Jayco al-'Ula and its GreenEdge predecessors

[ultimobici]

The funny thing is Sky is effectively an Australian team by virtue of News Corporation's ownership of Sky. Murdoch is an Aussie, as is the Head Coach Shane Sutton.

So you're already in the Pro Tour!

 

[bobbins]

The funny thing is Sky is effectively an Australian team by virtue of News Corporation's ownership of Sky. Murdoch is an Aussie, as is the Head Coach Shane Sutton.

So you're already in the Pro Tour!

News corp own I think 30% and Rupert Murdoch is an American citizen, apart from that, pretty good fact reporting. Do you work for News Corp?

 

[Nearly]

Good guess but no cigar

Matt White?

 

[antares1]

wasn't there a story about this and Neil 'teflon' Stephens last week.

 

[NickBVK]

Matt White?

Matt White's got a pretty good thing going on at Garmin - Cervelo, only going to get better this year.

Doubt he'd leave it for a startup

 

[Tuarts]

Only one person left whose hasn't been mentioned and is in a current PT...not exactly young though

 

[Nick777]

Gerry Ryan will fit right in as a person in a position of influence in cycling.

 

[antares1]

Only one person left whose hasn't been mentioned and is in a current PT...not exactly young though

you mean Peiper?

 

[Sydney21]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/c...r-tour-de-france/story-fn3owcsl-1225981858270

Interesting to note that it mentions that Jayco will not be a title sponsor

 

[abbaskip]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...of-world-cycling/story-e6frg7mf-1225978995433

Gerry Ryan does... Thats what he enjoys doing. I read somewhere that he's happy to support Australian sport even if it means running a loss.

"I'm looking at all options. All I can confirm is all will be revealed at a press conference in Adelaide at 3pm on January 17 at the (Santos) Tour Down Under," Ryan said.

"I've looked at Pegasus Project and the Melbourne-based Australian Road Cycling projects, and sadly, for one reason or another, they never materialised."

And if McGee's involved I'd say there are already strong ties to Richie Porte and possibly Stuey O'Grady too.

EDIT: Just read that Brad isn't who you're speaking of, so ignore this.

And Baden Cooke (who he is good mates with and were team mates with at FDJ), and Mark Renshaw, who is also a good mate (Brad was at his wedding). But Renshaw just re-signed with HTC, and Cooke isn't good for much more than some hard miles as the front, and carrying drinks now.

Chris Sutton is also another guy that grew up doing loads with Brad, with NSWIS etc.

 

[abbaskip]

News corp own I think 30% and Rupert Murdoch is an American citizen, apart from that, pretty good fact reporting. Do you work for News Corp?

Yeah, but he is an Aussie through and through. An American simply because it suits him for business purposes.

Sky is the major sponsor, and 30% owner though, and Rupert is an Australian, regardless of citizenship.

 

[Tuarts]

Yeah, but he is an Aussie through and through. An American simply because it suits him for business purposes.

Sky is the major sponsor, and 30% owner though, and Rupert is an Australian, regardless of citizenship.

Sound to me like Murdoch is the business world equivelant of a pavlova.

 

[abbaskip]

Sound to me like Murdoch is the business world equivelant of a pavlova.

No.

Murdoch:
Born: 11 March 1931 (1931-03-11) (age 79) Melbourne, Australia

"In 1985 Murdoch became a United States citizen to satisfy legislation that only United States citizens could own American television stations. This also resulted in Murdoch losing his Australian citizenship."

 

[Tuarts]

I'm sure he enjpys many other perks to being an US American too. How often does he reside in Aus?

 

[Sydney21]

http://www.theage.com.au/sport/aust...ce-team-seeks-talent-edge-20110114-19rfx.html

Sounds a touch dodgy but the intent is right...

Here is an interesting I blog on the article.

http://theinnerring.blogspot.com/

Expecting official announcement in 48 hours

 

[Ferminal]

Ugh, that article from The Age was reprinted in The West and it sounded awful, and omitted the "based" from (Spanish-based), I was going to unleash some fury on it but went to check the real thing and it didn't have the errors.

 

[Tuarts]

Ugh, that article from The Age was reprinted in The West and it sounded awful, and omitted the "based" from (Spanish-based), I was going to unleash some fury on it but went to check the real thing and it didn't have the errors.

Yeah noticed the same thing.

So White-Meyers-Bobridge will be interesting, even to see if they get them. Not excatly waiting for the Pegasus dust to settle are they?

 

[Ferminal]

Could we get the thread renamed to have "Green Edge" included somewhere?

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/vau...-and-white-being-linked-with-bannans-new-team

2009 all over again for Vaughters? Bit different though with said riders (and White?) out of contracts at the end of the season. The problem for JV I think is that he has so much depth now after the Cervelo merge that it will be hard to offer enough (both financially and in terms of development) to keep everyone.

