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Live blog: Full reaction to Sky pulling sponsorship including Brailsford and Froome, Thomas looks back on Tour de France success, Vaughters says news a “wake up call” to the sport + more
“I don’t think there’s anything negative at all” says Team Sky boss; in other news, Bahrain Merida and McLaren chiefs give more details of their collaboration
Wed, Dec 12, 2018 16:48
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Jack is group editor across road.cc, off.road.cc and ebiketips, overseeing all three sites in the F-At Digital group to make sure everything’s up to scratch. He’s been writing about cycling and multisport for over a decade, arriving at road.cc via 220 Triathlon Magazine in 2017. He worked across all areas of road.cc including tech, news and video, and also contributed to ebiketips before being named editor of road.cc in 2021 (much to his surprise). Jack has been hooked on cycling since his student days, and currently has a Trek 1.2 for winter riding, a beloved Bickerton folding bike for getting around town, and an extra beloved custom Ridley Helium SLX for fantasising about going fast in his stable. Jack has never won a bike race, but does have a master’s degree in print journalism, and two Guinness World Records for pogo sticking (it’s a long story).
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Latest Comments
mdavidford 3 minutes ago
... and we still had apostrophe rationing.
ktache 20 minutes ago
@Rendel Harris There was a bit in the bicycle hating Guardian, a nice little read, part of his justification was to acclimatise to the heat and humidity, which if he was in a better car might have been worth it. Good luck to him, chapeau.
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@SecretSam That's not really fair, in fact not fair at all. It wasn't his fault that the last two mountain stages were shortened and on the first one he had dropped everyone and was a minute clear as he summitted the Iseran when the stage was neutralised, and on the second he stayed with or dropped all the other GC contenders. You seem to have forgotten his Giro win as well as Paris Nice and the Tour de Suisse. Only the fourth rider to have won the Tour and Giro before the age of twenty-five. Yes he probably couldn't have stayed with Pogacar even if he hadn't had the awful crash, and probably nor could any other rider in history except perhaps Merckx.
Mr Blackbird 3 hours ago
@lesterama Bernal has had two whammys. His crash, which he has probably never fully recovered from and Ineos taking a nosedive. They have no focus and no identity.
No Reply 3 hours ago
@Zermattjohn Read the comment I posted about my experience
No Reply 3 hours ago
I bought some Challenge Strada tyres. After a while the sidewalls began to detach from the tyre and the tread became rippled making them unsafe to use. The shop I bought them from asked me to drop them in and he would show the Challenge rep as he was due in the following week. The rep bizarrely firstly claimed that the tyres had failed because they may have been punctured (they hadn’t), then immediately claimed that they had failed because the rear tyre was more worn than the front! I emailed pictures to Challenge and was told they had failed because they had been fitted incorrectly. The black strip they had introduced to stop the issue I had was supposed to be above the rim. Which it clearly was shown to be correct on the pictures I sent to them which proved that the tyres were correctly fitted. This seems to be the norm now in the cycle industry, if there is an issue with a product, the company automatically blames the end user rather than look to address the issue, thereby pissing the customer off. A pissed off customer rarely returns.
eburtthebike 3 hours ago
@kingleo And there are hundreds, if not thousands of people holding up a shattered helmet saying it saved their life, the doctor/policeman told me.
Jj1234 4 hours ago
I spend a month most years in China because of family, and a cargo bike there with an electric motorbike style front end and either LFP or advanced lead acid batteries, costs under £100 and is the backbone of every trade. There are a hundred different kinds but what they share in common is functionality and cheapness. Even the ancient pedal pulled wooden wagons with literally welded spokes from the sixties have been electrified with e-motors attached to the underside - and they cost sod all. In China cheap transport for business is a public good like drinking water. Because to get people to work you have to make work affordable. That's a secret of capitalism we in the UK could do better to learn.
vw_mtbiker 6 hours ago
@Zermattjohn handmade genuinely means handmade with Challenge. You cannot compare ride quality of a mass produced, vulcanized Panaracer tyre with these. The ride quality is incredibly supple, and can transform a riding experience. More expensive yes, but worth every penny!
