Euskaltel saved

Harrybelafonte

Fernando Alonso has apparently just bought the team

Edited to say he's bought the licence for the team and is looking for sponsors.

Zyzz

Had to google translate*

"The Spaniard has always expressed his enthusiasm to somehow enter the sport he loves. He works in Formula-1, loves cycling. "Someday I'll have my own cycling team," he said in Turkey in 2007.
Until that day, as close to his dream was a computer game in which consumed hours and hours and always drew the same satisfaction: attacking his rivals in the mountains.
By the spell of Indurain, five consecutive Tours, was born Alonso's fondness for cycling. That and the bike has roots in Asturias, in the nineties became a team, the Clas-Cajastur, on a flag.

Now, to find sponsors."



He's worth something like 100+ million lol

And yup this is him

Darkglasses

Sí. Muy bueno!

http://www.elperiodico.com/es/noticias/deportes/fernando-alonso-compra-euskaltel-2619778

I'm glad they got their buyer. It's not altogether surprising but Alonso and the other backers sure left it late.

rollingscone

You think with that net worth he'd spend a bit more on his bi...cheque please!

ThisRegard

I seem to remember seeing him on some program or another talking about his passion for cycling, and there's almost as many photos of him on a road or mountain bike as there as of him in his F1 car, he seems to train a lot with the MMR Bikes team.


Photos on his twitter feed show him with shaved legs and his razor of choice, and him doing a time trial,
http://api.ning.com/files/q0WmifDxwDua1uEKI4rnat49du83Etz5sxRC1toB7XAu7LacQ3xEdBsm*EleyWTFvJeEXN5ZhKDmiludjmCxmsUy6t987S3n/fa.png

ZiabR

Delighted!

He posted on Twitter last night that he had a big announcement coming in the next few days. Great news for the team, they got their buyer.

C3PO

http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/news/51059/Alonso-set-to-acquire-Euskaltel-Euskadi-WorldTour-licence

alexanderomahon

Is he a Basque?

Harrybelafonte

No, he's not Basque. He's from Asturias.

granda

just waiting for an all conquering 'red bull' team now

Junior

Two interesting tweets from Dan Llyod today

Alonso came on a training ride with us at Cérvelo in 2009. He was embarrassingly good - it wasn't an easy ride. In the end, I asked the…

…following car to stop giving him bottles and food. He blew up with half an hour to go, made me feel a lot better.


https://twitter.com/daniellloyd1/status/374506996630048769

https://twitter.com/daniellloyd1/status/374507147729829888

Zyzz

According to his twitter he had clocked up close to 7000km on the bike this year, impressive stuff for an F1 driver!

And his legs look insane aswel!

http://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/356474943686451200/photo/1

DaithiMC

Zyzz wrote: »

According to his twitter he had clocked up close to 7000km on the bike this year, impressive stuff for an F1 driver!

And his legs look insane aswel!

http://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/356474943686451200/photo/1

F1 drivers are among the most fit athletes. Many of the top drivers are also cracking god cyclists and/or triathletes, Rosberg, Button to name a couple. Being a fan of both sports, there are similarities in terms of strategies and they are both sports where the teams have to work to give their leader the glory! So I can see why this would be attractive for Alonso. Hopefully it might incite others to join the party!

hardCopy

Preview of their bikes for next year:

godtabh

Zyzz wrote: »

According to his twitter he had clocked up close to 7000km on the bike this year, impressive stuff for an F1 driver!

And his legs look insane aswel!

http://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/356474943686451200/photo/1

I would have thought he would have done more.

I know that F1 guys are extremely fit hence why I'd assume he would be doing massive milage to keep fit.

mistermatthew

godtabh wrote: »

I would have thought he would have done more.

I know that F1 guys are extremely fit hence why I'd assume he would be doing massive milage to keep fit.

Average 40k cycle and 4k run a day approximately. That is quite a lot

Harrybelafonte

Pfft, I used to cycle that to work every day and run more than that around the office daily

mistermatthew

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

Pfft, I used to cycle that to work every day and run more than that around the office daily

But were you TTing 21k in 28:43?

Lol. Not a bad aul rider

Harrybelafonte

No, of course not... I was down to 27:58, on my commuter with panniers.

AnotherView

So does this mean Contador will leave Saxo ??
I believe Bjarne Riis is having difficulty covering his 4 million plus salary ???

gordongekko

AnotherView wrote: »

So does this mean Contador will leave Saxo ??
I believe Bjarne Riis is having difficulty covering his 4 million plus salary ???

wow 4 million. He has not been good value for that this year so far. Is that 4 million £,$ or € ?

AnotherView

gordongekko wrote: »

wow 4 million. He has not been good value for that this year so far. Is that 4 million £,$ or € ?

it's €4.5 million per year to be more precise
Its why Tinkoff was having a stinkoff so to speak, saying it is twice that of Chris Froome

Zyzz

godtabh wrote: »

I would have thought he would have done more.

I know that F1 guys are extremely fit hence why I'd assume he would be doing massive milage to keep fit.

Im sure he has racked up quite a large amount of km with other sports, seems like hes into a bit of everything!

quozl

Zyzz wrote: »

seems like hes into a bit of everything!