I think I said this about Pegasus too, but personally I wouldn't like to see all our young talent running to one team. Why put all your eggs in one basket when you can have Meyers/Bobridge at Garmin, Howard at HTC, Matthews at Rabo, Roe at BMC etc etc All of these guys can develop independently of one another, and aren't all vulnerable to the same poor management and development (if that were to be the case). Maybe go after a couple but not none of them will be seasoned pros in 2012 anyway. Look even younger, use the AIS team as a feeder.

Get some good internationals who can get you results - Sky's top three from last year would have been EBH, Flecha and Henderson? You can have a quasi-national team but don't let that restrict your roster.

The team is in trouble if they look exclusively to Australians to get them results. Of the current, more developed Aussies the ones I can see joining (or that they should be targeting) are Davis, Goss, Lancaster, Porte, Gerrans... Stay away from O'Grady/Evans/Rogers (both for the team and their sakes).

Back to the Garmin boys - I think they are gone, whether it be to Green Edge or somewhere else (Sky...), just a bit of a hunch.

 

[Hairy Wheels]

Let's face it guys, when Canada has a more serious pro team than Australia, you gotta know you're going nowhere.

Give up the protour dreams....

 

[Ferminal]

Let's face it guys, when Canada has a more serious pro team than Australia, you gotta know you're going nowhere.

Give up the protour dreams....

Not really, this team will have a World Tour license in 2012, for the same reasons Pegasus don't in 2011.

 

[sublimit]

Yeah, but he is an Aussie through and through. An American simply because it suits him for business purposes.

Sky is the major sponsor, and 30% owner though, and Rupert is an Australian, regardless of citizenship.

Murdoch senior is looking to buy out the rest of B SKY B shares and if that gets the go ahead you will effectively have an Aussie Protour team.

 

[Hairy Wheels]

Not really, this team will have a World Tour license in 2012, for the same reasons Pegasus don't in 2011.

Aussie Doublespeak? You're dreaming, but "good on ya".

 

[ingsve]

So, what teams will be gone from the PT to make room for a team like this then? The teams that are up for renewal are: Garmin, Katusha, Quick Step, Omega Pharma and Saxo Bank. Then there is the question of Radioshack and whether they get a new sponsor and what happens with the investigation.

Our of those teams I have a hard time seeing which team would be gone. Perhaps if Contador gets suspended and Porte leaves and with main sponsor gone then perhaps Riis is in trouble but they've been around for so long now that thing always seem to work out.

They would also be up against Geox for a spot if Geox is as ambitious about the sport as they hinted at with the proposed removal of Gianetti and then there is always the french teams knocking on the door as well.

 

[Ferminal]

Aussie Doublespeak? You're dreaming, but "good on ya".

No, I'm not dreaming - I'm not too enthused about a top-tier team (surely you can see that from my post), but the reality is that they will be gifted a license just like Sky, Radioshack and Leopard.

If Pegasus had the backing of Cycling Australia they would have a Pro Conti license if not a World Tour license.

 

[shouldawouldacoulda]

Let's face it guys, when Canada has a more serious pro team than Australia, you gotta know you're going nowhere.

Give up the protour dreams....

I'm Canadian, super happy to see what SpiderTech is doing. But even I'd say Oz deserves a top pro team - more than Canada - and the fact they don't have one is a real shame.

If you count the number of Canadians that have ridden at the top level of European pro cycling since 1980 you would have a number that is less than the number of Aussies currently on Pro-tour teams 2011.

I wanna see Bauer lead his team to the top. I think he will do it. But I'm a huge fan of Oz cycling too and it would be fantastic to see them have a team like Sky or Leopard. For all they've achieved in cycling they deserve it!!

anyhow OT, but lets see. Here are the Canadians that have arguably raced at the top level of European cycling since 1980:

1. Ron Hayman
2. Steve Bauer
3. Alex Steida
4. Brian Walton
5. Gianni Vignaduzzi
6. Gord Fraser
7. Steve Rover
8. Roland Green *
9. Dominique Perras
10. Michael Barry
11. Ryder Hesjedal
12. Dominique Rollin
13. Svein Tuft
14. Francois Parisien
15. Christian Meier

* Roland rode for USPS, but never full time. He was a cross over rider from Trek's MTB team. Granted he would have been a fantastic road pro.

** you could potentially add : 1) Richard Mellor(n)? not sure his name, he was a bit of a journeyman in the early 80s - he wasn't very good.

2-3) Maybe also Czeslaw Lucasewicz and Mat Anand - but they rode on ZVVZ a div 2 team in Czech Republic and neither rode full time in Europe with that team)

Of the list above, only 9 rode a grand tour to my knowledge.

Aussies currently (in 2011) on ProTeams : 30
This is Div 1 ProTeams, and does not including ProConti.

Finally I don't point this out to imply Oz is better than Canada. I think Canada is great and certainly has athletes who can excel at cycling's top level. Canada simply hasn't tapped into its talent pool and converted athletes to cycling. Australia has.

If there is any country in the world that should have a ProTeam and doesn't it is most certainly OZ!!