1st August is the official date for announcing changes to line-ups etc, but already some journos are talking as though deals have been done.
Cavendish is a good example: his contract with HTC Highroad ends at the end of this year, and the cycling press is full of rumours that he's going to a UK outfit.
Cav in Farnese? Naaa, I can't see it.
What? Farnese are not a UK Team? Oh yes they are! They are UK based. (It must be for tax reasons, as they certainly don't live or train here, but I assure you, they are UK based. Well, perhaps UK registered would be better.)
Oh, do you think they meant Sky? (*laughs*) Well, that does sound a bit more likely.
Sky are firmly saying "We're saying nuffing until 1st August which is when we are allowed to talk about it."
But the press are still printing articles: there's one in the Daily Mail (not necessarily a newspaper to be taken seriously) headlining with "Mark Cavendish in shock move to join Bradley Wiggins at Team Sky." Well, it's not actually confirmed yet, guys. Besides, Cav and Wiggo didn't get along that well when Wiggins was also in HTC, and I am certain that Cav would insist on having a team built around him in the same way that HTC currently do: after all, you don't hire the fastest sprinter currently available, then not build a team around him. That would be silly.
Astana are looking for a merger, it seems: they have expressed an interest in Liquigas (apparently they have some spare gas in Kazakhstan and are trying to do a deal) but are more keen in merging with SaxoBank Sunguard. This would bring Contador back to them: but it would make their UCI initials ASS.
I like how they called it a "shock" move... I think nobody will be shocked, or even surprised, if Cavendish really does end up at Sky.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd be a bit surprised, what with the Cav-Wiggo friction, and I do think that Cav would expect a full support team.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if a team can realistically turn out one sprinter-team plus one gc-team without them coming into conflict at some point.
But if Cav is going to leave HTC (and there was all that highly-publicised huffing and puffing earlier this year) then I can't see him going to a non-UK team. Although, having said that, he lives in Italy and apparently speaks Italian well, so maybe he'll go to - (pauses to think of suitable Italian team) er, Farnese??? That would be amusing!
Coug