Nygaard breaking Tradition

[JPM London]

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/nygaard-breaking-traditions-with-luxembourg-presentation

Two things bother me about his statements in the article.

First off calling Canc and BOTH Schlecks for "legends". Fabian I'm cool with, but I'd defintely sayd there's quite a bit to go yet for the Schlecks to be worthy of the "legend" title - like winning a couple of GTs for example and maybe riding with a bit more consistency?

Second bit that annoys me is the "when I was introduced to Becca in May 2010". Wasn't one of the loyalty problems on Saxo that riders and personal where being approached already in late 2009? And doesn't it sound weird that one of the last people to be recruited would be the man to run the whole thing?

Maybe I'm wrong?

 

[Magnus]

Agreed on the legend status of Cance and the Schlecks although I think the Schlecks are consistent in the way that they performs when expected.

 

[Dutchsmurf]

I completely agree that non of those 3 deserve to be called legend yet. If even F. Schleck is a legend, then the list of riders who deserve to be called legend is huge. But since they called it "American Style", I guess I can allow them to get away with it.

 

[Christian]

Second bit that annoys me is the "when I was introduced to Becca in May 2010". Wasn't one of the loyalty problems on Saxo that riders and personal where being approached already in late 2009? And doesn't it sound weird that one of the last people to be recruited would be the man to run the whole thing?

This is nothing new, it has been reported months ago:

Nygard takes us back the scant few months that it has been since the idea began to take shape: "It was in Flanders in May this year. Flavio Becca contacted me on the recommendation of Kim Andersen and others, who he had talked to in the industry. We met at a cafe in the Belgian town of Kortrijk. At the time, I just thought that I would help him with some good advice, because the project had already been hurt due to the wrong advice from the wrong people. It was one of those very rare meetings."

Nygaard raves about Becca's knowledge of the sport, and admits to utter surprise when Becca offered him the role of director.

"Flavio is an exceptional businessman who has spent months learning about most everything about professional cycling, as if it were any other commercial activity. I was impressed with his thorough knowledge and recognized his passion. A couple of hours into a conversation that was only supposed to last for about half an hour, he offered me the position of Director. I was flabbergasted, because I had really thought that I needed to do something outside of the sport after working with Sky, but now I was right back in it."

Nygaard contends that he was up in the air as to what to do, but it's difficult to believe, as the team is reported to be working with a nearly 20 million dollar budget. After a closer look at the contract that was sent to him, he was all in on the project.

"I didn't know what to do. I talked with my closest friends, but in fact had already made the decision. I sent the contract to some people I trusted to take a closer look at it, but they could find no traps."

Read more: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5...new-team-out-of-Luxembourg.aspx#ixzz19ojinjQc

Looks like it was a spontaneous decision of Becca to offer Nygaard the position of Team Manager, I guess they just "clicked"

As for the status of "legends" ... everyone has a different definition of the word, but even if you don't share Nygaard's I think the Schlecks are very famous in the cycling world so that's probably what he is referring to.

The only thing I wonder about is what he means by "American Style". Does it mean Super-Bowl-esque with fireworks, cheerleaders, Prince and Janet Jackson's breasts? I take it to mean big and pompous and that doesn't sound so good to me.

 

[Barrus]

The only thing I wonder about is what he means by "American Style". Does it mean Super-Bowl-esque with fireworks, cheerleaders, Prince and Janet Jackson's breasts? I take it to mean big and pompous and that doesn't sound so good to me.

As long as it involves more Prince he can do and say whatever he wants

But perhaps he meant to say future legends of cycling. For Andy or Frank to be considered a legend they need to do a lot more

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Oh man, please say they've gone totally Prince. Purple paisley jerseys with frills on the wrists of their arm-warmers. Prince is awesome.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

frank schleck will never be a legend

 

[The Hitch]

any excuse to post this

 

[Christian]

Second bit that annoys me is the "when I was introduced to Becca in May 2010". Wasn't one of the loyalty problems on Saxo that riders and personal where being approached already in late 2009? And doesn't it sound weird that one of the last people to be recruited would be the man to run the whole thing?

I just watched a show on RTL Luxembourg called "Vëlo Highlights" which featured, among others, the Schlecks. It was a lot of meaningless chip-chat, but Fränk Schleck revealed one interesting detail:

He said that him and Andy knew of course that a Luxembourg team was being set up, but that they only received a concrete offer after the Tour of Luxembourg (June 2nd - 6th). When they met Bjarne Riis 4 days later in Switzerland, they told him this and asked him whether he had a sponsor in place and could make them a concrete offer. However he was unable to do this; so they decided to sign for Nygaard's team.

