltel is no longer Basque. They still are, at least for 2012. In the beginning of every season there are talks of Euskaltels demise, and now this. They've been around since 1994, starting as a very small team, now for years a ProTour team with an impressive umbrella organization. Things are not over yet.

And I add to that my earlier comment. I knew there were talks about splitting the professional team and the Fundacion, for financial reasons. I've never heard anything about making the team "less Basque", I don't think that is the intention of the proposed split. We will just have to wait and see about it, but I say again, things are not over yet.

The biggest problem with Euskaltel of now and probably why this story is even being published is not money though. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano, one of the faces of the team and general manager for years (Madariaga is the president) left after last season. To look for new challenges, he said, but it is rumoured that he left because he was disappointed that the best talents left Euskaltel after they showed some promise. Intxausti first (though he wasn't really an Euskaltel boy, never rode for their organization except for that one year), then Castroviejo, who was a real "boy of the club" and left, in the Basques opinion only for the money.

If that's the general trend for the years to come, Euskaltel will be in big trouble, because it took motivation away for the DS, it hurts ProTour points obviously and the pool is not massive to begin with.

Edit: story is being published by AS who claim Euskaltel will stay in the sport till 2016 at least, opening their gates.

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Euskaltel should return to the PCT/GS II level, right where they belong. Than they can keep their squad basque-only with a team of maybe 16 to 18 riders, concentrate on the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, San Sebastian and the Vuelta.

And one more WT place (and automatic GT invitation) would be available for a team worth the status.