Thor confirms BMC! Better for Cadel?

[Zinoviev Letter]

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.

I doubt if he really resents that. Every team leader understands that when a good domestique covers a break for you, there's a chance that the break will stay away and the domestique will win.

BMC seem to have a substantially bigger budget than Garmin. My guess is that they simply offered him more money and a comparable level of support in his target races.

 

[dlwssonic]

BMC is your typical american team

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

LOL BMC spend lots of money on developing riders and they maybe do too much of that. They have many young talented riders who are in the midst of developing.

 

[LukeSchmid]

A thread for this, what a waste. There is too many BMC threads, and I am a BMC fan.

 

[Parrulo]

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

+10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

Hopefully the BMC fail train continues tho (-Evans of course).

 

[hughmoore]

Hopefully the BMC fail train continues tho (-Evans of course).

BMC could possibly win everything next year just to spite you Timmy.

Rumour has it, GreenEdge is going to sign contract to ride BMC bikes also.


Sweet



Hugh

 

[dlwssonic]

Hopefully the BMC fail train continues tho (-Evans of course).

What fail train to start with?

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

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.

But was it a good move by Thor?

Honestly I was very surprised by this signing from any angle you want to consider. If I'm Cadel and BMC, I'd want a Tour team that can best support Cadel. That means Thor could possibly be left off the Tour team, and so it becomes a bad move for Thor if he really want to participate in the Tour. But on the other hand, will BMC really exclude Thor? If they put Thor on the Tour team then Cadel will not get all the support he needs, and so then the signing of Thor is bad for Cadel.

If BMC, Thor, and Cadel can work together maybe selecting Thor for the Tour will work out like you suggest. But I just see too many irons on the fire and not enough focus on one objective.

I agree with Deker_Tifosi that BMC don't do enough developing and try to buy the best available talent and hope it works.

Well, one thing's for certain. BMC no longer has a cookie-cutter plan or blueprint for the Tour. They may have just put a hand grenade under the team and are about to blow it to pieces. It may not come to that, but it is going to be interesting watching BMC's race programme for Thor and Cadel to see how they try to work this all out.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

A thread for this, what a waste. There is too many BMC threads, and I am a BMC fan.

Welllll, whadaya expect when BMC signs someone like Thor? Not talk about it? But really, the OP is more about who Thor signed with and it just happens to be BMC. And that means complexities for BMC... hence all the talk about what is BMC going to do now to make this signing work for everyone.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

Hopefully the BMC fail train continues tho (-Evans of course).

What fail train to start with?

The BMC train has yet to be derailed.

 

[movingtarget]

I think it could work. Evans is supposed to be friends with Thor and they will be targeting different races. At the Tour Thor will do his own thing. Gilbert would be a more disruptive move for Evans. Maybe not in the classics but definitely in the Tour where he will be interested in stage wins and the green jersey. It worked for Evans this year because no other riders in the team had any ambitions and were fully behind Evans. Hushovd is also the sort of versatile rider that Evans can use when he needs him. Obviously they won't want Hushovd chasing the yellow jersey next year but he could end up with it anyway. Stage wins will be his priority.

 

[dlwssonic]

I think it could work. Evans is supposed to be friends with Thor and they will be targeting different races. At the Tour Thor will do his own thing. Gilbert would be a more disruptive move for Evans. Maybe not in the classics but definitely in the Tour where he will be interested in stage wins and the green jersey. It worked for Evans this year because no other riders in the team had any ambitions and were fully behind Evans. Hushovd is also the sort of versatile rider that Evans can use when he needs him. Obviously they won't want Hushovd chasing the yellow jersey next year but he could end up with it anyway. Stage wins will be his priority.

Gilbert wouldnt be riding the tour so evans wouldnt have much trouble.

 

[just some guy]

BMC could possibly win everything next year just to spite you Timmy.

Rumour has it, GreenEdge is going to sign contract to ride BMC bikes also.


Sweet



Hugh

I´m sure Scott will be happy with that since they signed on already

 

[just some guy]

I said somewhere else Thor has said he did not like JV style of DS were we have 3 guys who could win we work it out on the road.

