The future for HTC-High Road

[Mambo95]

Looking at the comments about Cav going to Sky annoying several current team members of Sky. That is certainly true.

However...

- Sky are the first major British cycling team
- Cavendish is probably the greatest road racing talent ever to come out of Britain (and it's associated self governing isles). Yes, yes, I know about Simpson and Millar, but Cav's just 25, let's see.
- Cavendish is a once in a generation talent. Any team would love to have him.
- The likes of EBH, Kennaugh, Uran, Wiggins, Thomas etc are all very talented, but I'm not sure any will rise to the superstar status that Cav currently holds.
He may break Merckx's TdF stage record. Doing it in a Sky jersey would be big for them.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

On the minus side, how many of Stapleton's riders have gone on to do anything elsewhere? I can only think of one although it's early days.

 

[Jamsque]

At this point in his career I am pretty sure that Cav cares more about making a boatload of money than which team he rides for. He's been pretty quiet so far about his contract situation, but towards the end of last year we did start to hear a few peeps from him; he is still on his rookie contract and isn't really making the kind of money the winner of 15 TdF stages in 3 years might expect.

The career of a professional cyclist is not an especially long one, so I can't blame him for wanting to make hay while the sun shines, but we'll see just how exorbitant his salary demands are come season's end. If Bob Stapleton can talk the sponsors in to reaching in to their wallets I'm sure Cav will be more than happy to stay where he is, but if he wins another brace of Tour de France stages he might not be satisfied with anything less than the biggest paycheck in pro cycling. I'm one of his biggest fans on this board but lord knows the kid has an ego.

 

[LugHugger]

At this point in his career I am pretty sure that Cav cares more about making a boatload of money than which team he rides for. He's been pretty quiet so far about his contract situation, but towards the end of last year we did start to hear a few peeps from him; he is still on his rookie contract and isn't really making the kind of money the winner of 15 TdF stages in 3 years might expect.

The career of a professional cyclist is not an especially long one, so I can't blame him for wanting to make hay while the sun shines, but we'll see just how exorbitant his salary demands are come season's end. If Bob Stapleton can talk the sponsors in to reaching in to their wallets I'm sure Cav will be more than happy to stay where he is, but if he wins another brace of Tour de France stages he might not be satisfied with anything less than the biggest paycheck in pro cycling. I'm one of his biggest fans on this board but lord knows the kid has an ego.

I'm pretty sure that he still care about winning races - as well as the money. Like you say, his next contract will reflect how far he's come over the last 3 seasons. I would be surprised if he is not one of the top 5 - maybe top 3 - best rewarded riders on the planet come January 1 2012. As I said earlier, I would be very surprised if Sky are able to outbid High Road Sports for Cav's services from 2012.

 

[Mambo95]

At this point in his career I am pretty sure that Cav cares more about making a boatload of money than which team he rides for. He's been pretty quiet so far about his contract situation, but towards the end of last year we did start to hear a few peeps from him; he is still on his rookie contract and isn't really making the kind of money the winner of 15 TdF stages in 3 years might expect.

He certainly isn't on his rookie contract. He's been a pro for 4 years and his rookie contract was allegedly E600k.

He's a professional, so he needs to make as much hay as he can while the sun shines. However, he really does seem to be someone in tune with the history, traditions and mystic of cycling, so that will motivate him somewhat.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Not because I think that's the only way he can win, I'm not falling for that trap Seriously, because I think that if Sky invest that much money in Cavendish that they will want to see the return on their investment. I hate to be so crass about it but the HTC model delivers the best results.

This is precisely right.

Cavendish's next contract will be for a whole lot of money. Any team which invests that kind of money in a rider will be looking to maximize their return on that investment which means organising the team around him. HTC already do that.

He'll only move if some other team offers him substantially more money than HTC and if anyone is willing to do that, they'll be willing to offer him HTC style service. Not simply because he'll demand it, but because they will want to.

There are exceptions to that rule, but not very many. Nobody is likely to outbid HTC (assuming HTC get sponsorship lined up) so as to get two thirds of the wins HTC get from him. Unless they have money to burn.

 

[ScottyMuser]

The "Tour in five years" comment was just an ultimate goal (mostly for the benefit of the UK press) and they've been beaten with it ever since.

Sky will have their British Tour winner (or big contender) in 8-10 years (someone who's caught my attention - not Kennaugh)


(And, yes, I think Sky will be around for 10 years)

the other thing for sky is to combat the general public's misconceptions of cycling, the main of which seems to be "but Cav is 100th+ in the GC, so he must be doing badly"- and whether Sky can so spectacularly make a U-turn from going to "GC contender" to "no GC conetneder, not contenders in other races as everyone left, but lots of flat sprint stages" will be an interesting, considering the british media love to point fingers at others.

Especially if, say, the likes of Blyth come good over in Belgium and manage to podium say a week long tour or mini-classic, and beats the sky boys in the meantime, things could turn very ugly for Brailsford very quickly

 

[Mambo95]

the other thing for sky is to combat the general public's misconceptions of cycling, the main of which seems to be "but Cav is 100th+ in the GC, so he must be doing badly"

An attitude perfectly captured by The Daily Mash:

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/british-guy-did-not-win-tour-de-france-200907271935/

Blythe could turn out very well. He's similar to Swift at the moment. As a Brit I like to see any of them do well, regardless of team. I remember when we used to pretend Backstedt, McEwen and Cioni were British.

(My favourite is Thomas though, because he's a local boy)

 

[jaylew]

That's funny. I'm guessing the Daily Mash is the British Onion.

Or The Onion is the American Daily Mash.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

He'll only move if some other team offers him substantially more money than HTC and if anyone is willing to do that, they'll be willing to offer him HTC style service. Not simply because he'll demand it, but because they will want to.

There are exceptions to that rule, but not very many. Nobody is likely to outbid HTC (assuming HTC get sponsorship lined up) so as to get two thirds of the wins HTC get from him. Unless they have money to burn.

Sky is the exception. If he wants to go, and the financial offers from the two teams are in the same ball park, he'll go. Stapleton's far too astute to turn it into a bidding war where it becomes purely mercenary. Once the offer is at a level Cavendish is happy at, there's not much point in going any higher; the marginal benefit of more money is outweighed by other issues.

Whether Sky morph into HTC once he's there, is a different issue. But it won't happen overnight.