Transfers and Rumours 2011 > 2012

[Anonymous]

The current contract situation at sky (as far as we know).
Not sure about Flecha

Rider Expires Details
Kurt Asle Arvesen 2011 Retired
John-Lee Augustyn 2011
Michael Barry 2011
Kjell Carlström 2011
Steve Cummings 2011 Leaves Team for BMC
Russell Downing 2011
Simon Gerrans 2011 Leaves Team for Greenedge
Greg Henderson 2011 Leaves Team for Lotto Ridley
Jeremy Hunt 2011 Believed to have only signed a one year deal
Serge Pauwels 2011 Leaves Team for Omega Quickstep
Christian Knees 2011
Morris Possoni 2011
Peter Kennaugh 2011
Dario Cioni 2011
Juan Antonio Flecha ????
Davide Appollonio 2012
Edvald Boasson Hagen 2012
Alex Dowsett 2012
Thomas Löfkvist 2012 Renewed September 2011
Lars Petter Nordhaug 2012 Renewed October 2011**
Michael Rogers 2012
Rigoberto Urán 2012
Xabier Zandio 2012
Mathew Hayman 2013 Renewed October 2011
Chris Sutton 2013 Renewed October 2011
Ben Swift 2013 Renewed July 2011
Bradley Wiggins 2013
Sergio Henao 2013
Ian Stannard 2013
Luke Rowe 2013
Salvatore Puccio 2013
Richie Porte 2013 Believed to be a two year deal
Danny Pate 2013
Chris Froome 2014 Renewed September 2011
Geraint Thomas 2014 Renewed July 2011
Kanstantsin Sivtsov 2015 Understood to have signed a four year contract

** nordhaug not yet renewed but expected to sign.

Note: This is based on our information. If you have contrary information please let me know.

edit: updated

 

[Catwhoorg]

22 + Lars Petter

25 if you include Stannard and Flecha (I don't see either of these moving teams)

27 Assuming Cav + Eisel


Leaves 6 riders (+any other possibles from other teams) whose contracts are expiring fighting for 3 spots.

I REALLY hope Russ Downing gets an extension, but the odds are not in his favour.

 

[sublimit]

What about Hunt? Brailsford must like him because of the last couple of Worlds selections. I think he might get another year.

 

[hatcher]

Possoni seems to be staying.

Heard mention of Jack Bauer, Ian Bibby (not sure I can see either), someone suggested Hayden Roulston a few pages ago, and he would make sense. Hunt could certainly get another year. I'd be surprised if Barry leaves, but that seems to be taken as fact (did I miss a story/interview?).

 

[Anonymous]

Possoni seems to be staying.
25 if you include Stannard and Flecha (I don't see either of these moving teams)

27 Assuming Cav + Eisel

Theres a lot of discussion over wether Flecha and Stannard signed for 2 or 3 years. We think its Stan 2 and Flecha 3 but not sure. Sure both will be renewed anyway, along with Kennaugh who will not be a neo pro anymore.

Possoni, a couple of signing riders have said they have ridden with Possoni in the past and he has said good things about the team. not sure if that means he is staying or not.

 

[ISDfan]

Theres a lot of discussion over wether Flecha and Stannard signed for 2 or 3 years. We think its Stan 2 and Flecha 3 but not sure. Sure both will be renewed anyway, along with Kennaugh who will not be a neo pro anymore.

Possoni, a couple of signing riders have said they have ridden with Possoni in the past and he has said good things about the team. not sure if that means he is staying or not.

Stannard signed 3 years contract with SKY after he leaves ISD .

 

[Anonymous]

Stannard signed 3 years contract with SKY after he leaves ISD .

thank you...

edit: apparently only two years but has likely renewed

 

[hatcher]

Puccio said he was looking forward to riding with Cioni and Possoni. Obviously that's not a guarantee or anything, but Sky putting that quote in the press release is interesting nonetheless.

If Possoni and Cioni stay, that may even be the complete squad (with Eisel and Cav).

Purely guesswork here:
Out: Arversen, Augustyn, Carlstrom, Cummings, Downing, Gerrans, Henderson, Pauwels,
In: Puccio, Rowe, Henao, Porte, Sivtsov, Pate, Eisel, Cav.

Barry, Cioni, Hunt, Possoni are the wildcards.

 

[Fus087]

sucks to see solid riders getting pushed aside as they do their job and don´t get the chance to get points

If only he'd won Paris-Tours...
Maybe he has another go on Sunday.

 

[just some guy]

If only he'd won Paris-Tours...
Maybe he has another go on Sunday.

I could not remember which race it was. I just remember yelling at the screen, man a year goes fast.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

Puccio said he was looking forward to riding with Cioni and Possoni. Obviously that's not a guarantee or anything, but Sky putting that quote in the press release is interesting nonetheless.

If Possoni and Cioni stay, that may even be the complete squad (with Eisel and Cav).

Purely guesswork here:
Out: Arversen, Augustyn, Carlstrom, Cummings, Downing, Gerrans, Henderson, Pauwels,
In: Puccio, Rowe, Henao, Porte, Sivtsov, Pate, Eisel, Cav.

Barry, Cioni, Hunt, Possoni are the wildcards.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Barry and Possoni leave. Both have been implicated in drugs investigations and neither has had a decent year. Cioni, I don't know, what does he bring apart from being Italian? But then again there are other Italian cyclists apparently.

