Cavendish to OPQS

Yes, budgets, but we are talking about NEXT season. Budgets might have been laid out, but we are far from the first race of next season. Budgets can be adjusted before then.

Not every team can afford him. But most could if they and their sponsors wanted him.

I was winding you up to see how many would guess Euskaltel.

But I think you are wrong to think that they are the only one's who can afford him. If a team wanted him, they could afford it.

AG2R - Insurance company, need I say more.

Astana - State owned companies from Kazakhstan that fund them, could quite easily afford him.

FDJ - French Lotto.

I could go on. But he's affordable to the sponsors as a tool for advertising. You've got to look at it that way rather than his ability to ride and how much his wage would be.

Would you like him to advertise your company? We know he can win stages, classics and small tours. How much would you pay to have your name on his chest everytime he crossed the line in front and also on the podium. Then have him at your HQ and various other events throughout the year......Its gotta be worth a fair bit.

Road.cc.....How much would you pay if you still had your name on a teams shirt and had multi-million pounds in the bank to spend?

What, Basques allowed?

I kinda knew Sky wouldn't hold him to ransom. But I now think that it would only be OPQS that will be offering him a nice package. I see an Italian team and a Spanish team on the horizon......

The Spanish team will also be breaking their ONE major rule.......

I thought you knew that is Cav went to OPQS (which I doubt), Boonen was off to Sohrabi Subaru to be Mehdi's leadout man

Oh, and if cav goes there, boonen will leave.

He won't want to be playing second fiddle.

One bit.

BOONEN TO SKY!

Sohrabi Subaru!

The first team to do the unique triple of:

Cobbled Classics,
Ardennes Classics,
Autumn Classics.

Not to mention winning all three grand tours in a year.

And worlds.

And every single worldtour national road and TT championship.

They're keeping it on the down low though, so they haven't told many people yet.

As a Super fan I got the email notification a few weeks back now.

S'gonna be amaze.

He has not been dropped, he has left to make his own world dominating super team.

Raleigh will be gutted!

One thing the transfer thread doesn't cover... (unless I've missed it)...

Mehdi Sorabi has been dropped by Lotto!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sohrabi-leaving-lotto-belisol-after-one-...

If you look in my signature, you'll see a link to the transfer thread, but not to be filled with gossip.

Its my understanding aswell that JTL has signed for Saxo. But as Saxo as not naming any signing till the end of the calender, we'll have to wait and see

I think he was training with the 'GB' squad rather than the 'Sky' squad (ignoring the fact that they are, for the most part, identical). Saxo may have him on some sort of pre-contract agreement but if he's looking to break that there's no reason they publicise the signing. Sky may well be waiting to cash in on Cav before paying off Saxo so it could end up being domino's.

There's a point re Boonen and Chavanel et al.

What races is Cav going to be targetting? Just Grand Tours? I read when he joined Sky that he wanted to move towards Classics as he got older and the younger quicker guys came through, OPQS doesn't fit the bill for that as he'll be competing for classic spots with Boonen etc. Think he may get pigeon-holed as purely a grand tour sprinter if he moves to OPQS. That might be what he wants now but with more guys like Sagan/Degenkolb/Kittel/Bouhanni coming through how long can he keep winning in those types of finishes?

Last year it was reported that Cav signing with Sky was held up by his personal deal with Specialized.

As a Cav and Specialized fan I would love to see MC back on a Spec bike with a sprint train.

Much as I can dream of being chased down by Tom Boonen I would rather dream of a sprint finish with Cav.
In my dreams I still loose but only just

As a fan of Spesh and Cav I hope this does happen tbh.

I looked extensively at both Pina and Spesh when I bought mine and couldn't agree that Pina are much nicer bikes tbh.

I doubt it Stumps, I think Sky have probably made all of their big signings for next year, and probably reallocated the Cav budget to sign people like Cataldo.

I could be wrong though but it does seem a little late and no-one fitting that bill seems to be visibly 'available'. A couple of good classics specialists would really add to the team but with the emergence of Uran, EBH (as a classics rider), Henao and a couple of others they could really mount a challenge on all fronts with the riders they have. I think part of their poor classics forms this year was actually as a result of Cav being on board and him being their number 1 rider for races that don't really suit him but he could have won under the right circumstances (M-SR for example). Hopefully next year Sky will go into those races with more 'options' having learned from the Olympics and pick a squad that can win in a number of ways. Swift may fit this bill better as he's a sprinter that can handle more hills than Cav and be there to compete without being molly-coddled and having a full team around him.

It's a shame that Sky lost Nordhaug though, he looks like he has the potential to be a great one day racer.

Pinarello are a much nicer bike than the Spesh. If he does go to OPQS then i would expect a major GC or Classics rider coming in to rpelace him.

Spesh may pay to get him out of his contract but I assume that would come as part of a large personal sponsorship/image rights deal as bashthebox has said. It'll also tie them into supplying OPQS for a few more years, possibly for the length of whatever contract he signs and ensure that Cav does a large amount of promotional work/appearances at Spesh events.

I wonder if the mid-season rumours of Sky ditching Pinarello only to re-sign with them came at the start of the horse-trading re Cav. Once Sky knew that he wanted out perhaps they gave up on a Spesh deal and stuck to Pinarello who likely would pay them more for the privalege of supplying their bikes.

If asked, I reckon would say he was never happy on his Dogma. I get the impression he is very technical in his approach to bike setup right down to spoke tension. I also read that he changes the seat post height during stage races.

As for Specialized paying the loot, I wouldn't be surprised if the Venge was built 'for him'. What will be interesting is that QPQS is a Zipp and SRAM sponsored team so electronic shifting and PRO cockpit for him. I wonder how he will find the change to mechanical shifting?

Cav was really vocal on his love for Specialized when he was at HTC, right? I reckon a glowing endorsement from Cav is worth an awful lot to a bike company. Plus there's probably something tied in to image rights now for X number of years.