Its interesting that Specialized is in trouble trying to hold onto sponsorship of big riders now that the Schlecks are with Trek and Contador is in trouble. For my money, Specialized will indeed sponsor HTC, Cancellara will go to HTC with Specialized and Rogers will got with Scott to Pegasus (for all the good it will do them! Still, he is well known in Australia and may be a good teacher for the young guns).
I'm also willing to speculate that UCI is preparing to kick Astana out of the peloton and the delay in their application has been engineered to allow the riders legally out of their contracts now that Contador's positive is known. I think Davis will go to Pegasus and they will also try to pick up Kreuziger and/or Kiserlovski. (I love a good conspiracy theory!)
Not content to stop there with my wild theories: I am also waiting for some technical requirement type bombshell which will drop Radioshack out of the peloton so that the riders and sponsorship can move to Luxemborg with Trek. I think the UCI will find a irresolvable problem wth some aspect of their paperwork which will let them drop out and go quiet for a few years til the heat is off and they can start over with a clean sheet. (a la Phonak to BMC).
Have you noticed how quiet the transfer market is for Radioshack and how their U23 squad are jumping ship to different teams. Armstrong, Bruyneel and any association with them is really sponsorship poison now. Imagine Bruyneel coming out to support Contador. Talk about the kiss of death. UCI/WADA are talking about testing other riders in 2010 TDf for plasticisers, what if they test in 2009 when then Astana, (now Radioshack) had three in the top ten. (I'm not commenting on possible doping, just on the risk management equation that sponsors must be doing.
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PS. Since I'm new here, I will declare right up that I think most of you guys underrate Cadel to your peril - next year at the TDF, no blood doping (?) lets see what happens! Now you know which kind of crazy category I slot into.
I'm also willing to speculate that UCI is preparing to kick Astana out of the peloton and the delay in their application has been engineered to allow the riders legally out of their contracts now that Contador's positive is known. I think Davis will go to Pegasus and they will also try to pick up Kreuziger and/or Kiserlovski. (I love a good conspiracy theory!)
Not content to stop there with my wild theories: I am also waiting for some technical requirement type bombshell which will drop Radioshack out of the peloton so that the riders and sponsorship can move to Luxemborg with Trek. I think the UCI will find a irresolvable problem wth some aspect of their paperwork which will let them drop out and go quiet for a few years til the heat is off and they can start over with a clean sheet. (a la Phonak to BMC).
Have you noticed how quiet the transfer market is for Radioshack and how their U23 squad are jumping ship to different teams. Armstrong, Bruyneel and any association with them is really sponsorship poison now. Imagine Bruyneel coming out to support Contador. Talk about the kiss of death. UCI/WADA are talking about testing other riders in 2010 TDf for plasticisers, what if they test in 2009 when then Astana, (now Radioshack) had three in the top ten. (I'm not commenting on possible doping, just on the risk management equation that sponsors must be doing.
)PS. Since I'm new here, I will declare right up that I think most of you guys underrate Cadel to your peril - next year at the TDF, no blood doping (?) lets see what happens! Now you know which kind of crazy category I slot into.
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