Jonathan Vaughters, the team manager for the Garmin Slipstream team, has denied yesterday's L'Equipe report about Bradley Wiggins signing for Team Sky. The back and forth about whether Wiggins will leave the team while still having a contract has been going on for several weeks.
L'Equipe, generally a trusted site, said to Cycling Weekly that their source was trustworthy. But the report has not changed Vaughters' opinion in the whole matter. "Brad has a contract [with Garmin] for 2010. That is my statement. If they [L'Equipe] have such a great source, they should reveal him/her," Vaughters told Cycling Weekly.
Neither Sky's press manager Brian Nygaard nor Wiggins himself commented on the report. The team's first gathering starts Tuesday, and it will be interesting to see if Wiggins shows up.
The same confusion arises around Briton Ben Swift, still under contract with Katusha. Katusha's manager Andre Tchmil told Cycling Weekly that Swift was ordered to the team's headquarter for Tuesday "to see what is going on." This would prevent Swift from attending the Sky meeting.
Many others may feel like Tchmil about Sky's aggressive rider chasing. "I think it's very bad that a new team like Sky goes around thinking they can buy up riders who are under contract. It's something we never did last year out of a matter of principle. Contracts exist because they have to be respected," he said.
According to WielerFlitz and Ciclismo-line, Tchmil is chasing after 28-year-old Russian Alexandr Kolobnev, who is currenlty under contract with Bjarne Riis' Saxo Bank team through 2010.