Team Sky - the future?

[magirus]

It looks like an interesting few months ahead in the pro cycling world now that Sky are withdrawing from sponsorship. The ins and outs are pretty well explained in this article from Cycling News

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/...m-pro-cycling/

[mickylall]

Thanks for the link, I've been reading bits about it this weekend.
No idea it cost that much per year to put the Sky team together so I'm sure it won't be easy finding someone to stump up that sort of cash especially if Brailsford's future is uncertain.
Don't know what the answer is but I hope that they have put something in place knowing that this time would come, seems common knowledge that Sky were in it for a 10 year project. They've won everything there is to win and are leaving behind a fantastic team so hopefully someone will step in
Can't wait for the crowing from the cat strangling moron with his usual Brit bashing BS

[Saint-Just]

Achievements yes.
Ethics have suffered though. And it’s not Brit bashing, it’s your own parliamentarians who said it:
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-do...-idUKKBN1GH04J

Not to mention a famous Brit bashing newspaper in an interview with a former team member
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/...unethical-use/

In other words, achievements but with question marks. Maybe the whiter than white claims were ill advised.

Maybe also this is the reason why Sky is out...

[Tony]

Don't do drugs, kids.

[mrushton]

Sky was bought by ComCast who arent really interested in cycling. Nothing is forever and Brailsford achieved an amazing amount from nothing and changed modern cycling by bringing in new ideas. They are 'expensive' but as a successful brand they might be bought. Sky is just a name though. It could be Team Heinz or Team nespresso.

[trident-7]

Don't do drugs, kids.

Cycling is probably the most PED tested sport in the world. I've been tested myself twice, even at my level. I'm not saying that there isn't a drug problem in cycling but you're more likely to get caught because you're more likely to get tested. I think it would be an eye opener if football had a similar regime of testing. It was reported in February that at least 25% of EFL players hadn't had a single test that season. And that was if the other 75% had only been tested once each.

[magirus]

Cycling is probably the most PED tested sport in the world. I've been tested myself twice, even at my level. I'm not saying that there isn't a drug problem in cycling but you're more likely to get caught because you're more likely to get tested. I think it would be an eye opener if football had a similar regime of testing. It was reported in February that at least 25% of EFL players hadn't had a single test that season. And that was if the other 75% had only been tested once each.

Indeed. If boxing had a stringent testing regime then Fury and Alvarez wouldn't have been picking up their large pay cheques recently. On the other side of the coin Anthony Joshua pays VADA (Voluntary Anti Doping Association) £30k to be tested before each fight, as well as being on the UK Anti Doping Agency's whereabouts list. In athletics, testing in Jamaica and Kenya is a joke. That's before we mention Russia and China.

[Omegamanic]

Tested before each fight lol. But not during the training camps etc.

All sports are affected - unfortunately it too easy to pass certain tests under most sports current testing regimes. When performance could mean a paying career or a job at Tesco then you can see the temptation.

Another big team will pick up the mantle from Sky

[magirus]

Tested before each fight lol. But not during the training camps etc.

All sports are affected - unfortunately it too easy to pass certain tests under most sports current testing regimes. When performance could mean a paying career or a job at Tesco then you can see the temptation.

Another big team will pick up the mantle from Sky

I presume AJ pays to be tested regularly and randomly, otherwise the results would be worthless. Mind you he probably doesn't eat meat from uncastrated wild boars, what a load of boll**s that excuse was. (pun intended)

PS. I stared this thread hoping for discussion on the financial implications in the sport, potential movement of personnel from Sky to other teams, how racing and results might change, for better or worse, etc etc. I must have been high on something, perhaps I need to be tested. ;-)

[Tony]

Testing less would certainly go a long way to solve cycling's drug problem.

[MrSmith]

Rugby weightlifting and wrestling have the most infractions on the UK anti doping list.

A lot of sports are still in the denial phase of their drug problem whereas cycling is well past the acceptance stage and is active in doing something about it, tennis and athletics are still very much brushing things unde the carpet.

Most amchair commentators do seem to have a myopic view on drugs in sport.

[tertius]

PS. I stared this thread hoping for discussion on the financial implications in the sport, potential movement of personnel from Sky to other teams, how racing and results might change, for better or worse, etc etc. I must have been high on something, perhaps I need to be tested. ;-)

Part of the reason is surely that concerns around drugs will be a consideration for any potential sponsor.