The show should be online on http://www.rtl.lu soon; however it is all in Luxembourgish; so you need at least good knowledge of German to understand it

 

[JPM London]

Interesting, Christian... thanks for this.

Just read Riis' book - he has a somewhat different take on the whole situation.
Will just reread that part and post some points from it...

 

[BroDeal]

He said that him and Andy knew of course that a Luxembourg team was being set up, but that they only received a concrete offer after the Tour of Luxembourg (June 2nd - 6th). When they met Bjarne Riis 4 days later in Switzerland, they told him this and asked him whether he had a sponsor in place and could make them a concrete offer. However he was unable to do this; so they decided to sign for Nygaard's team.

This looks like word games to minimize their responsibility. I doubt that the team was set up, or even the gears set in motion, without assurances that the Schlecks would be on board. Just because a contract wasn't finalized until June says nothing about how complicit they were in gutting Riis' team.

 

[Christian]

The video is already online at:

http://tele.rtl.lu/waatleeft/replay/v/20110102/0/31523/

... but it is 76 minutes long and all in Luxembourgish.

The statement by Fränk which I mentioned above is at around 68:40


Other interesting segments are images from the Team Luxembourg camp in Crans Montana starting at 58:10 (interviews with Kim Andersen, Jens Voigt, Fabian Cancellara, Fabian Wegmann, Maxime Monfort, Brice Feillu in German and French)

and an interview with Kim Kirchen at 30:50

 

[La Pandera]

Oh man, please say they've gone totally Prince. Purple paisley jerseys with frills on the wrists of their arm-warmers. Prince is awesome.

+1000 about Prince. He is the man.

The "legends" of cycling crap is just hype when it involves Andy and Frank. They are no where near the category of legends but Cancellara will be once he retires. Nygaard is just doing the marketing/promotional spin.

They pretty much stole the team from under Riis' nose and the Schlecks lied about their leaving when first confronted by Riis. If Riis is bitter there is definitely grounds for it.

 

[La Pandera]

any excuse to post this

Please, please, please stop.

 

[Christian]

This looks like word games to minimize their responsibility. I doubt that the team was set up, or even the gears set in motion, without assurances that the Schlecks would be on board. Just because a contract wasn't finalized until June says nothing about how complicit they were in gutting Riis' team.

Yes Fränk even says later in the same segment I mentioned that they would have left even if Riis could have made them a concrete offer. I think you're right when you say the Luxembourg Team would not exist without the Schlecks, but the fact that they only received a concrete offer in early June means that only then it was 100% certain that they had the money together to create a top level ProTeam.

On the other hand this means Riis had not yet found a sponsor by the Tour de Suisse, which is not the Schlecks' fault. It's not their fault that Saxo Bank wanted to leave and that Riis couldn't find a sponsor who was willing to go on with or without a top GC contender. Same counts for all the other riders who left and who were at the end of their contract. Take Breschel or Fuglsang for example - if Riis had secured a sponsor earlier, they would have certainly stayed. However he didn't and so they thought it better to accept other lucrative offers, which was their good right, since they were at the end of their contract.

In short I want to say Riis had plenty of time to look for a sponsor who was willing to take over his team, likely without a GC contender, and failed. If he had succeeded, he would have probably kept Fuglsang and either Breschel or Cancellara; all of them world-class. The Schlecks lead the exodus, but with a secure sponsor in place earlier one Riis could have avoided a lot of it.

They pretty much stole the team from under Riis' nose and the Schlecks lied about their leaving when first confronted by Riis. If Riis is bitter there is definitely grounds for it.

I don't think they "stole" anything or anyone. All the riders who left were at the end of their contract; to the best of my knowledge no rider extended his contract with Riis in 2010; Frank Hoj even retired. This means to me they did not believe he could find a replacement sponsor and wanted to make sure they got a good ride in 2011, rather than wait and see.

The only rider who broke his contract was Cancellara, and he acted on his own account. One could even say that was partly Riis' fault: he had to bring in Contador and his lieutenants in order to save the team, but Cancellara didn't want to ride with Contador, so Cancellara had to go.

 

[JPM London]

... Frank Hoj even retired...

I think he was more or less forced to retire - Riis didn't offer him a new contract AFAIR, so Frank had to retire. I think he said he would have liked another year, and in my book it would have been nice to see him a bit longer, always a jolly fella!