Thor wanted a plan a,b,c,d,e, etc yes things change but there was no plan, BMC seem to plan and be organised and I think thor wants that, plus the cash of course.

ps I think Ballan will not ride for BMC next year so Thor replaces Ballan

 

[hfer07]

Can Hushov be a benefit for Cadel? not much- but it won't hurt having him either, since both have their own goals not crossing paths - Thor is 33 and his mind is set on winning P-R at least once, before he begins to decline-Cadel? he'll be fine for the Ardenness & the team will be at his disposal to go for his second TDF bid-even with Hushov in it-he won't need major assistance to get a stage win & perhaps-a good advantage for Cadel if Thor goes in an early breakaway to set him up for a late attack
Bottom line: both will be fine

 

[swuzzlebubble]

More exposure for BMC.
They pays the bills.

 

[lagartija]

Thor is not a team player...he has in the past often been critical of his teammates , it goes way back to ogrady at credite a , i dont necessarily dislike him but it seems thor is all about thor. it was not JV fault he didnt win at PR he had all the team support anyone could want he simply failed , he needs to learn about taking personal responsibility when he cant pull of a win instead of blaming anyone for lacking in laying out a plan. oh and by the way not a huge JV fan either , pretty neutral actually

 

[hfer07]

Thor is not a team player...he has in the past often been critical of his teammates , it goes way back to ogrady at credite a , i dont necessarily dislike him but it seems thor is all about thor. it was not JV fault he didnt win at PR he had all the team support anyone could want he simply failed , he needs to learn about taking personal responsibility when he cant pull of a win instead of blaming anyone for lacking in laying out a plan. oh and by the way not a huge JV fan either , pretty neutral actually

you brought a good point there: Looking back at the Cervelo test team in its last year- Thor made some "uncalled for" comments on Sastre during the 2010 Tour-in which he felt the team "wasted" energy" supporting the Spaniard while he was "unprotected" and his chances to get again the Green jersey had been diminished by the DS approach.....
Fast forward to Garmin--it was evident from the beginning that it wasn't going to work, when at the very first month of signing the contract-they both had this "misunderstanding" of the length of it-JV saying it was 2 years & then Thor claiming afterwards that it was only one....then we have the sort of "cool & laid back environment" which I believe Thor wasn't too keen to be part of....... So getting to the point- he seems to be very specific in protecting his goals & making sure the team he's part of understand his requests & pledge to support him when he calls for it. It can be looked as a very selfish behavior, which it may appear to be, but the fact that he always gets that amazing result afterwards, seems to be worthy in the long term.....

 

[the asian]

If Thor doesn't have any green jersey ambitions at next year's tour, shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[Eric8-A]

you brought a good point there: Looking back at the Cervelo test team in its last year- Thor made some "uncalled for" comments on Sastre during the 2010 Tour-in which he felt the team "wasted" energy" supporting the Spaniard while he was "unprotected" and his chances to get again the Green jersey had been diminished by the DS approach.....
Fast forward to Garmin--it was evident from the beginning that it wasn't going to work, when at the very first month of signing the contract-they both had this "misunderstanding" of the length of it-JV saying it was 2 years & then Thor claiming afterwards that it was only one....then we have the sort of "cool & laid back environment" which I believe Thor wasn't too keen to be part of....... So getting to the point- he seems to be very specific in protecting his goals & making sure the team he's part of understand his requests & pledge to support him when he calls for it. It can be looked as a very selfish behavior, which it may appear to be, but the fact that he always gets that amazing result afterwards, seems to be worthy in the long term.....

This brings back what someone previously said that Thor will be whining when everybody works for Cadel at the Tour.

 

[42x16ss]

At least BMC will have a rider capable of actually winning something other than Evans. I can also see him being brought in to provide some classics leadership/mentoring post Hincapie.

 

[movingtarget]

Gilbert wouldnt be riding the tour so evans wouldnt have much trouble.

Why not ? Gilbert rode this year and I am sure he would expect to ride next year. It would be strange to have one of the world's best rider's sitting out the Tour. I don't think they would stop Gilbert riding just because he isn't a domestique. They would probably tell him not to expect support but go for stage wins when he can. The other seven would ride for Evans. I could not see both Hushovd and Gilbert at BMC.

 

[Fus087]

Poor George come P-R.

Maybe he can do a Vansummeren...

 

[Astana1]

BMC is your typical american team

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

I hate BMC. But you sound like a total ***** when you ***** like this.

 

[Astana1]

This is a good move for Thor. Ballan is always suspended. George is too old and doesn't have the top end speed.

I think this is a distraction for Cadel. I hope moans about it.