The Cav SKY drama

[spalco]

I think what people don't understand is that if Cav's team doesn't chase on flat stages, the breakaway will succeed 95% of the time.

I don't think so, I really don't. After the second time some unknown French or Russian guy wins a flat stage, Garmin, Lampre, Green Edge etc will grow damn restless. Cavendish would be disappointed of course, but can still use the race as training for London and abandon before the mountains, which assumingly will be ok with Sky too. Other teams will be ****ed.

 

[Richeypen]

Why?

EBH shouldn't be targeting the same races as Cav. In the Tour he should be after entirely different stages.

Exactly. EBH's wins this year were in stages where Cav was nowhere


Why all the focus on le Tour anyway. Cycling is more than one race. EBH will hopefully show what he is made of in the spring this year

 

[maltiv]

I thought you didn't want EBH to be a sprinter.

I don't, but now Sky has an even better reason to force him into becoming one.

 

[ingsve]

I don't think so, I really don't. After the second time some unknown French or Russian guy wins a flat stage, Garmin, Lampre, Green Edge etc will grow damn restless. Cavendish would be disappointed of course, but can still use the race as training for London and abandon before the mountains, which assumingly will be ok with Sky too. Other teams will be ****ed.

I think the key team will be GreenEdge. They will certainly be chasing breaks for a sprint since that is all their team will be able to do.

 

[Catwhoorg]

EBH certainly appears to be a team player when asked to do domestique duties.

Look at the way he took control of the Dauphine when he had to for Wiggins. He will be given his oppurtunities no doubt, at the tour and elsewhere, but he will also work for the team.

I still think the biggest issue Sky have next year is going to be managing their talent. Making sure everyone gets a fair crack of the whip, so they will all pull together for the team come the GTs.

 

[Tei6chai]

I still think the biggest issue Sky have next year is going to be managing their talent. Making sure everyone gets a fair crack of the whip, so they will all pull together for the team come the GTs.

Agreed. Much harder than the technical issue of combining GT sprinter with GT GC ... it's going to be a big test for Brailsford, since he can't just hire someone else in to take that job off his hands.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Any news on the length of the contracts for Cav and Bernie ?

 

[hatcher]

I don't, but now Sky has an even better reason to force him into becoming one.

I'm not sure I follow.

Whether Cav was signed or not, EBH was always going to enter the Tour as either sprinter, or leadout man.

He'll still get to sprint for the stages that are too hard for Cav, and to go into breaks on stages that suit, and be leader on the cobbles, and in the hilly races that suit him, and in the stage races that suit him.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

Nobody seems to be talking about what really matters here. It's not missed opportunity for EBH and the other sprinters at SKY. It's that Cav will no longer ride Specialized!

Seriously, I don't understand the lament for EBH, he'll get his shot at stages the same way he did last year. He won both stage 6 and 17, and finished second in Gap, all were hilly stages. On the flat stages he barely featured, except on the Champs which means precisely squat. He's not anywhere near the sprinter Cav is, so he should lead him out in pure sprint stages. On stages with undulating hills, let him fly. Hopefully, he'll steal Gilbert's thunder in Liege.

 

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Nobody seems to be talking about what really matters here. It's not missed opportunity for EBH and the other sprinters at SKY. It's that Cav will no longer ride Specialized!

Seriously, I don't understand the lament for EBH, he'll get his shot at stages the same way he did last year. He won both stage 6 and 17, and finished second in Gap, all were hilly stages. On the flat stages he barely featured, except on the Champs which means precisely squat. He's not anywhere near the sprinter Cav is, so he should lead him out in pure sprint stages. On stages with undulating hills, let him fly. Hopefully, he'll steal Gilbert's thunder in Liege.

Eddy won't be a final leadout man. I'd rather Cav flew solo than following Eddy's wheel frankly. Stick him 3rd or 4th man and tell him to drill it for 1500m and he's fine, but in the final 500m he'd cost Cav multiple stages.

 

[pantsarefortheold]

I think maybe keep eddy away from the tour. If sky goes for both gc and points, how will there be energy left for the "free" stages? And how much energy would he have left for helping wig and cav, after a prison-break?

Is it 1 year left on is contract?

 

[kanari]

Eddy won't be a final leadout man. I'd rather Cav flew solo than following Eddy's wheel frankly. Stick him 3rd or 4th man and tell him to drill it for 1500m and he's fine, but in the final 500m he'd cost Cav multiple stages.

He'd be fine as 3rd, 2nd leadout whatever. He did well in both positions for both Greipel and Cav in 2009. It's when he's the last guy on the train he tends to get lost.

I don't necessarily think this will be bad for him at all, it takes some pressure off his shoulders and remember that 2009 was his best year still, riding with Cav in HTC.

 

[Moncoutie]

I'd imagine that Wiggins would be happy enough to just have 2-3 guys stick with him in the high mountains, not an all out USPS train. So that still leaves at least 4 guys to work for Cav, and that is enough. And as mentioned they'll have guys who can do a job on both fronts.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

Eddy won't be a final leadout man. I'd rather Cav flew solo than following Eddy's wheel frankly. Stick him 3rd or 4th man and tell him to drill it for 1500m and he's fine, but in the final 500m he'd cost Cav multiple stages.

