Sky finally announce
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Sky finally announce
...that they have signed Mark Cavendish.
And Bernie Eisel too. It's a pretty interesting looking squad, to say the least.
And Bernie Eisel too. It's a pretty interesting looking squad, to say the least.
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BMC's situation makes sense to me. All of their big name riders cover different niches. For any given day of the racing season, it's obvious which of them has the best shot at winning going into it.
Sky's situation does not make sense to me. Are Wiggins, Froome, and Cav all going to ride the same GTs? Will Cav ever win without constant shelter for the first 99% of every stage? Does Wiggins work for Froome, or vice versa? Are they going to have to *****foot around the issue, BOTH of them losing time every race until one of the two has bad luck, then work for the other one? If so, how many MORE Grand Tours will that tactic lose them? Does either of them work for Cav before they pick their single GT contender? Can Cav win with a leadout train missing two strong men?
It almost seems like they're hiring people because they're British, and they're good riders, not because they would be a good addition to the team.
Sky's situation does not make sense to me. Are Wiggins, Froome, and Cav all going to ride the same GTs? Will Cav ever win without constant shelter for the first 99% of every stage? Does Wiggins work for Froome, or vice versa? Are they going to have to *****foot around the issue, BOTH of them losing time every race until one of the two has bad luck, then work for the other one? If so, how many MORE Grand Tours will that tactic lose them? Does either of them work for Cav before they pick their single GT contender? Can Cav win with a leadout train missing two strong men?
It almost seems like they're hiring people because they're British, and they're good riders, not because they would be a good addition to the team.
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BMC's situation makes sense to me. All of their big name riders cover different niches. For any given day of the racing season, it's obvious which of them has the best shot at winning going into it.
Sky's situation does not make sense to me. Are Wiggins, Froome, and Cav all going to ride the same GTs? Will Cav ever win without constant shelter for the first 99% of every stage? Does Wiggins work for Froome, or vice versa? Are they going to have to *****foot around the issue, BOTH of them losing time every race until one of the two has bad luck, then work for the other one? If so, how many MORE Grand Tours will that tactic lose them? Does either of them work for Cav before they pick their single GT contender? Can Cav win with a leadout train missing two strong men?
It almost seems like they're hiring people because they're British, and they're good riders, not because they would be a good addition to the team.
Sky's situation does not make sense to me. Are Wiggins, Froome, and Cav all going to ride the same GTs? Will Cav ever win without constant shelter for the first 99% of every stage? Does Wiggins work for Froome, or vice versa? Are they going to have to *****foot around the issue, BOTH of them losing time every race until one of the two has bad luck, then work for the other one? If so, how many MORE Grand Tours will that tactic lose them? Does either of them work for Cav before they pick their single GT contender? Can Cav win with a leadout train missing two strong men?
It almost seems like they're hiring people because they're British, and they're good riders, not because they would be a good addition to the team.
I think they should support the best rider, Cav. He's the proven winner. Why sacrifice everything to support riders that haven't demonstrated that they are significant threats to win (like Contador, Schleck, Evans)? But who knows when egos get involved.
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BMC's situation makes sense to me. All of their big name riders cover different niches. For any given day of the racing season, it's obvious which of them has the best shot at winning going into it.
Sky's situation does not make sense to me. Are Wiggins, Froome, and Cav all going to ride the same GTs? Will Cav ever win without constant shelter for the first 99% of every stage? Does Wiggins work for Froome, or vice versa? Are they going to have to *****foot around the issue, BOTH of them losing time every race until one of the two has bad luck, then work for the other one? If so, how many MORE Grand Tours will that tactic lose them? Does either of them work for Cav before they pick their single GT contender? Can Cav win with a leadout train missing two strong men?
It almost seems like they're hiring people because they're British, and they're good riders, not because they would be a good addition to the team.
Sky's situation does not make sense to me. Are Wiggins, Froome, and Cav all going to ride the same GTs? Will Cav ever win without constant shelter for the first 99% of every stage? Does Wiggins work for Froome, or vice versa? Are they going to have to *****foot around the issue, BOTH of them losing time every race until one of the two has bad luck, then work for the other one? If so, how many MORE Grand Tours will that tactic lose them? Does either of them work for Cav before they pick their single GT contender? Can Cav win with a leadout train missing two strong men?
It almost seems like they're hiring people because they're British, and they're good riders, not because they would be a good addition to the team.
I agree the task of selecting a team for the TdF will be interesting. But I don't think the Froome/Wiggins conflict or Cav lead-out train are the biggest problems. For Cav, they have Eisel, Thomas, probably Stannard, maybe Richie Porte who are all very strong men in a finish. Wiggins and Froome can to an extent look after one another in the hills without screwing one another's chances. If Froome continues to TT like he did in the Vuelta it may even make sense to just ride as a pair in the mountains against the other teams and let it be every man for himself in the TTs to see who wins. No, for me the biggest problem is Boasson- Hagen. He's super-talented, approaching his best years and it isn't clear what his role might be. He really ought to be going to a smaller team that he can lead, in my view.
Of course, they might have in mind a different strategy entirely. They have a big strong squad, if they wanted to target the classics with EBH and the Giro with Froome, that would be an option. Remains to be seen if Froome maintains his much-improved form, though.
#7
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^Not so much to get away from Cav, but his main job at HTC was to chase down breaks on the sprint stages, so he was kinda limited there.
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