GrainBrain

Viviani and Ethan hayter should make a good duo. Considering Owain Doull just went to EF. I remember this year's Tour of suisse? Or some early stage race where ineos had some opportunities to do something potentially interesting with Doull but instead aimed for a top five in GC.

Are sponsors priorities shifting from The Tour GC is above all else or are we seeing fear of Pogacar?

MinnMan

I think it's got to be the latter. The total number of eyeballs on the TdF GC probably dwarfs all the other races combined. And the skew towards the TdF works even more for a sponsor that isn't in the cycling industry, If the sponsor is say, Trek, then yeah some of their customers watch the other races, so it's a little different.

Ineos was shifting its towards a more diverse set of events before the rise of Pogacar, so I think it's also that they want to increase their footprint beyond the tour.

But mostly they are trying to figure out how their payroll advantage can slay the Slovenians. You KNOW that what they'd really like to do is to just buy Pogacar himself, but it seems he's not for sale.

slcbob

The way UAE is signing talent, I wonder how much longer there will be an Ineos payroll advantage. Or if there still is.

GrainBrain

^ It's good to be King ... or prince or whomever's behind bankrolling the team. Same thought with Astana - not the worst way to spend state money I guess.

Craddock now to bike exchange -- AND YOU'RE WELCOME YATES/MATTHEWS. YOU. ARE. WELCOME.

Excited to see if this turns into more opportunities, but a two year contract seems pretty good for 29 yo Lawson. He was doing really well this year, great assist to Magnus Cort for his win.

Iride01 

Interesting thing I've never thought about that goes on for those transferring to other teams.

EF Education send termination notice to Sergio Higuita after early bike switch

Apparently he didn't ask permission or those of Team EF actually at the race didn't think it important enough.

Although the article says that it goes on at races with lesser media coverage. I tend to think that it shouldn't go on at all so one doesn't have to rely on a judgment call as to when a race has sufficient media coverage to be important to a sponsor.

MinnMan

Did you see the video that kicked this off? It's pretty amusing watching Higuita and Daniel Martinez blow by the other recreational riders in the colombian gran fondo.

See twitter video embedded in this link
"The difference between WorldTour and the rest of us cyclists,"
https://cyclingtips.com/2021/11/serg...he-wrong-bike/

GrainBrain

^^ It was Rigo's grand fondo you'd think they'd be more aware. Apparently all it takes to be compliant is simply covering up the decals. Craddock got busted too and after seeing Vaughters lamentations about the tour I'm thinking he was just pissy about losing some great riders to other teams.

GrainBrain

Mark Padun to EF. There were a lot of eyebrows raised around his performance, can't wait to see how he does next year. So weird that he was left off the Tour roster last year.

surak

This is what Jack Haig said about his Dauphine and I can't help but see a lot of shade thrown Padun's way:
If he saved all his energy to go for individual glory instead of follow team plans, that'd make him less than popular at B-V.

MinnMan

So, Cav stays with Lefevre and Quickstep, sans Deceuninck

https://www.velonews.com/news/road/m...avYpectWYpFwX0

He'll win a few races for them, but will they be GT stages? Color me doubtful. Odds are, somebody younger and better will be there and on form.

Iride01 

I don't know. Cav only has to get one more stage win at the TdF to be alone in number of stage wins. Then he needs to finish the TdF in order for many of us to not just call his being there just for the gimmick.

I suppose it comes down to how much is that worth to the team and it's sponsors to have someone that has more TdF stages than anyone in the near and foreseeable future will ever have.

And it's not like they couldn't also have their GC person well supported too. Assuming Cav doesn't need a lot of help in the mountains to make the time cuts.

surak

Partly agree. No way that QuickStep won't try to get Cav one more TdF stage win when the record's right there for the taking and they still will have the best leadout train in cycling. Don't think they'll care about whether he can make it to Paris. He likely won't be contending for the green jersey again with WvA and MvdP both supposedly going for it, plus was MvdP's win last year considered a gimmick since he pulled out as soon as the real climbing started? They don't have a serious GC guy for next year's Tour either.

slcbob

I agree with surak finishing means nothing, absent green which is unlikely.

I dunno that the doors will be so wide open for a spot on the roster just for a shot at #35.

Speaking of which, the first part of getting on that roster was getting on the team. It seems that's finally done, almost, sort of.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/mar...vinyl-in-2022/

In semi-related news, it was interesting to see Deceunick's boss take a swipe at Lefevere while jumping ship to Alpecin-Fenix to sponsor a woman's team...
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/dec...alpecin-fenix/

...and then see Lefevere jump into the lady pond separately, here.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pat...ent-team-nxtg/

Thomas_Faulkner

You just took the words right out of my mouth.