Lars-Petter pens one-year deal

Team Sky is pleased to announce that Lars-Petter Nordhaug has signed a new one-year contract.



The 27-year-old Norwegian, who joined Team Sky from Joker Bianchi at the end of the 2009 campaign, has enjoyed another solid season in 2011.

As well as competing in his second Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia, Nordhaug earned three top-10 placings in the Vuelta a Murcia, Critérium International and Coppa Sabatini, and helped Davide Appollonio and Alex Dowsett to stage victories at the Tour du Poitou-Charentes.

Speaking about his contract, Nordhaug said: "I am very happy at Team Sky and am pleased to have signed this new deal. Over the last season I have been given the chance to ride a lot of higher-profile races like the Ardennes Classics and the Giro, and I’ve learnt a lot as a result. I feel a much stronger rider now than I did 12 months ago and hopefully I will be able to keep getting better next season.

"I'm going to continue working hard for the team whilst at the same time trying to make the most of any other chances that come my way. I’ve had some good results this season but it would be nice to get a win for the team.

"I'm delighted that Kurt-Asle Arvesen is staying on in a senior capacity as well because he has been a mentor to me throughout my career and I’ll continue to work closely with him in 2012."


Brailsford buoyed

Team Principal Dave Brailsford has long been an admirer of Nordhaug's capabilities and is happy to have retained his services for next season.

He said: "Lars-Petter is a talented and versatile rider and we have been very impressed with his ability and attitude. He is a strong climber who is also capable of taking some long turns on the front and getting himself in moves whenever he is called upon.

"He is a rider entering the prime of his career and we will be working hard with him over the next 12 months to help him achieve his full potential. We’re all delighted that Lars-Petter has seen Team Sky as the best place to continue his career."

BKCP Bank Short Sleeve Cycling Jersey

BKCP Bank Short Sleeve Cycling Jersey Details

【Fabric Description】 

Cycling jersey Impact-resistant strong degree、good elasticity、Wear resistance 100%All polyester mesh fabric; Cycling pants with 80% polyester and 20% Lycra High elastic fabric.

 【Products】

   1, clothing with a high temperature above 200 degrees Celsius Italian transfer ink to ensure the colorful, never fade.

    2, use of sweat on jersey mesh material through the steam on both sides of three-dimensional structure and special design, can help the process of  riding friends in the movement to better heat dissipation and moisture wicking. Behind the design of clothes, three pockets, can hold water bottles and other things, to facilitate access.

    3, riding pants joined the 20% SPANDE fabrics on the market added more than 10%LYCRA more flexible and more soft, wear is very close, nor will the process in motion have pressure in the thigh. Part of the assigned non-slip rubber trousers low side for easy movement substantially stampede.

【Cushion Description】  

one piece riding trousers with COOLMAX3D cushion, you can quickly poured sweat and moisture away from skin and keep skin dry and comfortable. Soft edge lining, special care of sensitive parts of change, from the sport of cycling in the health vibration and shock Chronic injury.

【Washing instructions】 

The maximum temperature of 30 degrees, wash. Not scrub so as to avoid hook yarn; not use bleach, low iron.

Cycling Team Katusha 2011 Jersey

 The Katusha Team is the most famous Russian team of the cycling world. At its third year, the team has a UCI World Tour license that allows it to participate to all the races of the UCI World calendar. The team is financed by the two major russian Gas providers Gazprom and Itera and it is part of a bigger project organized by the Russian Global Cycling Project foundation. In 2011 Katusha welcome Danilo Di Luca in a family of talented riders like Filippo Pozzato and Sergej Ivanov.

ProTeam gets Continental treatment

The Katusha ProTeam released images of its 2011 jersey today, revealing a design nearly identical to that of the 2010 Continental Itera-Katusha squad. The sponsor logos remain largely the same, with the replacement of previous bike sponsor Ridley with new provider Focus the only major difference.

Trading in a mostly blue and white look, the 2011 Katusha team will be predominantly red and white on the jersey, while blue shorts with red accents and white side panels will distinguish the kit from the old Continental team's look.

The new jersey design was modeled by the team's Italian leader Filippo Pozzato and Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez, the UCI's number one ranked rider for 2010.

British Trio Sign New Sky Deals

Stannard, Kennaugh and Swift have all extended their deals with Team Sky

Team Sky has announced that Ian Stannard, Ben Swift and Peter Kennaugh have all re-signed with the team ahead of the 2012 season.

