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Bicycle Racing Thread 2013

T

The Boy

danny la rouge is probably wrong.
Too soon for this?

Wasn't going to bother until the TDU at least, but the list of World Tour teams has been published today and.... Katusha are denied a WT licence. The team met the UCI's sporting criteria, so fuck knows what the reasoning is. They have dodgy medical staff, but they're far from unique in that respect
 
As I understand it there are four criteria for WT status: sporting (the magical mystery points), administrative, ethical and financial. We know that Katusha haven't been excluded on the basis of their sporting criterion ranking, which leaves three options.

If the issue is their finances, then demotion from the World Tour might push them over the edge.
 
Fez909 said:
What happens to Rodriguez etc? They all just transfer?
Click to expand...

As I understand it, there's normally a clause in rider's contracts allowing them to transfer should a team be relegated. The problem is that most World Tour teams by this point in the year have spent their money and won't have spare cash for salaries. A lot of them will also have full rosters anyway. It's the worst time to go hunting for a team. So in practice, riders often stay put as long as they are going to get paid.

A lot will depend on why Katusha have been dropped. If it's not financial and if getting relegated doesn't itself create financial problems, then most will sit tight and get paid. It's possible that some will opt to take less money elsewhere where they can be guaranteed a WT race programme, but probably not too many if Katusha isn't going under.
 
Katusha is, unsurprisingly, now threatening court action, and are saying that they had been informed that they met all criteria for the World Tour.

http://inrng.tumblr.com/post/37719601412/katusha

It's truly bizarre that the UCI haven't given their reason for the decision as of yet. It's the kind of shock announcement that you'd expect them to justify immediately. It will be interesting to see what they eventually say. It's also worth noting that Igor Makarov, Katusha's head honcho, is an oligarch reputed to have vast wealth, which would make it very odd if the financial criterion is the one they didn't meet.
 
What's the score with Mantova? Any chance the UCI have been given a heads up on that and made the decision before stuff becomes public? Or is it just that giving a job to Ekimov was a very, very bad move :D
 
Nigel Irritable said:
As I understand it, there's normally a clause in rider's contracts allowing them to transfer should a team be relegated. The problem is that most World Tour teams by this point in the year have spent their money and won't have spare cash for salaries. A lot of them will also have full rosters anyway. It's the worst time to go hunting for a team. So in practice, riders often stay put as long as they are going to get paid.

A lot will depend on why Katusha have been dropped. If it's not financial and if getting relegated doesn't itself create financial problems, then most will sit tight and get paid. It's possible that some will opt to take less money elsewhere where they can be guaranteed a WT race programme, but probably not too many if Katusha isn't going under.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Can't imagine Purito being very happy about this. Top rider in the world and has to rely on wildcard entries for races. I guess only Sky could afford him at the minute, and this article in the Telegraph claims an interest. There are no direct quotes or sources listed, though, so probably wild speculation?
 
Fez909 said:
Thanks for that. Can't imagine Purito being very happy about this. Top rider in the world and has to rely on wildcard entries for races. I guess only Sky could afford him at the minute, and this article in the Telegraph claims an interest. There are no direct quotes or sources listed, though, so probably wild speculation?
Click to expand...

I suspect that Katusha are paying him a lot of money, so moving anywhere at the last minute, even to another very rich team like Sky, would involve taking a pay cut. I can't see Katusha having a problem with wild cards to the Ardennes Classics, the Giro or the Vuelta which are normally the backbone of his season. I'd guess that they'd get a wild card to the Tour, at least if they promise that Rodriguez will lead the team, but the ASO can be a bit unpredictable when it comes to inviting non-French teams.

As I understand it, Sky, BMC, Katusha and OPQS are amongst the biggest budget teams, but BMC already have Gilbert and Evans, Sky have two of the biggest Grand Tour contenders already, while OPQS have spent their transfer budget on Cavendish and aren't really a GC team. At this point in his career, Purito isn't going to want to be sharing leadership in is target races and is going to want decent support. Maybe Astana are a possibility? They only have one other big leader. I suspect he'll probably stay put, assuming the team isn't going to start disintegrating, but you never know.
 
So RusVelo - Katusha feeder team - have also been denied a ProConti licence pedning further info. Not sure if that's related or it's simply because Katusha might be ProConti too.
 
Bardiani, Columbia and Fantini Vini have been given wildcard entries to Giro. Columbia in particular should be good value.

edit: No Katusha.
 
I see that Lotto-Bellisol have taken over from Team Sky as owners of the ugliest helmets in the peloton. And by quite some way too.
 
Barking_Mad said:
Tour de France is coming to Yorkshire. Im really looking forward to nipping down the road to see the riders :) Whoop!
Click to expand...

If you're near Leeds then it'd be easy to see them twice. Somewhere in Leeds first, the make your way to Harrogate for the finish. They've got a good few hours racing between Leeds and Harrogate so easy done, I reckon.
 
And back to 2013's racing: is there anywhere to watch the Classics and minor tours online? I can't afford a Eurosport subscription at the minute, so gotta be free.
 
Nigel Irritable said:
So first two races of the pro season, and a dominant win each for Cavendish and Greipel.
Click to expand...

Yup. Saw the result from Aus and was hoping that Demare had managed to close the gap to the big two, but looks like it's Cav beating Greipel in the big uns. Early days yet, mind.

edit: Kittel was even more disappointing. I think only Guardini is worse going up hill atm.
 
Sacha Modolo beats Cav in a sprint? I hope in the name of all that is holy that it was a deceptively steep finish, but Francesco Chichi finishing 7th suggests not.
 
No worries, I can't race anymore but I still love the sport, I try to follow racing and will post links as and when I get them

I trust you've already got URLs for cyclingfans/steephill/sportslivez etc ;-)
 
Indeed. It's just a shame I have to work for a living nowadays. Nothing better than a day spent on the sofa watching a bike race, imo.
 
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