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The Lady doth protest too much, methinks (and I don't mean Sastre).

Next time, Mr. Tan, I suggest you try not to take things so personally, and if/when you do, please save your critique of Sastre's view for an editorial.

Thanks.

With Sastre's words, there appeared to be a disconnect. On one hand, he was saying he was enjoying his time immensely among his teammates, but on the other, he found the media to be disrespectful based on his previous achievements and the Tour boring, according to how his rivals were racing.

If there was no race like the Tour de France, the media would not attend, nor would there be reason to create an outfit like the Cérvelo TestTeam. It is true: the media has overplayed the potential Armstrong-Contador rivalry – but one could also argue that on certain occasions, what we have seen out on the road the past fortnight has been a product of having two champions capable of winning the Tour on one team.

And whether one likes it or not, most teams with a rider or two capable of winning the Tour choose a line-up and strategy with the purpose of winning, as success often guarantees their continued existence. The majority of sponsors look for a result.
 
Mar 10, 2009
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schadenfreude said:
Next time, Mr. Tan, I suggest you try not to take things so personally, and if/when you do, please save your critique of Sastre's view for an editorial.

Thanks.

Additionally, it seems as though CN and Tan have misunderstood the reason for the Cervelo Test Team. Unlike other teams, it is NOT solely a publicity vehicle for their sponsors but more like a factory team.
 
May 15, 2009
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There's no such thing as completely objective journalism. It's not like a journo/publication's opinions don't colour 'news stories' either.

OK so he's being a bit blatant with it but it's not difficult to determine between opinion and fact.
 
RhodriM said:
There's no such thing as completely objective journalism. It's not like a journo/publication's opinions don't colour 'news stories' either.

thanks for clearing that up.

RhodriM said:
OK so he's being a bit blatant with it but it's not difficult to determine between opinion and fact.

"a bit?"
lol.gif
 
Mar 3, 2009
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LugHugger said:
Unlike other teams, it is NOT solely a publicity vehicle for their sponsors but more like a factory team.

I'm keen on hearing your thoughts of the purpose of factory teams?

Just because it took Ford's factory team 25 years to win a World Rally Championship manufacturers title doesn't mean that wasn't the goal all along :)

I can understand people's differing positions on the editorial and as a result respect everyone's own opinions on the matter.

However, I find it difficult that anyone could believe Gerard Vroomen went out and paid big money to secure the reigning Tour de France champion and, according to Sastre, he's there to not win a 'boring race'? Hmm. Vroomen could have got Cadel for a lot less money if he only wanted a rider up there somewhere.

The team was built around a title tilt - they left out Gerrans with this in mind, their press releases up until he started losing time indicate that's what they're there for, before swapping focus to the green jersey race. Sure, Vroomen is getting great exposure as is, awesome feedback from top riders on his product and it's probably not costing him much more than what it did to be a bike sponsor...but make no mistake, nobody in any professional sport builds a team that's goal isn't winning (unless of course you've made a fortune in Ukraine steel mills and need to find a way to throw lots of it in a hole, ey Alex Schneider).

I must agree with Sastre's comments on his treatment by some of the media though. You'd expect the defending champion to command a certain respect he's probably not been granted. Perhaps had he won his title while riding against Contador the Spanish journalists would treat him differently? We may never know.

Cheers
Greg Johnson
 
Greg Johnson said:
I'm keen on hearing your thoughts of the purpose of factory teams?

Just because it took Ford's factory team 25 years to win a World Rally Championship manufacturers title doesn't mean that wasn't the goal all along :)


I can understand people's differing positions on the editorial and as a result respect everyone's own opinions on the matter.

However, I find it difficult that anyone could believe Gerard Vroomen went out and paid big money to secure the reigning Tour de France champion and, according to Sastre, he's there to not win a 'boring race'? Hmm. Vroomen could have got Cadel for a lot less money if he only wanted a rider up there somewhere.

