Might seem a silly question really, but without being a fountain of knowledge about the sport and generally year on year having my interest in Cycling piqued by the TdF.. ive always wondered if there is/was a team that had an unlimited budget per se, and essentially signed all the best riders?
Is that even possible? Do cycling teams have caps/restrictions etc, Would riders even sign for teams that are stacked... for example 2 or 3 top sprinters like Greipel, Cavendish, Sagan etc, would they put themselves in a position where by they were all in the same team and as such not always the 'Man' to take the sprints?
Then if that did happen, would it help the sport or hinder it? If one team had the majority of the talent (well as much as they could fit into their roster) and attempted to dominate the season calendar? Would it bring in excitement to see such a project? Would it add to the underdog feeling and wanting the 'rich boys' to fail?
Its all a hypothetical question and may not be relevant assuming there are restrictions in as to how teams can be run, but if it was possible, id love to hear from those with the knowledge of cycling and the sport to give me an insight... that includes feeling free to call me an idiot for even thinking of something like this
it's techinically possible but highly unrealistic as the top riders usually don't want to work for someone else while they feel they could win themself. we've seen this at HTC with Cavendish and Greipel, who didn't want to work with eachother anymore when Greipel felt he could match Cavendish's level.
mixed feelings about it being better however, we know that Team Sky isn't liked very much within this site at least and I know that people wouldn't mind that Sky would go pretty much without the big wins they are getting now. although a theorically superteam is probably only a replacement for what is now team Sky.
also feel like it worhty to address that only one team that has a "Dubai" feel to it is Tinkoff with Oleg Tinkoff but looking past Contador and Sagan, no results really stand out, so having a lot of money isn't automatic making you win every race.
BMC signing Evans, Ballan, Phinney, Van Garderen, Gilbert and Hushovd to big contracts between 2010-2012 comes to mind. That was pretty impressive money wise and earned them the nickname Barcelona of the peloton.
I always considered T-Mobile/Telekom and US Postal Service/Discovery Channel to be pretty stacked with top notch riders of similiar calibre and strenghts and ambitions. Armstrong, Herras, Leipheimer, Hamilton... On the other side, Klöden, Vinokourow, Ullrich.. Totschnig (lol, jk). Both managed fairly well their leaders and lieutnants, however in more or less completely different ways.
Sure, Team SKY was pretty mental some years ago and 2012 with Cavendish and then no-name Froome and Wiggins on the top of his popularity is maybe the closest we've come to a team performing on "superteam"-level, where big names fought for the glory amongs the team. SKY did not manage the Tour well at all when you look back at it and eventually paid for it: Cavendish left, Wiggins was pissed for over a year and came only very slowly to terms with it, Froome lost potential support before he could even lay a claim to the up and coming star of Tour racing.
Spilak's example of BMC is also very good: I remember that people talked about BMC as some second coming back then and they were supposed to win pretty much almost everything; as it stands, there is still no monument, one Grand Tour and some classic and stage wins. That's about it. It shows that signing big names can only get so you so far; BMC in particularl did at times a.. strange job at managing its abnormal amount of talent. And I'm not talking only about BMC Gilbert who loses to Gilbert 2011 any day of the week, but the general notion of things there. It seems they are improving in recent years though.
Recently, the level of cycling is pretty much a leveled playing field. From the looks of it, most teams seem to be content with two big leaders: SKY (Froome/Porte), Katusha (Purito/Kristoff), Astana (Nibali/Aru), Giant (Kittel/Degenkolb), Tinkoff (Contador/Sagan), Etix QS (Boonen/Cavendish), Movistar (Valv/Quintana)... around that many other good and top riders but only so many definiite leaders. Even BMC have drastically decreased the amount of top tier leaders to like 3 (GVA, TVG & Gilbert).
Me personally, I don't like overachieving teams and teams that buy together their riders like it's nothing; I love cycling partly because of the diversity it has, from the countries you see to the riders who can celebrate a win. A superteam would hurt the fun of it, though I admit seeing a superteam fail is always a bit.. nice.
So, yes: It's possible. Oleg Tinkov talks on twitter numerous times about signing whoever he wants, including Froome etc. But just because it's possible doesn't mean it's recommended. You basically pay a higher wage than they got before, you pay them extra for them splitting the leader role with other guys and to (maybe) deny their own ambitions. You pay them more than their normal market price and for a super team, this means higher costs all around.
Oleg Tinkov is already pissed at Sagan and regrets the hefty contract to which he has signed Sagan. He has hinted that there may be a contract termination at some point.. It's Tinkov, he talks a lot but you see that the financial interests behind such a possible superteam is enormous. Tinkov hasn't even really started yet signing his names for the superteam and he already thinks about giving up. And the guy may be a lunatic but he has money and somewhat somehow loves cycling, I guess.
Worth noting, Etixx QS can be considered the superteam of the cobblestones, despite the lack of Cancellara and Vanmarcke, just because of the enormous investment on their side into these races and rider types. But that is also maybe more down to their heritage on Quick Step side, who have been part of Mapei-Quick Step cobblestone dreams in 90ies.
Edited by Shonak on 03-07-2015 20:33
"It’s a little bit scary when Contador attacks." - Tommy V
Telekom, maybe (the probably paid the highest wages in the early to mid 00's I would think), but wouldnt say US Postal. Apart from Armstrong and its great mountain domestiques (Heras, Azavedo, Landis and to some extend Savoldelli (won the Giro at US Postal in 05, but unsure how long he rode for them), Beltran and Hamilton (wasnt the 03' Hamilton at all at US Postal), they didnt bring too much to the table elsewhere. Sure, they had Hincapie as well, but he couldnt win in the classics.
Telekom was a bit more like it. Fielding Vino, Klöden and Ulle with Mazzoleni and Sevilla in the mountains 2005-Tour is big time, also having had Botero, Zabel etc. through the early mid 20's.
CSC also deserves a mention. From 2006-2010, they pretty much was the biggest team in cycling. Basso was suspended in 2006, but Frank and Andy quickly evolved into superstars in that period (at least Andy), also fielding classics specialists as O'Grady andCancellara (pretty much Cances prime, no?), alrounders Julich and Voight and obviously also Sastre.
CSC 2007-2008 counts as cheating
Northernclassics:Cancellara,O'Grady
TTs:Cancellara
Ardennes:Frank and Andy
Stage Races:Sastre,Andy,Frank
EDIT:Besides joking,it was a great team with favourites on all terrains(except sprinting)and some of my favourite riders(Andy,Sastre,Spartacus and Frank)were there.
Edited by Forever the Best on 03-07-2015 21:28
The Schleck Fan wrote:
CSC 2007-2008 counts as cheating
Northernclassics:Cancellara,O'Grady
TTs:Cancellara
Ardennes:Frank and Andy
Stage Races:Sastre,Andy,Frank
Pretty impressive considering their budget was average at best for a PT Team.
I don't think there's been any team that have had those kind of resources- Ballan and Hushovd were past their best, and injured- and Telekom(doped), Sky(probably doped) and almost certainly Tinkoff(probably doped) haven't been able to utilise these resources at once effectively.
Disclaimer- Most of my posts are me thinking aloud. And most of what I think is rubbish.
Winner of a FIFA Prediction Fair Play Award (a phrase becoming increasingly ironic) "... Because he (me) has a sound tactical mind in general..." jandal7, at 9:30 am GMT on 12th May 2016