I agree. When I said lead out, I didn't really mean Cav's final guy, I just meant as part of the train.

I'd imagine that Wiggins would be happy enough to just have 2-3 guys stick with him in the high mountains, not an all out USPS train. So that still leaves at least 4 guys to work for Cav, and that is enough. And as mentioned they'll have guys who can do a job on both fronts.

Wiggo may not even ride the tour next year, opting for olympic success instead....well now that I think about, with parcours that fit him so perfectly, he should ride the tour.

 

[greenedge]

Wiggo has Fromme to do the work of ten men.

And finally.

 

[Moncoutie]

I agree. When I said lead out, I didn't really mean Cav's final guy, I just meant as part of the train.



Wiggo may not even ride the tour next year, opting for olympic success instead....well now that I think about, with parcours that fit him so perfectly, he should ride the tour.

I'd be stunned if he didn't. I would have been even before this parcours was announced. Hasn't he already said he's prioritising the tour over the Olympics?

 

[richwagmn]

Wiggo has Fromme to do the work of ten men.

And finally.

I don't remember any of the teams from this year's TDF having a mountain train. Leopard of course had Frank and Andy. Voeckler had some guy (can't remember his name, no disrespect intended). Cadel once in a while had a few riders with him until the mountains got tough and Contador mostly had no one. Liquigas might have had the most come to think of it.

So it doesn't seem necessary to have that (think Postal or Discovery) to win. But it sure helps IF you have a rider capable of contending for GC.

Still not convinced Wiggins is a real contender though.

I wonder if Cav will ever make the switch to one day events. Will he ever go on a lone break in Paris Roubaix or LBL ala Cancellara or Boonen? Haven't seen it from him yet. Great sprinter (maybe the best of all time). But winning a 200m sprint isn't a memorable victory. Breaking away like Fabian in the 2010 PR is one that people will talk about for years.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

EBH needs a new team before his career goes down the drain. Even Vacansoleil would be far better than staying with team ******bag now that the king of clowns arrives.

His career really went down the drain this season, didn't it? Next year, I expect much of the same, with the exception that he'll get to celebrate his team winning at every flat stage of the Tour, instead of chasing Cav all the way to the line.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

I wonder if Cav will ever make the switch to one day events. Will he ever go on a lone break in Paris Roubaix or LBL ala Cancellara or Boonen? Haven't seen it from him yet. Great sprinter (maybe the best of all time). But winning a 200m sprint isn't a memorable victory. Breaking away like Fabian in the 2010 PR is one that people will talk about for years.

And I wonder if Gilbert will switch to sprinting and Contador switch to cobbles classics?

People will be talking about Cav's MSR win and 2010 Champs Elysees win for years.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

His career really went down the drain this season, didn't it? Next year, I expect much of the same, with the exception that he'll get to celebrate his team winning at every flat stage of the Tour, instead of chasing Cav all the way to the line.

On the other hand, one of the reasons he left HTC in the first place was wanting to get more opportunities to race for himself rather than lead people out.

Now, after picking up some great results, he gets promoted to... leading out. Yes, the team will get a lot of wins, but they may need to work a few things out ahead of time to keep everybody harmonious. Which I'm sure they'll already have done considering Boasson Hagen has been a very important part of Sky's success to date and Cavendish is no doubt banked upon as a very important part of Sky's success for the future.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Cadel Evans - this is a very good route for him though he won on a route that doesn't suit him this year so we'll see.

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Now, after picking up some great results, he gets promoted to... leading out.

I really don't see the issue. He'll get his chances in the Tour in stages that are too tough for Cav and plenty of other big races which Cav isn't at. And leading out Cav to victory beats getting your a** whooped by him, in anyone's book, doesn't it?

 

[hatcher]

On the other hand, one of the reasons he left HTC in the first place was wanting to get more opportunities to race for himself rather than lead people out.

Now, after picking up some great results, he gets promoted to... leading out. Yes, the team will get a lot of wins, but they may need to work a few things out ahead of time to keep everybody harmonious. Which I'm sure they'll already have done considering Boasson Hagen has been a very important part of Sky's success to date and Cavendish is no doubt banked upon as a very important part of Sky's success for the future.

That's talking like the Tour is the only race on the calendar.

EBH's main goals should be elsewhere, in races Cav has nothing to do with.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I really don't see the issue. He'll get his chances in the Tour in stages that are too tough for Cav and plenty of other big races which Cav isn't at. And leading out Cav to victory beats getting your a** whooped by him, in anyone's book, doesn't it?

Ask him why he wanted to move away from HTC then, since that's proven itself a very fertile ground for riders getting excellent results.

Staying at a highly successful team where there's no obvious cobbled contender and he gets to lead out many, many victories has to beat going to a brand new team with an uncertain roster level where he'd be understudy in the Classics, hasn't it?

 

[Mambo95]

Ask him why he wanted to move away from HTC then, since that's proven itself a very fertile ground for riders getting excellent results.

If he was being honest, he would tell you it was because Sky were offering three times as much money. And there's nothing wrong with that.

He'll get plenty of good chances of his own, just as he has in the past. Who says he'll be understudy in the classics?