On sky news now

Yep!

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,20298_7235680,00.html

At last! Wonder what bikes they’ll be riding next year then 🙂

Finally. Will be an interesting year!

Full and indepth report here: 🙂

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cycling/15259826.stm

Specialized I bet,he says he will only ride them.

He tweeted:

It’s……Team Sky!

Full and indepth report here

Love the BBCs up to the minute in depth cycling coverage 😉

On which bike?

http://www.teamsky.com/article/0,27290,17553_7235752,00.html

Who’d have thunk it? Clever bit of business from the lad. And good luck to him, this has to be good for him, for Team Sky and the Olympics.

Might not be so good for Wiggins though.

Well that is a surprise

Wiggins yellow, Cav green, Olympics free for all. 😆

Now all we need is a change of sponsor and everyone will be happy 😉

Might they re-badge a Specialized to keep their bike sponsors happy? Does that sort of thing still go on? Believe it was common practice back in the day.

AND Bernie as well 😀

mrblobby, it does still happen but I think a venge looks far too different to a dogma for them to pull it off on such a high profile rider

It used to happen when frames were all very similar looking. I’d reckon that nowadays, it’s much less common.

Hope it works out for everyone in the team as on paper it looks a great setup and fantasic preperation for the Olympics in 2012

and the reason he wants to ride specialized isn’t because he prefers the bike, it’s because they’ll pay him a shedload if he does.

mrblooby may be correct.

pjt201 is probably correct, can imagine Specialized having very deep pockets. Though having said that pro riders can be very fussy indeed about their kit, if Cav genuinely believes he performs better on that bike then money would probably only be a minor concern.

cant stand the guy TBH
can ride a bike but i just dont like him

Best kept secret on the planet?

Not really a shock was it.

Best of luck to him, feel the Wiggo/Stanard/Cav combo will be pretty awsum IMO.

Don’t like the Venge, bit of a marmite bike but if he gets paid for riding it then hey ho.. Dogmas a nicer riding machine.

Good news for Sky though, can Cav read a flipchart?

At last! Wonder what bikes they’ll be riding next year then

Specialized Dogma, surely?

Specialized I bet,he says he will only ride them.

Since when? He was on a Scott Addict last year.

I would also imagine that the olympics has something to do with it.

Sky/brailsford have clear goals and Cav must be right up there for them. No conflict of interest.

I’d imagine that an Olympic gold medal would be up there for Cav too.

Pinarello played the ‘make our frames so distinctive and they will be obvious in the peleton’ card just a bit too well, hence the Chinarello frames coming on to the market. I suspect Sky will be on even newer even betterer frames next year.

They’re probably all made by Giant anyway.

Might be a bit of friction in the sky camp as Wiggo chose to tweet last week about how much he loved his pinarello.

Specialized I bet,he says he will only ride them.

Since when? He was on a Scott Addict last year.

Which “last year”? 2011 he’s been on the Spec Mclaren Venge

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/pro-bike-mark-cavendishs-htc-specialized-mclaren-venge-30158/

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/first-look-mark-cavendishs-specialized-mclaren-venge

Which “last year”? 2011 he’s been on the Spec Mclaren Venge

Last year being 2010, i.e. last year, not THIS year.

Cav’s Scott Addict from LAST year

They’re probably all made by Giant anyway.

FTFY

IMO Cav will be targeting the olympics this year, and if the TdF course that was leaked is true it favours Wiggo greatly, so he can target the tour. then at the end of next season his contract is up and Sky will be free to concentrate on Thomas in the classics and Cav in the grand tours.

i thought you meant last competition year (aka season just finished), which is why I didnt get your point (I did like the pseudo alloy rivetted bomber paint job on the Scotts). I assume when he signed for Spec it was a multi-year mega bucks deal which he is keen not to lose. There’s a lot of sponsor/supplier clash, chavendish will be spoilt, is it nike or adidas 🙂 ?! Wonder if Sky have bought out of the Pinarello deal, can’t see Pina could match Spec’s money?

I wouldn’t be suprised if Sky change to Spesh bikes for next year TBH.

In pro road cycling bike manufacturers don’t sponsor individuals, they sponsor teams. He will ride what his team tell him to ride, same as every other pro road cyclist.

To be fair, Specialized’s pro-team roster is looking a bit lightweight for next season with Highroad folding so they may make a mega bucks bid to sponsor Sky. Don’t know the length of the Sky Pina deal.

Pinarello deal up to end of 2012. Can’t imagine they’d let Cav (or Sky) perch on another bike brand without some serious legal to-ing and fro-ing.

Cav’s new bike will be a Pinarello.