Greg Van Avermaet to Team Sky! Confirmed!

You gotta get us a link bro :p

Greg Van Avermaet to Team Sky! Confirmed!

Stop confusing people with your bets

was just waiting for tomorrow ... then was going to ensure the truth was known   ;D

   I foolishly bet one of my team ..... and lost   

Yes I sadly trusted my BMC boys to do the job.  And they tried dilligently ... but alas, the marginal gains of Team Sky were too much.

Jamsque the evil-doer has won the services of GVA ... 

On his first day at Sky Towers, we've got Gregg working on the massive pile of dirty rainbow jerseys and socks that Cav built up during the Giro.

Well.. At least it's not BMC. Nibali will be well-supported there, he could challenge the Giro next year with a support squad to rival the one at Liquigas, especially if Tiralongo stays. And hopefully Vino will be their DS by then, that should make for one awesome Giro

really I was wondering if you would be positive or not.

with his 2 guys Nibbles would have been a better fit at BMC imo, they have lower level climbers and engines to throw around plus he would be top dog after next year.

I am not sure it was so smart

Well I'd rather have seen him stay at Liquigas, but since there's about 1 million more in the Astana contract I can understand why he'd choose them

But at BMC Nibali would have to give up MSR, the Ardennes and Lombardia to Gilbert, divide races like Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice up with Evans, while Evans would have first pick on GT's for at least another year. His support on mountains would be limited; Agnoli is a decent rider but nothing like Szmyd or Tiralongo, or even Capecchi.

At Astana Nibali has first choice of GT's and great support for them. Meanwhile he can ride the Ardennes as one of two leaders with Iglinsky, and probably be only leader for Lombardia.

But staying at Liquigas would have been much better imo, especially since he wouldn't have had to worry about Basso's wishes any more after this Giro.

Well they should have some money left now that Nibali is leaving. They could buy Pozzovivo to challenge the Giro with Basso, while Sagan rides whatever he wants to. Capecchi and/or Caruso could step up, some more room for them to shine would be a good think imo. I think Liquigas will be alright, though they won't like losing Nibali.

Well I think Nibali should be smart enough to discuss his future race programme during the negotiations. I assume he'll want to ride the Giro next year, and i'd be very surprised if he won't get to. He won't win the Tour anyway, so what would be the point of sending him there for Astana?

I mostly would find it a shame if Nibali would have to work for Gilbert in the Ardennes at BMC. The GT support isn't such a big deal, but losing out on the chance to win MSR, LBL and GdL would be a shame for him (not like he'll win MSR anyway, but he'll want to try regardless).

Nibali without the green will be something to get used to..

Will Leaky go all out for Ardennes classics and sign Reinardt (who's far better than that rubbish Sagan)? Mind, Qhubeka would get invites based on merit anyway for the Ardennes.

Well, Qhubeka plans to go ProContinental for 2013. So theoretically, they could be invited.
And if Colombia can get a wild card, so can South Africa.
But I'm hoping more for them to ride the Tour of Denmark... 8)

Well, Qhubeka plans to go ProContinental for 2013. So theoretically, they could be invited.
And if Colombia can get a wild card, so can South Africa.
But I'm hoping more for them to ride the Tour of Denmark... 8)

Aye, I remember reading that a couple of months ago. Hope they'll still race in Africa in that case, they should do in Gabon, but thinking about other important races like Faso.

Aye, I remember reading that a couple of months ago. Hope they'll still race in Africa in that case, they should do in Gabon, but thinking about other important races like Faso.

For all I remember MTN (or any other South African teams) have never ridden Faso. But I'm confident that even as ProConti, they'll still do Tropicale, Maroc, Eritrea and possibly Rwanda. Maybe Algérie as well, and I'm hoping for a South African stage race to be resurrected. We need the Giro del Capo back!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/liquigas-and-saxo-bank-to-merge-in-2013

Now that would make BMC a super-team. I wouldn't like it one bit, unless Gilbert leaves BMC for some reason but I don't see that happening.

The part about Saxo and Liquigas merging sounds terrible too. I want the liqui guys to have more room to develop their talents, guys like Caruso, Moser and Capecchi, not to serve non-stop domestique duty for Contador..

Hope none of this will turn out to be true.

That's wrong. Nibali will go to Astana and Oss and Szmyd to BMC.

That's wrong. Nibali will go to Astana and Oss and Szmyd to BMC.

Oss has been a great lead-out man for Sagan and Viviani and is very fast on his own. If BMC are really buying him then it could be to give him his own chances or they're buying somebody even faster who they want him to lead out. Given that BMC likes to buy top riders - who's faster than Oss and on the market?

Szmyd would obviously be at the very top of Cadel's wish list and I can imagine BMC are willing to pay him big, big money.

Wow Astana, hoarding up a lot of Stage Racers if its true they're getting Nibali.

That's a bit weak, define performing properly?

Seeldrayers riding in a GT has different ambitions to Kreuziger. You notice I labelled them as stage racers too, not GT contenders, so their stage racers, who have a range of different ability also have a range of different expectations and performances. Although if you're going judge, their #1 Kreuziger, he's "performed" in the past, certainly deserves the title of GC contender, however much stock you put into such a title. As for others, there's Brajkovic - can you really blame him for his lack of GT results? Still has enough results in his palmares in other races to suggest he's a good stage racer. Seeldrayers is still young but has already showed his talent to top10 in a GT, Kiserlovski is still developing but has enormous potential considering his climbing talent. Kessiakoff moved from mountain biking at the age of 29, what is he meant to show? His '11 season at least indicated he can mix it up at the higher placings in stage races and in a GT. Then there's Vino.....

So did a miss anyone?

Don't misconstrue this as an Astana fanatic post either, I don't have feeling either way but they have a lot of class in stage races on their roster, too much I think so it is likely they wont perform as good unless there's some luck or team structures in place to help (not promising based on RK) but its unfair I think to label the talent there as having under-performed.