B&B hotels KTM gone , where now for Cav ?

devonp · 12-12-2022 2:12pm #1

just saw that B&B hotel KTM won't be a team in 2023...according to an article on INRNG

Will Cav call is a day or is he still worth a contract? (not that I'm a fan anyway)

Mefistofelino · 12-12-2022 4:10pm

The only reason that Cav would still be considered for a contract is the romantic notion - particularly amongst the UK cycling press - that he only has to turn up at the TdF next year and he'll finally bag the stage that takes him beyond Merckx. However the fact that he's still without a contract shows exactly what the market thinks of the prospect. Even the B&B set-up, had it worked out, would have been a real "Hail Mary" shot - a 38 year old Cav being led out by a 40 year old Max Richeze and somehow getting the better of the Jakobsens, Groenewegens, Ewans & Bennetts.

What's even more telling is that it seems that he cannot even get the sort of pound-shop contract he had from Lefevre.

at1withmyself · 12-12-2022 8:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119987907#Comment_119987907

2022 – Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (5)

1st MaillotReinoUnido.PNG Road race, National Championships

1st Milano–Torino

1st Stage 3 Giro d'Italia

1st Stage 2 UAE Tour

1st Stage 2 Tour of Oman

2nd Memorial Rik Van Steenbergen

3rd Heistse Pijl

I think he done well enough in 2022 to deserve another contract....

Squidgy Black · 12-12-2022 8:39pm

The UK press seem determined to keep linking him with a one year deal with Skineos, but I can’t see it happening unless Brailsford and Ratcliffe get overwhelmed with nostalgia for some reason.

retalivity · 12-12-2022 9:10pm

I read somewhere that Euskaltel are looking at him, purely as a punt to get a wildcard to the Tour. Think that is probably a longshot though...but options are lessening.

Nairoman and now MA Lopez also free agents still looking for new teams, when most rosters are full.

Mefistofelino · 13-12-2022 8:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119988907#Comment_119988907

Yet the market would seem to disagree that its enough - at least for the type of contract Cav would want, with a guaranteed spot on the TdF squad and a decent lead-out. I think he would have had a better chance of a contract as the type of rider he was at the National Championships this year.

Macy0161 · 13-12-2022 9:44am

Teams aren't all over him, despite ok results this year (and wasn't enough for him to go to the Tour).

You can only beat what's in front of you etc etc, but still say he got lucky in 2021 with the sprinters that were there/ left standing.

CramCycle · 13-12-2022 7:05pm

He was better this year than the year before which is great for him but while still a fine rider, teams are looking at either a paycheque that won't return, when they could get almost as good for far less. He could deliver points for a few teams, he certainly has never needed a great lead out if there are others there he can take advantage of. Unless he takes a massive pay cut on a risky contract where since he is paid so little they can renege on promises of places if he doesn't perform as the cost will be minimal.

If Ineos take him, it will be for the owner, not for the teams benefit.

Joke: My money is on him starting a podcast where he tells people what grinds his gears, a mix between Homer Simpson, Joe Rogan and Lance Armstrong.

retalivity · 13-12-2022 8:24pm

If he ends up at Ineos, i'd imagine it is on some heavily incentivised pay-as-you-go contract, with some vague promise of going to the tour and getting a win. Ineos will probably be all-in for Bernal at the tour, so you'd imagine Cav would get one other guy, maybe Kwiatko as a leadout. TBH it makes sense from an Ineos/Jim Ratcliffe perspective, Brit team with the "greatest" ever brit sprinter going for the TDF record from the great Eddie Merckx, if he pulls it off they would be immortalized.

dahat · 13-12-2022 8:26pm

Human Powered Health look to be registering solid interest now. No TDF though but he’ll get to ride for the year.

Squidgy Black · 13-12-2022 9:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119993375#Comment_119993375

ASO could always pull a mad one and give them the wildcard and leave Israel out, it’d be worth it to see Sylvan Adam’s go into further meltdown since they got relegated

Mefistofelino · 14-12-2022 8:33am

Caley Fretz is saying that B&B management are alleging the team collapse is Cav's fault:

"According to the Placeholder podcast(link is external), hosted by former Cycling Tips editor Caley Fretz, a source close to the B&B team says that Pineau and the management, when informing the riders last week that the squad was about to collapse, claimed that Cavendish had backed out of his agreement to join the team and instead had decided to retire from the sport completely. Cavendish’s alleged last-minute decision then caused the incoming big-money sponsors, who seemingly had been wooed by the prospect of having their name plastered across the chest of a potential Tour de France record breaker, to withdraw their funding, causing Pineau’s precarious house of cards to collapse."

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-13-december-2022-297997

Junior · 14-12-2022 12:19pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119994552#Comment_119994552

I think that needs the following context as well

"As Fretz points out in the podcast, the source – deemed to be reliable – may be correct about the contents of the meeting. Whether Pineau and his fellow management were being entirely truthful about the reasons behind the team’s demise is another matter entirely."

https://road.cc/content/news/cycling-live-blog-13-december-2022-297997#live-blog-item-41319

breezy1985 · 14-12-2022 12:25pm

That doesn't really add up seeing as Cavendish hasn't retired.

dahat · 14-12-2022 2:23pm

Not yet - he is seriously running out of options at this time.

at1withmyself · 14-12-2022 5:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119995456#Comment_119995456

Apparently he has a team for next year but like Nairo, I don't understand the delay in the confirmation.

griffin100 · 14-12-2022 7:48pm

Astana???

https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/astana-qazaqstan-keen-on-signing-mark-cavendish-for-2023/

I can’t see any top tier team providing him with a lead out train in any GT so it’s either a wild card team who will build around him at a GT with the hope of a victory or else a top tier team taking a punt but not providing him with much support at a GT. I’m sure someone will snap him up, the publicity a Cav victory in the TDF would be priceless especially in the era of robots.

15-12-2022 12:28am

Audrey Cordon-Ragot is another victim here. I saw her transfer come up earlier as joining a team called Zaaf and thought what the fudge? She was due to join a new B&B womens team until all this happened. Step down from Trek in terms of money for her I think even though she'll lead.

retalivity · 18-12-2022 6:49pm

Deal with Astana done apparently

Mefistofelino · 18-12-2022 7:08pm

Given the timing of Lopez' departure from Astana and Peter Kennaugh's comment last week that Cav had already signed a contract, it sounds like the negotiations were going on before even before Lopez was fired.

Unless, of course Cav had signed a contract with someone else and has just reneged on it.

at1withmyself · 18-12-2022 10:18pm

I hope it's true and he gets a world tour team so he can ride the Tour in 2023, it would be a shame for him not to get the chance to break the record.

ednwireland · 18-01-2023 11:19am

Astana it is

https://twitter.com/MarkCavendish/status/1615372158133313536?t=7QyeHAbOS06O27kNgGeJvQ&s=19

lawrencesummers · 18-01-2023 12:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119993368#Comment_119993368

Its would have been foolish of ineos to put cav in a grand tour when that place could be used by a strong domestique to try and challenge jumbovisma.

Astana, i see!

B&B hotels KTM gone , where now for Cav ?

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