Project Luxembourg

[nevada]

"former Astana manager Marc Biver is in charge of the project"

I dont know if I'm more dissapointed with the UCI allowing him back into the sport or for the huge shadow it casts over those riders joining him.

 

[Ney the Viking]

"former Astana manager Marc Biver is in charge of the project"

I dont know if I'm more dissapointed with the UCI allowing him back into the sport or for the huge shadow it casts over those riders joining him.

As far as i Know he is not associated with the project in the current form. He did however want to start a team like that, so he may have sparked the idea that the danes picked up.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

When Biver was with Astana, I'm not sure it was Biver or the sponsors that were the real problem. Maybe he deserves a second shot.

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

As far as i Know he is not associated with the project in the current form.

This, as far as we know.

Susan

 

[nevada]

When Biver was with Astana, I'm not sure it was Biver or the sponsors that were the real problem. Maybe he deserves a second shot.

You dont think he knew what was going on ?

 

[Race Radio]

Biver is no longer involved.

 

[Christian]

Biver is no longer involved.

For all we know he was never involved in the first place. He just likes to tell people that he knows Fabian Cancellara and has talked to him personnally.

 

[ergmonkey]

The dropping of Biver's name somewhere in the life of the team doesn't bother me nearly as much as the under-handed way they've gone about essentially stealing the project Riis Cycling built.

I have absolutely no problem with free agency and with riders going anywhere they want after a contract expires. But, poaching riders under contract is extremely poor form, and pretending to build a new team when you're really just misappropriating the franchise someone else built is pathetic in my book.

At least Sky assembled a new group of riders with a new vision. I don't particularly like Sky as an organization or the way they poached contracted riders. But, at least they didn't go out and simply purchase, say, Rabobank, add a few other top riders, and then pretend to be building something new and exciting from scratch.

 

[Christian]

The dropping of Biver's name somewhere in the life of the team doesn't bother me nearly as much as the under-handed way they've gone about essentially stealing the project Riis Cycling built.

Regardless of whether or not some of the riders lied to Riis, I wouldn't say anyone "stole" anything from Riis. There was a new project being set up, and many of Riis' riders decided, for whatever reason, that they would be better off than with him. It might be friendship, money, personal goals, but you can't say Andersen and Nygaard stole from Riis. They had a better offer, fair and square. I agree that it is a sad way for such a great team to end (I strongly assume Saxo Bank SunGard next year will be a lot different from the team of previous years), but after all I think the fact that so many riders chose to join the DS instead of the manager must also tell something about Riis. He is, in some way, the victim in this story, but is it really through no fault of his own?

Cancellara left Riis because the team was going to be (or will be) built around Contador. I'm sure that even if he hadn't had an offer from Andersen, he would have found another team that would gladly pay the 1.83 Mio.

So I wouldn't say they stole any riders, and I think it's also too early to say whether or not they stole Riis' "project", whatever that may be. For all we know Team Luxembourg may have a completely new philosophy. And in the end, every team has the same "project" or philosophy: they want to win as much as possible (except for Cervélo maybe, but that didn't last too long).

 

[ergmonkey]

Regardless of whether or not some of the riders lied to Riis, I wouldn't say anyone "stole" anything from Riis. There was a new project being set up, and many of Riis' riders decided, for whatever reason, that they would be better off than with him. It might be friendship, money, personal goals, but you can't say Andersen and Nygaard stole from Riis. They had a better offer, fair and square. I agree that it is a sad way for such a great team to end (I strongly assume Saxo Bank SunGard next year will be a lot different from the team of previous years), but after all I think the fact that so many riders chose to join the DS instead of the manager must also tell something about Riis. He is, in some way, the victim in this story, but is it really through no fault of his own?

Cancellara left Riis because the team was going to be (or will be) built around Contador. I'm sure that even if he hadn't had an offer from Andersen, he would have found another team that would gladly pay the 1.83 Mio.

So I wouldn't say they stole any riders, and I think it's also too early to say whether or not they stole Riis' "project", whatever that may be. For all we know Team Luxembourg may have a completely new philosophy. And in the end, every team has the same "project" or philosophy: they want to win as much as possible (except for Cervélo maybe, but that didn't last too long).

Of course you're right that nothing was actually "stolen," but I didn't mean to imply that there was any technical violation of rules when I wrote about Luxembourg "essentially stealing" a former project. My point was that the essence of what Luxembourg is doing is free-riding off of what Riis built. Yes, it's perfectly legitimate, but that doesn't mean that it should necessarily sit well. I also realize that to some extent this whole mess is just about bad timing: if Riis had secured sponsorship earlier, he likely would have kept many of the riders now departing for Luxembourg.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

You dont think he knew what was going on ?

Biver is no longer involved.

Good point Nevada. But it looks like it doesn't matter, according to Race Radio's account.

 

[craig1985]

Gianetti and Bruyneel are allowed to managed teams...

 

[blackcat]

Arcelor Mittal

must be Arcelor Mittal if Biver had any involvement at startup.

http://indolinkspanish.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/arcelormittal-india-port-orissa.jpg

did have a second/third tier w/ Astana