The team was built around a title tilt - they left out Gerrans with this in mind, their press releases up until he started losing time indicate that's what they're there for, before swapping focus to the green jersey race. Sure, Vroomen is getting great exposure as is, awesome feedback from top riders on his product and it's probably not costing him much more than what it did to be a bike sponsor...but make no mistake, nobody in any professional sport builds a team that's goal isn't winning (unless of course you've made a fortune in Ukraine steel mills and need to find a way to throw lots of it in a hole, ey Alex Schneider).

I must agree with Sastre's comments on his treatment by some of the media though. You'd expect the defending champion to command a certain respect he's probably not been granted. Perhaps had he won his title while riding against Contador the Spanish journalists would treat him differently? We may never know.

Cheers
Greg Johnson

if it's an editorial, why is it in the news section?
 
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schadenfreude said:
if it's an editorial, why is it in the news section?

I said its editorial, not that it is an editorial. Tech, news, features, previews and editorials are all covered by the term editorial ;)

Cheers
Greg Johnson
 
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Greg Johnson said:
I'm keen on hearing your thoughts of the purpose of factory teams?

My thoughts are the same as anybody elses, they exist to provide manufacturers with rider technical input with the intention of delivering results in races. Simples, no? You state that Gerrans was left out with the intention of building a team to enable Sastre to win. How is that turning out? And I'm a Pom with no jingoistic interest here! As to Evans being available (was he?) at a lower cost - you pay peanuts.....

To state in the article that "If there was no race like the Tour de France, the media would not attend, nor would there be reason to create an outfit like the Cérvelo TestTeam." is to assume that the team was put together to win the Tour because GV signed the 2008 Tour winner. Try telling that to Hushovd and Haussler. I'm sure that they would have a different opinion.
 
Jul 21, 2009
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Interesting

Just a few observations:
- I don't think anybody here knows the salaries of Sastre and Evans, so I don't understand how people can make statements about them.
- I don't see any reason why we would have signed Evans (if available), I don't know the man. We weren't looking for a GC guy, and we certainly weren't the least bit interested in having the winner of the Tour on the team. We were however interested in having Carlos on the team, and he happened to be the Tour winner. But that had nothing to do with the decision.
- Carlos doesn't have to win the Tour for himself, not for us and not for anybody else. As we have stated from the start, the goal was to try and get Carlos as high in the GC as possible, and Thor as high in the points race as possible. It says "as high as possible", which means we expect the whole team to try their best. If at the end of the race, zero, one or ten riders are better, then what more can you ask for? Carlos has raced like that for 12 years, why would he approach it any different now that he is the defending champ.
- That goal has not changed since the start of the season, it has always been the same.
- As Bjarne said at the beginning of the Tour, he has the defending team and he intends to defend the Tour win. Works for us.
- I've commented on this before, how come cycling fans say on the one hand that race wins do not affect their buying decisions, yet they think that bike companies find it very important to win?
- What Carlos says is true, I have told the riders that winning is not important to me, not just before the Tour at the press conference, but I tell them that every time I see them. Because I honestly don't care if they win or not. I know that a lot of people won't believe me, that's fine, but that's how it is. Having the Tour-winning bike in 2008 didn't change my life, nor will having it again.
- In reality, you don't need wins, you need some exposure so people know your brand and products. After that, you need the product to work for the customer. Obviously winning may get you more exposure than not winning, but the delta is actually not that big when you look at the data, especially when compared to other sports where the smaller teams hardly get any exposure.
- The reality of cycling is that as long as you are invited to the dance (the Tour), you have the ability to get exposure. Of course even at the Tour, there are teams that don't get much exposure or that don't do much with it, but that's their fault. See how much exposure Skil Shimano has gotten in their target market, it's huge, despite a small budget.
- As for how our Tour is going, better than expected I think. Two stage wins, the green jersey for the moment, Carlos inching his way up the top-10, who would have expected all that? Especially after beating expectations in the Classics and in the Giro.
- I agree that the article about the press conference was a strange one, and I can't quite follow the explanation of a perceived "disconnect".
- The article seems to miss a few things that Carlos spoke about with regards to respect:
1) He wasn't allowed to start the prologue in yellow, which was strange.
2) The official Tour book for 2009 doesn't contain a single image of Carlos, also strange.
3) Journalists are only interested in Contador-Armstrong. But Carlos isn't complaining for himself, he is asking why Wiggins doesn't get more attention, or Tony Martin. And how would these journalists feel if all we ask them about is their peers' work, instead of their own?