 

[maltiv]

Sutton and Hayman extend with Sky until 2013

http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,17553_7229029,00.html

Kinda expected that, I wondered why Sutton suddenly always was preferred over Henderson in the sprints. Anyway Sutton has improved a lot since he joined Sky so it makes sense that he stays. I thought GreenEdge would snap Hayman though but luckily they did not.

 

[Nielsa]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Barry and Possoni leave. Both have been implicated in drugs investigations and neither has had a decent year.

Possoni did some great work for Wiggins in the Vuelta. Not a guy you rely on for results.

 

[maltiv]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Barry and Possoni leave. Both have been implicated in drugs investigations and neither has had a decent year. Cioni, I don't know, what does he bring apart from being Italian? But then again there are other Italian cyclists apparently.

Cioni has been a pretty decent domestique and also did well at Tour of Denmark where he was 5th overall or so. I also heard that he sometimes functions as a road captain.

I think Barry has had a pretty good year, he was probably one of the strongest in the race in Eneco tour where his monster pull to bring down Gilbert's gap possibly saved EBH's jersey, and he was also really strong in Canada. Neither of those are expected to get personal results though so you have to look at how they perform as domestiques...

 

[Anonymous]

A couple of changes to the sky contract list and we have added links confirming contract lengths.

http://www.teamskyfans.com/contracts.html

 

[Parrulo]

I don't know how the U23 spanish calendar unfolds. But the thruth is in Portugal the chances for him to develop aren't the best. The racing doesn't offer great opportunities for someone with his abilities. If your a sprinter (specially one that can get over hills) you're good. If you want to challenge your climbing, you're doomed. (If this is true as an elite, it is much more valid as an espoir). I was also very surprised with his Paris-Roubaix result. Would love to see more of him on that type of terrain.

good to see him moving to the spanish u23 circuit. he looks like a very big talent.

 

[Captain_Cavman]

Possoni did some great work for Wiggins in the Vuelta. Not a guy you rely on for results.

Cioni has been a pretty decent domestique and also did well at Tour of Denmark where he was 5th overall or so. I also heard that he sometimes functions as a road captain.

I think Barry has had a pretty good year, he was probably one of the strongest in the race in Eneco tour where his monster pull to bring down Gilbert's gap possibly saved EBH's jersey, and he was also really strong in Canada. Neither of those are expected to get personal results though so you have to look at how they perform as domestiques...

I wasn't really going by results but by whether they were called up for the big races and whether they did anything noticeable at them. I must have missed Possoni's great work for Wiggins, and I'll grant Barry's effort on one stage in the Eneco, but it's not a lot of evidence that these guys are indispensable, is it? Especially when you've got a glut of quality riders from HTC, Radioshack and Leopard desperate for a team for next year.

 

[Nielsa]

Sure - but you still need low-paid domestiques to do hard work in various low-prestige 1.1 and 2.1/HC races. Also, not everyone will be able to motivate themselves to work for Appollonio in the Giro, or pulling Peter Kennaugh up a hill in Poland so he gets WT points for 6th overall or something. Etc.

Kind of like how Alex Ferguson kept Brown and O'Shea around for all those years. Hard to find good players that would be happy with being 2nd or 3rd choice.

 

[ingsve]

Well, Possoni is not just a domestique. He often gets leadership roles in 2.1 or 2.HC races when the other leaders aren't there and he has gotten some nice GC results out of it like 8th and 7th in Tour of Austria, 2nd and 6th in Brixia Tour and 5th in Vuelta a Burgos.

Carlström would be more of a pure domestique.

 

[rzombie1988]

Would anyone take a shot on getting Kim Kirchen back into cycling?

 

[ingsve]

Would anyone take a shot on getting Kim Kirchen back into cycling?

No. Not as long as "taking a shot" means gambling with his life.

 

[greenedge]

Happy that Kroon has found a place at SBS because he would have been kicked out of BMCs' classics team.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Happy that Kroon has found a place at SBS because he would have been kicked out of BMCs' classics team.

I think any ardennes team would be more than happy to have Kroon in their team. Quality hilly classics rider. Definetly wasn't kicked out.

 

[Christian]

Would anyone take a shot on getting Kim Kirchen back into cycling?

He doesn't want to get back into cycling as long as he doesn't know exactly what caused his heart failure. It's been much over a year since the incident and nothing has been announced which IMO means either they'll never find out or they did but it's not something you can make public.

Sadly his career is over ... hasn't touched a bike in a long time and has gained quite a bit of weight. I can see him become a DS one day though but not for a while because he has his little kids.

In other news:

Brice Feillu close to Saur Sojasun?

http://www.ffc.fr/a_encart_centraux/ACTU_Depeches_LA_FRANCE_CYCLISTE.asp?actu_id=1340

This is the site that was the first to announce the Brajkovic-Astana deal so there might be something to it. In any case it would be much better for Brice, he would finally get to ride the Tour again.

 

[18-Valve. (pithy)]

In other news:

Brice Feillu close to Saur Sojasun?

http://www.ffc.fr/a_encart_centraux/ACTU_Depeches_LA_FRANCE_CYCLISTE.asp?actu_id=1340

This is the site that was the first to announce the Brajkovic-Astana deal so there might be something to it. In any case it would be much better for Brice, he would finally get to ride the Tour again.

Not really, Saur is by no means a certainty for next year's Tour.