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.