Surreyrider 6 hours ago
@SecretSam 2019 Tour (don't see anyone else putting their hand up to say they won it), 2021 Giro, 2019 Paris-Nice, 2019 Tour de Suisse, 2018 Tour of California. So I'd say Lesterama is about right with his burned bright comment.
21 thoughts on “Live blog: Full reaction to Sky pulling sponsorship including Brailsford and Froome, Thomas looks back on Tour de France success, Vaughters says news a “wake up call” to the sport + more”
As it says on the bike in the
As it says on the bike in the picture it’s Mclaren, McClaren are the ones who make prams/buggies.
RobD wrote:
No, the prams are Maclaren. McClaren is a football manager.
Mark B wrote:
Also debatable
kil0ran wrote:
Must be the Dutch spelling.
Sniffer wrote:
Eh, not Mclaren, McClaren or Maclaren, it’s actually McLaren, but whatever.
bigblue wrote:
It was a reference to Steve’s famous interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtq1ObGHy8
Sorry it passed you by.
RobD wrote:
Gets it right on the headline, gets it wrong THREE TIMES in the story. Yesus.
That’s what happens when go
That’s what happens when go for team ride with a dildo on your bike. Joke’s on them now.
Actual problem is more likely the STUPID amount of money Sky has sunk into F1 and the like and it actually has competition these days.
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
they should go for sponsorship from KY jelly, then they won’t have to change the branding very much, and they get some excellent lube for their bottom brackets.
ConcordeCX wrote:
Or for the full money-shot they could just get a porn company to sponsor them, after all there is a precedent:
https://road.cc/content/news/179795-only-italy-worlds-3rd-biggest-porn-site-sponsors-cycling-team
I hope they do manage to find
I hope they do manage to find a replacement sponsor, I do wonder how much of a budget drop they have worked out they can take without it becoming a different kind of team.
Surprising that the new Sky owners have decided to pull the plug though, at the end of the day the bad publicity seems to have mostly passed, and with it being such a tiny part of their marketing budget you’d think it’d be an easy option to keep going with it, after all they’re the highest profile team out there.
I’m wondering which other companies with big enough marketing budgets could actually step in, particularly with the heavily European focus to most of the season, and an image that would fit somehow with cycling.
This is the only sponsorship
This is the only sponsorship choice now
Yorkshire wallet wrote:
We’ve seen these as cycle team sponsors, wouldn’t be the worst cycle sponsor by any stretch …
The dildo does suggest that
The dildo does suggest that BBC might be a good sponsor
These relationships can’t
These relationships can’t last forever.. a ten or eleven year agreement at that level has been frankly magical for British Cycling results.
Also Sky from a ‘sponsorship’ perspective have surely gained as much as they can from the deal (however they measure it). I’ve personally really enjoyed seeing team sky on those sky vans up and down the country…
I hope that Sky will be replaced, if anyone can approach the issue of cycling sponsorship in a different more global thinking manner, then it’ll be that team surely.
Cycling is a huge sport, but the likes of QuickStep appear to not have a clue when it comes to getting sponsorship.. it’s incredulous to think that the best team in the world by far in 2018 struggled to get a decent sponsor for next season, I’m pretty sure they’ve secured Flemish Fish Flans of Flanders for next season…
Skexit?
Skexit?
Would love to know the sorts
Would love to know the sorts of clauses riders who’ve just signed new contracts have, if any.
Egan Bernal signed an unprecedented 5 year deal this summer and Thomas has just signed up for another 2-3.
That’s the Oracle shopping
That’s the Oracle shopping centre in Reading, outside Vue cinema – I’ve seen that guy around there a few times, as it seems to be the hang-out point for Deliveroo riders.
There’s also a guy (might be the same one) on a neon pink Planet-X TT bike.
Yes, it’s the Oracle in
Yes, it’s the Oracle in Reading. Haven’t seen Sky deliveroo bloke in a while, my impression is that cycling enthusiasts aren’t as enthusiastic about deliveroo as they were at the beginning. Your deliveroo contractor is moving to electric bikes is my impression.
What’s the story regarding
What’s the story regarding dildos and Ann summers? Very confused am I
Given the dildo thing and
Given the dildo thing and that Sky are a media company, the next sponsor has to be Virgin.