Ideally Cavendish would go to a team where he can be fully supported and continue to expand his palmares at his current rate. But this is also his job and his contract at HTC is estimated to be around half his market value with a not particularly good win bonus deal. Sports of any kind can be a unpredictable career and he needs to make his money whilst he is healthy and in demand.

Not saying he should just follow the money, but it is a balance that needs to be struck. He’s established himself at HTC and any contract that he negotiates now is likely going to take him into his peak years. it needs to be a good deal as well as a good team.

yes but if hes not winning he will get no win bonus …..

his contract at HTC is estimated to be around half his market value with a not particularly good win bonus deal. Sports of any kind can be a unpredictable career and he needs to make his money whilst he is healthy and in demand

You make it sound like he’s going to be on the breadline. At £750,000 a year at HTC I’d imagine he could retire already.

People forget that Cav wins just as many stages without his lead out train as he does with it. He’s only sprinting at 85% most of the time remember.

He doesn’t win just as many without the leadout train. However, he has demonstrated that he is capable of winning without a leadout.
Still the majority of his wins come from a leadout and the best way to ensure a win is to have an effective leadout.

any new sponsor will either want Cav or not and the value of the deal will reflect that,

I imagine Bob is negotiating Cav’s signature right now and I hope he gets it. Stability and HTC work for Cav

htc are very good at chasing down break aways, two times htc weren’t interested in the race the break away made it and Thor got the wins.

At £750,000 a year at HTC I’d imagine he could retire already.

How’s that add up? If he lives until he’s 80, that’s about 55 years he has to fund.

It’s a short career, so they have to maximise earnings. If he was on twice that much, which is his market value, that’s twice as much disposable to invest in a pension. That makes a huge difference.

any contract that he negotiates now is likely going to take him into his peak years.

Can’t wait to see him when he gets there.

I’m sure he’ll make a great commentator when he retires. I’d rather listen to him than some of the plonkers on telly, that’s for sure 🙂

I’m sure he’ll make a great commentator when he retires. I’d rather listen to him than some of the plonkers on telly, that’s for sure

True enough, although what they gonna ask him when the race hits the mountain?

“So Mark when attacking a mountain such as this did you prefer to hold the door pillar or the base of the window frame?” 🙂

Renshaw and Eisel are contracted to High Road until the end of next season. Cav isn’t. Cav isn’t a neccesity for securing a sponsor – there are plenty of other Cav-less teams with sponsors after all. And they have Matt Goss ready to step up after all.

I was told at the British Nationals by someone who would know that Cav was definitely going to Sky.

Has Cavendish already signed for Sky?

Yes he has

He go a free HD box and standard setup with a Movie and Sports package at half price for 6 months

How’s that add up?

Because a few years on wages like that is more than most people earn in a lifetime.

Uplink…thats the funniest thing I’ve read in ages

Lol at both mW and uplink 🙂

Phil W if you are talking about minimum wage maybe. Cav is great, a really asset to cycling, fast talking but delivers the good, wears his heart on his sleeve and is a “marmite character” as Geraint describes. I guess we can speculate all we like about whether or not he has signed for Sky there are lots of rumours flying around, like at start/end of football season and none of us frankly know anything.

Bernie and Renshaw are legends too and Cav’s tweets during this years TdF were great. Either way he will continue his winning streak and become a force to be reckoned with .. bigger than he is already! Look at much everyone else struggles when his second kick goes in!

IIRC Contador was on Euro 3million last year. I’d have thought Cav was probably as valuable given his ability to win pretty much every sprint and not be involved in doping scandals.

” Look at much everyone else struggles when his second kick goes in! “

the look on the garmin guys faces on sunday when HTC decided it was time to leave the station – they couldnt even match cavs lead out !

Exactly Renshaw, Goss and potentially even Bernie all have the ability to be phenomenal sprinters themselves.. look at others teams they don’t have 3 or 4 people ni their team who are world class sprinters! Even Geraint whos is a great lead out wouldn’t match up to Renshaw in a sprint. Swifty maybe…but still young with a lot to learn but he’s a quick talent look at Tour down Under and Tour of Oman.

Goss is a top class sprinter in his own right. I’m not convinced about Renshaw (remember Ciolek, his predecessor?) and Eisel definitely not.

In the 2008 TDF, Cav won 4 stages. At the time people talked about how Cav was nothing without his lead-out train. The only other High Road rider remaining from that year is Eisel. The fact is that the lead-out train can be swapped for another – the most important person in it is Cav. And even then he’s proved numerous time that he can win without it – Milan-San Remo being the best example.

What he does need in Grand Tours is a team that will get on the front and bring back breakaways. And usually that means sacrificing the GC to an extent.

Renshaw is MOST DEFINATELY a good sprinter! look at TdF 2009 was it when no one could catch Renshaw and he finished 2nd!

the issue is that no other team would pull back any breaks as Cav would win

I presume you didn’t watch any of the TdF – or maybe missed the days where the teams of other sprinters were pulling the pack in the hope their man might win.

So you must have just watched the highlights then. HTC always kept the break in range throughout the day on the flat stages, apart from when voeckler got a decent lead for his team to defend it. Theres a difference between getting going in the final 10-20km as many teams did and pulling all day to keep the break around 3-5mins then reducing the lead to 30 seconds. Its only when it got down to 30 seconds that the others got intrested.

Renshaw is MOST DEFINATELY a good sprinter! look at TdF 2009 was it when no one could catch Renshaw and he finished 2nd!

You must mean the final stage on the Champs Elysees. That was more about the speed at which he took the corner than his flatout sprinting speed.

He’s fast, of course, but it doesn’t mean he will win races in his own right.

Mark Renshaw is a brilliant bike rider and a brilliant guy, but neither he nor Matty Goss are sprinters, not proper sprinters in the mould of a Cav, Cipo or even Petacchi and they all would realise that they are in a lucky position with Cav, I mean look at his last two teammates that left to “make it on their own” Messrs Greipel and Ciolek. Both are happy to take whatever crumbs are left under Cavs table.

Mark recognises he is way better off as Cavs right hand guy, Bernie Eisel is the same, wherever Cav goes they will go. Matt Goss is a different kettle of fish altogether – he is after all only 24 and has already won M-SR I think it more likely that he would be the heir to Boonen’s crown (or Fab C’s) in the Spring Classics, he is big, strong, fast as hell and can ride like a man possessed.

Cav IMHO would not be well served by going to Sky in any way other than financially. He would be joining a team built around GC success, it just wouldn’t suit him NOT being the complete centre of the team. Wiggins would leave within a year regardless of what he says now.

But it will be interesting to see what happens. I spent half an hour up Alpe d’Huez last week while waiting for the final km kite to be blown up with Mick Rogers, he was keeping his cards pretty close to his chest, but reading between the lines, Cav will be in black and white next year (with a thin blue line)