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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
ROOTminus1 9 minutes ago
I get on my bike to remove myself from the world where AI is being shoehorned into everything. DO NOT WANT.
ROOTminus1 21 minutes ago
It would amount to a contravention of Article 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 to sentence Mr Frewin to cleaning up similarly dumped asbestos with a rolled up £10 note and a Friday night toilets technique, as part of a community payback scheme. I make no presumption or judgement on how practiced he may or may not be at such activities.
mdavidford 53 minutes ago
@quiff Well, that's the beauty of language - it's mutable and indeterminate, and a dictionary definition never captures the full nuance of practical usage. In any case, as I say, I'm not wedded to the term, and it's entirely peripheral to the point.
HLaB 55 minutes ago
I've seen a few of his videos and its left me thinking the same each time. Hugging the gutter just encourages such numpties, who see a space and instantly go without thinking.
Blackhound 1 hour ago
Thanks.
Surreyrider 1 hour ago
@quiff Maybe that's where journalists should kind of do their journalisting - and check/ask questions?
Surreyrider 1 hour ago
@Blackhound No, they won't in the UK.
saw442000 2 hours ago
@steve1968smith I appreciate you being the reasonable cyclist here but it was only a matter of time before the locals started moaning about cyclists actually using the new path instead of not using it. As with most of these stories there is more background to the rage bait headline on here. The latest issue came about when the car boot organiser put a post on Facebook about how 'speeding' cyclists should be giving way. It was only when he was pulled up on this, and consulted the latest version of the Highway Code, that he edited the post to then start bleating about 'shared responsibility' instead. Councillors got involved and that led to the retrospective planning application. Presumably the marshals are sufficiently trained/qualified to direct traffic on the highway? The 14 day limit will likely have no effect either - apparently a previous organiser got round it by dividing the field into four parts and using a different bit each time! You should know as well as anyone that GCC Highways are experts in designing conflict points into their active travel infrastructure.
quiff 2 hours ago
@ mdavidford - can't reply to the relevant post because threading issues but, to be fair, most dictionaries associate 'barrelling' (in this context) with speed and lack of control - neither of which describe this cyclist.
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.