Cheers,

Gerard.
 
Thanks for the thorough reply, and thanks for bringing up the last three points.

Michel Wuyts (or maybe it Jose de Cauwer) mentioned the first two during today's coverage on Sporza.

gerard@cervelo.com said:
- The article seems to miss a few things that Carlos spoke about with regards to respect:
1) He wasn't allowed to start the prologue in yellow, which was strange.
2) The official Tour book for 2009 doesn't contain a single image of Carlos, also strange.
3) Journalists are only interested in Contador-Armstrong. But Carlos isn't complaining for himself, he is asking why Wiggins doesn't get more attention, or Tony Martin. And how would these journalists feel if all we ask them about is their peers' work, instead of their own?

Cheers,

Gerard.
 
May 13, 2009
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gerard@cervelo.com said:
- The article seems to miss a few things that Carlos spoke about with regards to respect:
1) He wasn't allowed to start the prologue in yellow, which was strange.
2) The official Tour book for 2009 doesn't contain a single image of Carlos, also strange.
3) Journalists are only interested in Contador-Armstrong. But Carlos isn't complaining for himself, he is asking why Wiggins doesn't get more attention, or Tony Martin. And how would these journalists feel if all we ask them about is their peers' work, instead of their own?

Cheers,

Gerard.

As a fan of Carlos I am a little dissapointed about those three items, if you are the defending TDF champion, you deserve some respect. I hope he wins tomorrow or Mt. Ventoux's stage. Vamos Carlos.
 
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disparaging

Even the versus commentators seem to ignore him. On today's stage they didn't even know where he was in the race. Now on the other hand, Armstrong has his own jersey showing in the split-breakdown at the bottom of the screen. I cannot agree anymore, Sastre is not being shown the respect he deserves.
 
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I agree here with Mr Cervelo and Carlos.

1) what a disaster tour. The coverage, the "journalism" has been horrid. We had a man in yellow for 8 days whose team worked their buns off to hold on to the jersey, and got no mention by anyone. What arrogance! Sure he was not going to win in the end and their are lots of other stories out there but there has only been one the whole tour: LA vs AC. Please, bike racing is not just LA.
2) Could ASO have designed a more BORING tour than this one. Some great mountains, yes, but where is the drama? A 30 to 70 km descent after a mountain does not "respect" the climbers. LAs chase yesterday and his regaining contact with Schleck/AC was not about his great form, but rather Schleck turning off the gas when it became clear that there was no advantage to be gained (did Koden radio back to LA that Schleck had shut down and he could get back on?)--look at all the others who closed the gap, they just didn't have a dedicated camera to their efforts.

I really wish the journos would start to be a bit multi-dimensional, but then listening to Ruppert Guiness at the end of the stage talking (AC will use LA to cover his rivals if they attack--come on a 10-yr old would know better--that is like saying Hinault would cover for Lemond!!) , I guess there is little chance of that if he is representative of their capabilities.

Sastra has shown he is a class act on and off the bike, and I hope Cervelo continues to support him and his like, that is the true spirit of bike racing.

The digger
 
Jun 16, 2009
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Golddigger said:
Sastre has shown he is a class act on and off the bike, and I hope Cervelo continues to support him and his like, that is the true spirit of bike racing.

Agreed.
I wish we had more riders like him. And guess what? If i was in the market for a bike i would put Cervelo at the top of my list for the simple reason that they support a rider that i respect. If they have integrity in their business decisions it follows that they put the same integrity into their product.
 

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