I do wonder how they will get on finding a new sponsor, realise that it’s a different scenario in many ways but British Rowing (without the TV coverage of cycling but also a very successful Olympic sport) have been without a headline sponsor for years and years now. £35 million sounds like a heck of a lot for someone to sink into a single team.

[Omegamanic]

Part of the reason is surely that concerns around drugs will be a consideration for any potential sponsor.

I do wonder how they will get on finding a new sponsor, realise that it’s a different scenario in many ways but British Rowing (without the TV coverage of cycling but also a very successful Olympic sport) have been without a headline sponsor for years and years now. £35 million sounds like a heck of a lot for someone to sink into a single team.

I think that comment and the article cover most angles. Who would benefit from picking up the sponsorship - it's not as if Sky actually achieved the clean up that they first talked about. They won, but they are left with a huge cloud over Wiggins and Froome - so that undoubtedly removes a few big names from wanting to be associated.

Cycling has probably got more bad press than it deserves, but it is higher profile world-wide than some of the other sports - other sports, like the big tours, are pretty much dependent on superhuman performance, so any major changes could also possibly affect the spectacle for the paying viewers.

It is difficult times. It would be good to see a new team emerge (at least by way of sponsor) and take it into a new era.

[Meesterbond]

£35 million sounds like a heck of a lot for someone to sink into a single team.

Or something like 15% of Sky's annual Marketing budget.... 15% of what McLaren spend on running a Formula 1 team. The problem is that in cycling you don't get very much for your £35m investment. There's no one paying to watch the races live. You'll sell a few jerseys but that'll barely scratch the surface. No pay-per-view or TV revenue as the teams don't have any ownership over the races.
You don't even have a guarantee that you'll be in the TdF every year and as that generates almost all of the exposure over the year (in the English speaking nations anyway) it's a real problem finding new sponsors.

In short, the whole business model is broken.

Anyway, in response to the original question apparently Brailsford is looking to the US and Columbia for a new sponsor. I think the US is a really good shout as enough time has passed after Lance for them to want to dip their toe back in the water... whether DB has £35m to play with in 2020 is another matter.

[100thmonkey]

I think that if I had been treated as badly as that team has by the media, the public and disrespectful and jealous spectators I wouldn’t ever turn upto support the TdF or UCI again. They are a huge attraction for the sport yet it treats the like dirt. I bet they are glad to be out of it but sadly there’s not an option unless you set up a new cycling event!

[Meesterbond]

I think that if I had been treated as badly as that team has by the media, the public and disrespectful and jealous spectators I wouldn’t ever turn upto support the TdF or UCI again. They are a huge attraction for the sport yet it treats the like dirt. I bet they are glad to be out of it but sadly there’s not an option unless you set up a new cycling event!

I'm inclined to agree but I think there are two different things happening...

I was listening to a discussion with Francois Thomazeau who've covered the Tour for decades and he suggested that the media hatred of Sky (at least in the UK media) is a result of the different way doping is viewed in the UK vs Continental Europe. In the UK it's an ethical question, so you don't have to actually crossed the line to be 'guilty' in the eyes of the media - just getting into the grey area (particularly when you've claimed to be whiter than white) is enough. In France and Italy etc doping is more of a procedural issue - less emotive. More black and white. Over the same period that Sky have been vilified, there have been a number of actual doping offenses in other teams - have they been called up in front of a Parliamentary Commission to answer for their sins? Of course not, that whole process was nonsense.

The other aspect is that pro cycling has always been a Franco/Spanish/Italian/Belgian sport which post Lance and Sky has migrated to be more centralised in the English-speak world. That was never going to go down well.

[100thmonkey]

Plus the confusion over doping, they all dope its just the levels that vary, its deeply embarrassing to admit it as an individual and a team but theres a level that can’t be crossed without it. I personally have no problem with the use of drugs in sport as unless everyone is clean then its never going to be fair. That aside theres just no need to persecute someone because they are no 1 when numbers 2-99 are all the same just have less to lose

[reggie747]

Did we have dope tests back in her heyday ?

[100thmonkey]

Did we have dope tests back in her heyday ?

No she couldn’t get her cock in the bottle