Sky Cycling Team

Does this mean that Garmin are lining up Contador as their GT contender?

Nope.

This is excellent news. Pity the team aren't sponsored by a free TV channel though.

Tom, if they were he'd be lucky to get a ride around Richmond Park.

Dynamo membership is pretty costly.

I suspect you're right. Still, would be funny. It'd be hilarious if Radioshack got left high and dry, though.

Mr. Armstrong pays ( sorry, donates) the UCI vast sums of money to ensure things like this don't happen to him.

4 year deal. He's getting paaaaaiid

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/dec/10/bradley-wiggins-team-sky-transfer

problem is, I bet sky will take the TDF from Eurosport now and put it on one of the premium subscription sports channels.

Eurosport are tied in until 2012 I believe.

2013, just checked.

whew. nice one.

i bet Mr. Murdoch could buy them out though.

http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/434474/wiggins-signs-four-year-contract-with-team-sky.html

"Thomas Lövkvist expects to see himself confirmed as Team Sky's captain for next year's Tour de France. “When we come to the Tour de France, I will be riding for the general classification,” he told eurosport.se."
www.cyclingnews.com, from about four days ago.

There may be trouble ahead...

I'll be interested to see what coverage Sky will give the Tour.
I'd imagine it will be on Sky Sports for the first time, and with all that advertising, I bet they don't put it on pay-per-view

It's going to be interesting, I'm sure some of the riders won't gel with the way Brailsford wants the team to run.

he has already stated he will simply sack them if that happens.

Why would they not listen?

He's got success stories falling out of him like sausage rolls from the pockets of a fat fucker trying to run.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/cycling/8397628.stm confirmed....

Funny, given all the 'Garmin are awesome', 'Wiggins is signed for Garmin in 2010' chatter that was going on for the 6 months prior to now. Money talks.

Speaking to the magazine Cycling Weekly, Garmin-Slipstream manager Jonathan Vaughters said: "I would have to be clinically insane to sell that contract. It would represent a loss of a great rider and person, a loss of image, a loss of credibility and a loss of potential results."

Looks like he's clinically insane, then.

interview with wiggins currently on bbc five live.

Not so sure its a good move for him, will take a while for the team to gel and Wiggins needs a good team straight away.

Cervelo Test Team? They were new at the start of this season and were winning immediately. I see no reason why Sky can't have the same impact.

True but no guarantees and are they sure of an invite to the tour?

Not really. He stated a while back that he reckoned that he could win both the Olympics and the TdF in the same year. Sky's remit is to win the TdF by 2014 (oh look, in time for them to take over the broadcast contract). Brad's only really angling for a podium position this year, not a GC win. With the season the way it is now, that's four months to get to know your team mates (he won't be completely unfamiliar) and a couple of months to get used to delivering tactics before the TdF. Pretty decent chance of a good performance already.

As for Sky being invited. I'd take it as a safe bet really. I think that the idea of a national team will quite attractive to the ASO. It makes sense to encourage some of this, not just for the riders but for the image of the sport, which is already getting a lot cleaner.

True but no guarantees and are they sure of an invite to the tour?

see above comment about australian media mogul who the organisers of the Tour probably don't want to piss off