Following weeks of rumours, it has been reported that Mark Cavendish has signed a deal to compete with the Sky Procycling team from 2012 onwards. The Manx rider has been the top star of the HTC Highroad team for several seasons and has clocked up 15 Tour de France stage wins between 2008 and 2010.
According to Scottish writer Richard Moore, who has close contacts with the Sky team and who has just written a book about the squad’s origins and first season, Cavendish has inked a deal worth £1.5million [€1.7 million] a year, similar to that earned by the team’s GC leader, Bradley Wiggins.
The Sky Procycling management declined to comment on the deal, which is thought to have been agreed during the recent Giro d’Italia. Cavendish has moved quickly to downplay talk of the news, although he didn’t deny the move would happen.
“As always, I can't go 1 race without some sort of shit going on. At least it's not a crash this time!” he wrote this morning on Twitter. “I will say I'm committed to HTC Highroad until the end of this year, and I'm concentrating now on Tour De France. Also, please note, all quotes are 9 months old.”
The quotes he referred two are contained deeper in Moore’s Daily Mail article, and come from last year’s Commonwealth Games when the rider expressed frustration with his current team.
‘I’m committed to a contract I signed a few years ago (but) there’s been no goodwill, no bonuses, nothing,’ he stated then. He complained that people within the team who had the role of finding new sponsors had been unable to do so, meaning that he hadn’t been given the pay rise that he felt he was entitled to.
Team sponsor HTC’s agreement to back the squad, the most successful in world cycling, is due to expire at the end of the season. There has been no indications yet that a new backer will be found, although such announcements are normally made at the Tour de France.
Speaking this week, HTC Highroad directeur sportif Brian Holm admitted to VeloNation that there was a chance that Cavendish could head elsewhere.
“Cav ends his contract at the end of this year. Let’s see what happens then,” he said. “If he should leave, we would miss him like hell.”
However he stressed that the team has always been good at identifying talent, had other strong riders and would remain a successful one.
“We won 29 races this year…without [Cavendish], we would have won 25. He`s always a safe ticket for success in the Tour...but well, the new white rabbit out of the hat could be John Degenkolb.”
Degenkolb has had a superb first pro season, netting six victories including two stage wins in the recent Critérium du Dauphiné.
Cavendish’s reported move to Sky Procycling would see a slight change in priorities for the team. It has taken sprint wins this year with riders such as Greg Henderson and Ben Swift, but the Manx rider’s signing would mean that it would have a stronger chance of victories in races such as the Tour.
Going from having a possible sprint winner to the outright favourite would place additional demands on the team, which would have to assume responsibility for chasing breaks and also in keeping the peloton together in the finale. This would mean that many of its riders would have to work hard on the flat stages; if Dauphine winner Wiggins has the condition to fight for victory, he will however need team support in the high mountains. This could stretch the team thin.
HTC Highroad’s forerunner Team Telekom was in a similar position in the past with 1997 Tour winner Jan Ullrich and multiple stage winner Erik Zabel. At times the latter was known to have been frustrated by not to have a stronger sprint team, although on occasion Ullrich himself gave a hand out.
Even if having a GC contender and the sport’s top sprinter in the same colours will place high demands on the other riders, Sky Procycling knows that Cavendish should bring guaranteed wins and take a little pressure off the others in terms of the need for victories. That plus its close links with British Cycling - which wants Cavendish to take a home win at the 2012 Olympics - has meant that his signature has been very high on its wish list for some time. Now, if the reported move plays out as expected, it may have got its man.