Will Cav leave Sky?

[Keith Oates]

The fact that Cav will leave Sky is not really in question, it should be When will Cav leave Sky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[PpPete]

If Brailsford is after Sky being the dominant force for the next few years he should surely be thinking of Classics wins as well as GTs ? It might take him a couple of years to learn how to do it, but if Cav is after similar goals after the Olympics it would surely make sense to stay with what looks to be one of the most professional outfits on the road today?

 

[Saddle bum]

With Sagen popping up, Cav's prospects of another GJ have taken a knock. He would be better off considering a fairly certain three/four stage wins in the TdF with Sky on selected stages.

 

[dellzeqq]

This appeared in velonews about Chris Froome and his future

http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/07/news/whats-next-for-chris-froome_230893

It sums up the cash and possible tactical options of various teams which I think are also relevant to Cav.

I think there's a couple of other things to be considered too:

• will the ASO and the UCI try messing with courses/rules
• has the international pharmaceutical community got a contribution to make to the less scrupulous (Horner seems to be getting his retaliation in first with his 'fans are trying to dope us' quote)

SKY seem to have rewritten the book on team structure and preparation. Unless there's a lot of cash or guarantees of new structures on a different team, it's not clear to me that any of the SKY heroes would automatically gain a lot elsewhere.

that's a well-thought through piece of work

 

[Basil.B]

Read this earlier today -
Mark Cavendish is “almost certain” to leave Team Sky at the end of this season, according to cycling journalist and author Richard Moore who has close ties to the British ProTeam.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Hope he ends up riding Specialized again.

 

[tigger]

A work colleague of mine met with one of the Marketing bosses at Quickstep today. He said that OPQ are definitely pitching for Cav at the moment and are hopeful.

You can ignore my opinion from 2 days ago! He's going. Thinking about it, OPQ makes the most sense. Boonen for the Classics and Cav for the Grand Tour sprints. Makes perfect sense and the team is already well set up to support an out and out sprinter. Oh and he can ride a Specialized bike again.

 

[StuAff]

that's a well-thought through piece of work

+1. See also http://roadcyclinguk.com/blogs/gues...on-why-wiggins-victory-is-a-game-changer.html. Argues, quite convincingly IMHO, that Sky are perfectly capable of going for yellow and green next year.
Richard Moore may have an inside line, but I doubt that it's all cut-and-dried just yet.

I think the bike choice thing is overrated. Cav has seemed perfectly happy with the Dogma 2 (his, as with other bikes he's ridden, are custom geometry anyway), and the Addict when HTC ran Scotts. As long as he wins on it, it's a good bike....

 

[tigger]

Yeah that roadcycling article was pretty much my take on it 2 days ago. How fickle!

 

[StuAff]

So: It would be perfectly sensible of him to leave. It would be perfectly sensible to stay. No-one actually knows what will happen yet, and even if they did, the only way to know whether it is the right call for Cav and Sky is results in races that haven't happened yet.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

StuAff not all Cavendish bikes have been custom geometry I can't comment regarding them all, but his Venge's most certainly were not.

The Mclaren Venge Cav rode had the same geometry as the production model Venges, including the S-Works. (note : mclaren has higher grade carbon and better layup)
The major differences was his signature stem and pro bars and the BB30 was modified for a 24mm Shimano/SRM setup as you could not get this in BB30 configuration at the time.
Cav rode a 52 venge with standard geometry.
I can provide specifics if your interested including weights etc.

 

[StuAff]

StuAff not all Cavendish bikes have been custom geometry I can't comment regarding them all, but his Venge's most certainly were not.

The Mclaren Venge Cav rode had the same geometry as the production model Venges, including the S-Works. (note : mclaren has higher grade carbon and better layup)
The major differences was his signature stem and pro bars and the BB30 was modified for a 24mm Shimano/SRM setup as you could not get this in BB30 configuration at the time.
Cav rode a 52 venge with standard geometry.
I can provide specifics if your interested including weights etc.

Fair enough- I know his Dogma 2 frames are custom (Sky said so), the Addicts were as well...

 

[Hector]

I reckon he will. I don't see where Cav fits into the Sky team apart from being a British rider.

I think Cav was looking at the other Brits in the Sky team and thinking ahead to the Olympics when he joined. After all I should imagine that it would be massive benefit to train with the other guys in the Sky team who (apart from Miller) will make up the British team as well.

I reckon he'll get his gold and be off trying to eat into the Cannibal's all time stage wins on the Tour, rather then being a domestique in a team which appears only goes for GC.

And good luck to him.

 

[Mr Haematocrit]

Fair enough- I know his Dogma 2 frames are custom (Sky said so), the Addicts were as well...

Wow your totally correct regarding Cav's Dogma. I never knew that and have been reading up on it. Imho its not a great advert for the standard Dogma bike as it kind of suggests that it has flaws, we know that all bikes are flawed in some way but perception of your customer base matters. What is equally interesting is that Cav's Dogma seems to be a 50 but have very similar geometry to the Venge.
I wonder how Cav would go on a production Dogma with standard geometry.

I'm going to see what I can find out about Cav's Addicts... really interesting subject to me

 

[zizou]

The Venge he was riding at HTC might not have been custom sized but the whole bike was developed around Cavendish and how he sprints (basically how he fish tails the bike) so not all standard geometries are created equal.

On a related subject will be interesting to see if Boonen chooses his venge or tarmac for the Olympic road race.