British Pro Team Announced

[mr-marty-martin]

yeh it would sound better if it was team gb, or summin along those lines... but of course it wil be full of sky...

they should get another youth or junior development squad up and running...

 

[Skip Madness]

So the Amgen Tour of California is ok then?
ffs

I do not know much about Amgen - care to educate me? A quick google search pulled up some things about an uncompetitive and potentially dangerous pricing policy which they seem to have curtailed to some extent, and some inter-corporate feuding with Roche about the effectiveness of Peg-EPO versus EPO. I would appreciate any other information you know of.

Anyway, there are lots of nasty sponsors associated with the sport (and the case can be made that Sky would actually come a fair way down the list). It is about where each individual draws the line. A young rider could well be advised to join the Sky team if it boosts their profile to the point where they can speak out about the ethics of sponsorship from a platform they would not have previously had, just as one could argue in favour of riding the Tour of California for the same reason. For me the highly personifiable nature of a team-name sponsorship would be too degrading, I think.

I am sure Mr Brailsford is very, very grateful for your support.

I am convinced that this sentence actually means something. Damned if I can work out what, though.

 

[Cathryn]

So what...British Cycling should wait for 'ethical' companies to sponsor them? Come on, be realistic. Ethical companies probably wouldn't invest in cycling with its appalling reputation for drug taking!!!! Ethical companies also tend to spend their money a damn sight more wisely than sponsoring sport in any case...and unfortunately they tend to make less profit in the first place!!

 

[mondobongo]

No we are not waiting for an ethical company but questioning the involvement of Sky. Its fairly obvious that they are jumping on the bandwagon of recent successes.

Its almost an attempt at buy a win. They want to come straight in and get a wild card entry for the Tour, how conceited is that? Other Teams work damned hard over a period of time to build a reputation win races and subsequently get a wild card invite. Oh what a surprise Team Sky want straight in at the Blue Riband Event. Would have been nice to have seen some money spent by Sky on the Premier Calendar and lower levels were races are being cancelled because of lack of funding they would have not looked so mercenary.

We dont have a possible Tour winner in the next 5 years because if we did they would already be starting to make a showing a la, Gesink, Andy Schleck for starters.

Road racing is totally different to track racing and success in one discipline does not guarantee success in an other, were is the infra structure for the Road Race team coming from Max Sciandri was a good Pro but is he DS material? Are we going to try and get Yatesy from Astana?

Throwing money at the game has made a right mess of football I for one would be appalled to see the same thing happen to Cycling. Like Skip Madness I will have trouble supporting this team.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking Cav and others will sign up just because you offer big bucks. Cav especially wants to win and win big he will ride for whatever Team offers the best opportunity to do this and that may well be someone other than Team Sky.

Lastly don't fall into the trap of thinking they are not after the rights if they are putting a lot of dough into Cycling they will want to show Cycling.
Eurosport come cheap in most packages Sky Sports does not don't fall for the hype people.

 

[Cathryn]

I agree with everything you say there, but I still think loads of cash going into cycling is a good thing.

 

[John the Monkey]

I do not know much about Amgen - care to educate me?

One of San Diego's papers wrote an article called "Amgen, cycling tour make an odd couple".

“It certainly seems ironic,” says Victor Conte, the mastermind behind the BALCO doping scandal, “that Amgen makes the blood-doping drug that almost destroyed professional cycling.”



Conte included synthetic EPO in the doping program for his stable of athletes, none of whom were cyclists. But he learned of the drug's powerful effect on athletic performance from cycling, where it has been the scourge of anti-doping authorities for two decades.

(More on the BALCO scandal here (from USA Today))

 

[mangaman]

Is English football in such a mess??

We seem to have the most successful league in the world since Sky starting pumping money in, and football is more popular than I can remember (having been a fan of a non-premier league club for 35 years)

Why should they start sponsoring small, ie Premier Calendar events, and not aim to be the best team around

No other new sponsor comes in with their budget and aims small - remember they are talking about £10 million.

Just a quick search shows CSC, for example, had a budget of $9.52 million US dollars in 2007

 

[John the Monkey]

Sky are already involved with British Cycling, remember - as a principle partner, the deal announced last July stated that;

Every level of the sport is set to benefit from the investment, from the Elite Team of World, Olympic and Paralympic cyclists to British Cycling’s talent development programmes and grass-roots initiatives in schools and local communities. The partnership will cover all forms of the competitive sport from BMX to track cycling and road racing, with the aim of bringing on the elite teams and accelerating the development of emerging talent.

(http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/web/site/BC/bcf/News2008/20080724_Sky_Deal.asp)

 

[mondobongo]

So we are cancelling races because of lack of funding where is Sky?

Football revolves around money these days rather than the 11 man team.

We play on a Monday evening because of who ??

 

[John the Monkey]

So we are cancelling races because of lack of funding where is Sky?

Ask BC, I'd say - wouldn't they be the ones sorting out where the money goes?

 

[kennykool]

Nonsense. That's the point. This is a serious big budget team.

Dave - if they are pumping loads of cash in and can afford the likes of Cav and Wiggo then fantastic.

I'd love to see these boys riding for a british team.

I was just saying i "didn't think" they could afford them.

Rule Brittania

 

[Dave5N]

No we are not waiting for an ethical company but questioning the involvement of Sky. Its fairly obvious that they are jumping on the bandwagon of recent successes.

Its almost an attempt at buy a win. They want to come straight in and get a wild card entry for the Tour, how conceited is that? Other Teams work damned hard over a period of time to build a reputation win races and subsequently get a wild card invite. Oh what a surprise Team Sky want straight in at the Blue Riband Event. Would have been nice to have seen some money spent by Sky on the Premier Calendar and lower levels were races are being cancelled because of lack of funding they would have not looked so mercenary.

We dont have a possible Tour winner in the next 5 years because if we did they would already be starting to make a showing a la, Gesink, Andy Schleck for starters.

Road racing is totally different to track racing and success in one discipline does not guarantee success in an other, were is the infra structure for the Road Race team coming from Max Sciandri was a good Pro but is he DS material? Are we going to try and get Yatesy from Astana?

Throwing money at the game has made a right mess of football I for one would be appalled to see the same thing happen to Cycling. Like Skip Madness I will have trouble supporting this team.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking Cav and others will sign up just because you offer big bucks. Cav especially wants to win and win big he will ride for whatever Team offers the best opportunity to do this and that may well be someone other than Team Sky.

Lastly don't fall into the trap of thinking they are not after the rights if they are putting a lot of dough into Cycling they will want to show Cycling.
Eurosport come cheap in most packages Sky Sports does not don't fall for the hype people.

Why would a TV channel spend a lot of money sponsoring a team to promote the channel, and then buy exclusive rights to the team's competitions so the only people who can see the advertising are the people who are already it's customers?

Much more likely to sponsor a team so your competitors affectively carry your advertising for you.

 

[Dave5N]

Ask BC, I'd say - wouldn't they be the ones sorting out where the money goes?

Sky aren't paying for BC to organise races. They are paying for a pro road team.

 

[John the Monkey]

Sky aren't paying for BC to organise races. They are paying for a pro road team.

We're talking slightly at cross purposes - the point was made earlier that Sky isn't doing anything at the sub-elite level (and as you rightly point out, the road team sponsorship isn't).

My point was about Sky's earlier participation as principle partner of British Cycling, which *is* providing monies to be used at "all levels" (see earlier quote, taken from the press release of July 24th 2008). I'm no big fan of Sky as such, just credit where it's due, and all that.

 

[Dave5N]

Yes, I see. Sorry, I didn't understand your point properly first time. Apologies.