His agent earned headlines this year over complaints that Thor Hushovd wasn’t paid a bonus by Garmin-Cervélo for winning the world road race championships, but the rider himself has played down the issue somewhat by conceding that he hadn’t made provisions for taking the 2010 world road race title.
“I signed a contract with Cervélo without a world championship bonus and it's my fault,” he told Procycling.no. “It's something I've said all along, it’s my manager who has said other things about it.”
Despite the lack of a contractual obligation to do so, Garmin-Cervélo general manager Jonathan Vaughters said this year that he would pay Hushovd a bonus if he was able to find a second sponsor. The American searched throughout the season but was unable to do so, and the bonus went unpaid.
After travelling across to Garmin-Cervélo after the Cervélo Test Team folded, Hushovd’s big ambition of the year was to win Paris-Roubaix while wearing the rainbow jersey. He was one of the strongest riders in the Hell of the North but came up against an extremely strong Fabian Cancellara (Saxo Bank SunGard), who looked like he would come out on top if the race came down to the two of them.
Garmin-Cervélo triumphed, though, with Johan Vansummeren attacking out of the front group and soloing to a fine victory. He hoped to win a Classic, but realises now that it was not meant to be. “Circumstances and luck didn’t go my way,” he said.
Hushovd waited a long time to clock up his first win in the rainbow jersey but once things started flowing, he was on a roll. He took a stage in the Tour de Suisse, then headed to the Tour de France and was part of a very impressive Garmin-Cervélo showing there. The squad won the team time trial, then the Norwegian triumphed on stages 13 and 16, as well as being part of the overall team classification success.
After that he hoped to ride the Vuelta a España to prepare as well as possible for the world road race championships and the defence of his title. However he was not selected by the team and went instead to the Tour of Britain, where he won a stage.
There were rumours of tension between the rider and the team manager at several points, firstly due to tactics over the Spring Classics, then in relation to the contract bonus issue and finally because of his non-selection for the Vuelta. However the Norwegian plays such talk down. “We are on speaking terms,” he confirms.
He’s heading elsewhere in 2012, inking a lucrative contract with the BMC Racing Team. “I was not very close to staying,” he said of Garmin-Cervélo. “They came with a very late feedback that they wanted me. So I moved the focus, and a change was something I wanted.
“There were several offers throughout the season. So I made up the plusses and minuses. BMC ended up with many pluses, so I chose to go that way.”
He is hoping for greater scope to chase personal success there, but will line out alongside world number one Philippe Gilbert and Tour de France champion Cadel Evans in 2012. It remains to be seen how that plays out but for now, he's convinced he has made the best move possible for his career.