So you're saying that I have a chance with Alonso!

/man crush

granda

cant wait to see the ferrari's with the bike racks

Harrybelafonte

RunDMC

From Oviedo, about 100km west of Bilbao. He said he'll be moving the team, but no detail on where.

R

Zyzz

:pac:

Eamonnator

Zyzz wrote: »

According to his twitter he had clocked up close to 7000km on the bike this year, impressive stuff for an F1 driver!

And his legs look insane aswel!

http://twitter.com/alo_oficial/status/356474943686451200/photo/1

I've done 10,000Km on my bike this year.
Why don't my legs look like his?.

Darkglasses

AnotherView wrote: »

So does this mean Contador will leave Saxo ??
I believe Bjarne Riis is having difficulty covering his 4 million plus salary ???

I'd say highly likely. There's still about 2 years left on his Saxo contract though as far as I can remember, but Saxo will be keen to let him go I imagine.

Brian?

Darkglasses wrote: »

I'd say highly likely. There's still about 2 years left on his Saxo contract though as far as I can remember, but Saxo will be keen to let him go I imagine.

Keen to let go of the greatest grand tour rider of his generation? I seriously doubt it. This time 12 months ago he won the Vuelta. He had a terrible Tour by his standards, but he's not finished.

I can see him doing a Nibali next year
and winning the Giro and Vuelta.

Squidgy Black

Brian? wrote: »

Keen to let go of the greatest grand tour rider of his generation? I seriously doubt it. This time 12 months ago he won the Vuelta. He had a terrible Tour by his standards, but he's not finished.

I can see him doing a Nibali next year
and winning the Giro and Vuelta.

He's on an enormous salary, for what he's being paid he just isn't getting the results. €4.5 million a year, compared to the €1.2 of Gilbert or the €800,000 of Chavanel or Voeckler. The average salary in the peloton is €218,00

His salary is more than the rest of the team's combined, so I'd say they'd be more than happy to let him go.

godtabh

What's Nico's salary since we are on the subject?

AnotherView

He is not going to do any Giro /Vuelta doubles as he really wants to win the Tour de France and doesn't care about the other GTs

According to some article I read his relationship with Bjarne Riis is strained cos he wouldn't ride the Vuelta.....An there is talk of Tinkoff wanting to stay if Contador went or took a massive pay cut..and this caused further friction


Riis has been through a lot for Alberto so we can only wait and see

Zyzz

Eamonnator wrote: »

I've done 10,000Km on my bike this year.
Why don't my legs look like his?.

Have those 10000km been with pro teams and pro riders following a pro training plan? :pac:

godtabh

Zyzz wrote: »

Have those 10000km been with pro teams and pro riders following a pro training plan? :pac:

Obviously

Zyzz

godtabh wrote: »

Obviously

Actually more important question, are your legs shaved?






:pac::p

mahoo

A driver buying an entire team of cyclists.. there's an argument in here somewhere ...Just highlights the gulf in money in the two sports. Next up will be RVP buying VCD

happytramp

mahoo wrote: »

A driver buying an entire team of cyclists.. there's an argument in here somewhere

According to Cyclingnews.com he's going to insist that they train in single file, use cycle lanes and pay road tax.

Harrybelafonte

How it happened:

http://velonews.competitor.com/2013/09/analysis/inside-formula-one-pilot-alonsos-euskaltel-rescue_302449

Eamonnator

Zyzz wrote: »

Actually more important question, are your legs shaved?






:pac::p

I'm afraid, to say, that they are.

niceonetom

Euskaltel Euskadi team confirms Alonso deal is off and team will be dissolved...

gordongekko

niceonetom wrote: »

Euskaltel Euskadi team confirms Alonso deal is off and team will be dissolved...

Ah no that's terrible.

AG2R

A lot of big and good riders up for grabs now, some of them will end up unattached but others will be snapped up fairly sharpish imo

DaithiMC

niceonetom wrote: »

Euskaltel Euskadi team confirms Alonso deal is off and team will be dissolved...

He must have been p**ed off at losing to Vettel again at the weekend!

Harrybelafonte

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Well, I guess I can snap up some kit now and wear it without entering Fred territory. Cna match the bike and the bottle.

In all honesty, as opposed to the comment in the article, I think their demise is a big loss to the peloton. I'll miss the sea of orange and the Basque flags

biketard

Damn, this is very sad news indeed.

Cookie_Monster

His desire to relocate the team from the Basque country to Asturias was also said to be an issue, as was a request for an audit of the team accounts.

Bizarre issue, I wonder what they are trying to hide?

wirelessdude01

Isn't an audit of the accounts standard practice for any business transaction? Something going on here that they don't want uncovered.

Gonna be a lot of good riders available now.

Cookie_Monster

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Isn't an audit of the accounts standard practice for any business transaction? Something going on here that they don't want uncovered.

sure is.
If you were spending 2 million and the team / company you wanted to buy said you couldn't see the accounts it raises massive questions and it's time to just walk away before you get burned big time.

wirelessdude01

They will use the base move as the excuse for the team not being saved. Anyway wonder now who will get the licence?