Thor confirms BMC! Better for Cadel?

[skippy]

BMC a team of Champions ?

With the announcement of Thor joining the team BMC now have Ballan , Evans & Hushovd all World Road Champions for 2012 .

Who else can they afford or is there a "Salary Cap" for a "Pro Tour Team " ?

 

[ingsve]

With the announcement of Thor joining the team BMC now have Ballan , Evans & Hushovd all World Road Champions for 2012 .

Who else can they afford or is there a "Salary Cap" for a "Pro Tour Team " ?

Well, I already predicted that they would have the world champion of 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 on their team next year. So far so good.

 

[Oldman]

Husovd's move to BMC looks good for him. Does it do much more for Cadel?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

BMC is your typical american team

Big budget, buy whoever you want and don't give a **** about developing anything yourself.

 

[auscyclefan94]

That's why they have recruited guys like Roe, Eijssen, Phinney, Butler and barton + more. They also have a small development squad as well. They are also getting Blythe and TJVG some young talents for next year. But yeah they don't develop riders

 

[auscyclefan94]

Probably not. If anything it will cause tension in the team.

 

[hrotha]

Can't wait to hear Hushovd whine about BMC choosing to support Evans rather than him.

 

[ingsve]

Can't wait to hear Hushovd whine about BMC choosing to support Evans rather than him.

Ya, it will be interesting to see what they do with the Tour since one of the things they talked about after winning the Tour was that they had the whole team focused on helping Cadel rather than mixing it up with having a sprinter and things like that.

 

[Angliru]

That's why they have recruited guys like Roe, Eijssen, Phinney, Butler and barton + more. They also have a small development squad as well. They are also getting Blythe and TJVG some young talents for next year. But yeah they don't develop riders

For once I agree with you!

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I thought the amount of BMC talk was insufferable before. Now they're on the spend, it's going to get ridiculous.

 

[Havetts]

I thought the amount of BMC talk was insufferable before. Now they're on the spend, it's going to get ridiculous.

+1.

10charsetc.

 

[Midnite]

Interesting. If they sign Gilbert as well i would like to see how the two will work together, if that happens.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

Thor is an excellent rider and would make a quality addition to any team.

I don't think however that BMC can give him better support than Garmin. In the Tour, BMC will be much more focused on their GC ambitions than Garmin were. Thor could be their main sprinter, but really, he seems too smart to believe that winning mass sprints on flat finishes is a likely path to stage wins. There's no way that they would even consider having the whole team ride to protect a Yellow jersey for Thor for a week. That's something for teams with no ambition to actually win Yellow. In the cobbled classics, Thor will be the leader of a strong team, but he was also leader of a strong team this year.

This is without even considering the effects of Gilbert signing, and the potential conflicts of interest between him and Hushovd. Unless BMC are completely nuts, Thor would be a distant third on their list of priorities after Evans and Gilbert.

You would have to assume that the main motivation is money. That's not a criticism by the way, riders have short careers and Thor is getting on a bit. Making sure you retire wealthy is perfectly reasonable. But I really hope we don't hear him complain about a lack of support from his new team.

 

[goggalor]

Can't wait to hear Hushovd whine about BMC choosing to support Evans rather than him.

I doubt that will happen. Thor will do his own thing in the Tour: Go for semi-hard sprint finishes and breakaways on medium mountain stages. He doesn't need much help for that. Other than that I'm sure he's happy to help Evans try and win the Tour (he's awesome in a TTT, if they have one of those), as long as he gets the support he deserves in Paris-Roubaix.

 

[El Pistolero]

Can't wait to hear Hushovd whine about BMC choosing to support Evans rather than him.

That's not really fair, they had a strong team in the spring classics and Cadel wasn't there. No way will Cadel interfere with his team support. He doesn't need much of a team at the Tour anyway(Thor) which is probably the second most important thing to him.

 

[El Pistolero]

Interesting. If they sign Gilbert as well i would like to see how the two will work together, if that happens.

It's an urban myth that Gilbert only likes to work for him self. He has done quite a lot of work already for Greipel and Greipel has his biggest career win because of Phil and Vanendert(Although Phil was working for him self there, but there's a thing called mutual interests.)

 

[Nielsa]

As far as race targets go, I think Gilbert and Hushovd only overlap in MSR and RVV. Yeah, okay, that's two major races. But they're training buddies over in Monaco so I don't see any friction happening there.

I didn't see any friction between Hushovd and Farrar either, (just with Vaughters, really) or for that matter Hushovd and Sastre in CTT.

 

[kuoirad]

Poor George come P-R.

 

[hughmoore]

I like Thor and Phil, but I would rather see everyone working for Cadel in the Tour. He is going to need it to defend.

If the rumours about Hilly Tour are correct this coming year, should be interesting.


Hugh

 

[Eric8-A]

If Thor will still be taking part in bunch sprints, it's going to be something to see Big George lead him out.

 

[maltiv]

I don't get it, he says he left garmin because he didn't want to be a domestique but he never was? Except in flat sprints which he cannot win anyway...At p-r he was their one and only leader. In the other classics he was co leader, which is exactly the same situation he will be in at BMC! No, I think this is about the money, sadly.

 

[cromagnon]

Can't wait to hear Hushovd whine about BMC choosing to support Evans rather than him.

I can't see that, Thor is a team player and knows what he is and is not capable of (which is a nice way of saying he's not fast enough for green he's a rider with a good chance of winning classics and breakaway stages in gt's). Just my 2p but he seems to get more resilient with less raw speed every season.

 

[swuzzlebubble]

I doubt that will happen. Thor will do his own thing in the Tour: Go for semi-hard sprint finishes and breakaways on medium mountain stages. He doesn't need much help for that. Other than that I'm sure he's happy to help Evans try and win the Tour (he's awesome in a TTT, if they have one of those), as long as he gets the support he deserves in Paris-Roubaix.

Cadel might have an interest in some of those too?

 

[Eric8-A]

I don't get it, he says he left garmin because he didn't want to be a domestique but he never was? Except in flat sprints which he cannot win anyway...At p-r he was their one and only leader. In the other classics he was co leader, which is exactly the same situation he will be in at BMC! No, I think this is about the money, sadly.

He's just butthurt that while he was the leader going into Roubaix, his teammate who was suppossed to ride in support of him won.

 

[cyclopeon]

BMC hedging their bets

Good move by BMC. They'll need all their options open for TdeF 2012 when Cadel fades and fails to defend well. He's a one shot winner. I'm not detracting from his win, but that's it for him in the Tour IMO.