Since the launch of the team two years ago the young British trio have all become highly valued and versatile members of the squad.

Stannard is now regarded as one of the strongest Classics riders in the team and claimed his first professional victory at the Tour of Austria in July. The 24-year-old from Chelmsford played a key support role for Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins at the Vuelta a Espana in August, was a member of Great Britain’s World Championship-winning road team in September, and has performed successful lead-out duties this season for the likes of Swift, Greg Henderson and Davide Appollonio.

Kennaugh was the team’s only neo-pro during their opening campaign and has matured tremendously during his first two seasons in the professional ranks. Last year the 22-year-old Manxman earned his first Grand Tour ride at the Vuelta a Espana and this season marked himself out as a promising stage-race rider with a podium position at the Route du Sud and a top-five finish in the Tour of Poland.

After an encouraging first season, which yielded Team Sky’s first-ever overall victory at the Tour of Picardie, Swift came of age in 2011 with no less than five sprint victories during the opening five months of the season. That fine form earned the 23-year-old Yorkshireman his first Tour de France ride in July.

If you wanna buy some good & cheap Team Sky Kit or the other Cycling Kit, Click here : http://www.fobett.com

Boasson Hagen Ready To Re-sign With Sky

Edvald Boasson Hagen is on the verge of signing a new three-year contract with Team Sky, according to his agent. The Norwegian also denied that he would have any conflict with new Sky signing Mark Cavendish.

Negotiations started shortly after the Tour de France, and “have been going regularly since then, but for various reasons a binding agreement has not been signed. However, we believe it is getting closer,” his manager Birger Hungerholdt told dagbladet.no.



Boasson Hagen's current contract runs through 2012, but Hungerholdt said that the new contract wold be for three years, through 2014.
“We have a good tone with (Team Sky principal Dave) Brailsford and there are only a few minor details remaining before we are completely satisfied,” he said. “We no longer have contact with the other teams who tried to sign Edvald this summer.”

Hungerholdt added that Cavendish's arrival at the team “changes nothing. We've known since last summer that he was going to ride for Team Sky next year. Edvald will still get plenty of chances.”

Boasson Hagen himself also saw no problem. “It's going to work out fine. We are different riders,” he told Norwegian TV2. “I will take the stages he doesn't go for.”

News via cyclingnews

If you wanna buy some good & cheap Team Sky Kit or the other Cycling Kit, Click here : http://www.fobett.com

Team HTC-Highroad Takes High Road Out Of Cycling

HTC-Highroad, one of cycling's most successful teams, will close its doors at the end of the season.

It leaves Australians Matt Goss, Mark Renshaw and Leigh Howard to find new jobs.

Both Renshaw from Bathurst, NSW and Howard, 21, from Geelong, were under contract for next year.

All three are now expected to be a target for the Gerry Ryan-back GreenEdge consortium out of Melbourne looking to join the UCI World Tour in January.

It comes with news today, GreenEdge announded their first signings, rising track and road stars Jack Bobrdige from Gawler, South Australia, along with brothers Cameron and Travis Meyer from Perth from the Garmin-Cervelo squad.

Earlier in the week the first crack in the HTC armada appeared with news of Slovak brothers Martin and Peter Velits joining Belgium rivals Quick Step.



Bob Stapleton, owner of HTC-Highroad, announced overnight that he was unable to secure a new sponsorship partner to carry the team forward at the competitive and ethical level that he and his staff wanted.

The team has just come off one of its most successful Tour de France campaigns in its six years in the peloton, winning six stages, with the Manx Missile, Mark Cavendish, grabbing five and taking the green sprinter's jersey for the first time.

Though negotiations with potential sponsors and a possible merger deal with another team continued right up until the end, Stapleton decided it was better to end the team rather than compromise the team's competitive and management legacy with something that wouldn't allow him to compete with the biggest and best teams in cycling.

“We decided the best thing to do was to release our athletes, staff and management to pursue other career options,” Stapleton said.

“It is in their best interest to go forward with their career options.”

Stapleton said the hunt for a new sponsor dated back to last year, and included talks with existing HTC sponsor, whose three-year deal expires at the end of the current season.

When negotiations with HTC stalled, talks with potential title sponsors and possible mergers with up to seven teams offered some hope the team could continue.

“We thought we had a partner that would have given us the necessary budget to operate the team on the same level as the past four years, but that deal collapsed Sunday night.

“It was right during my wife's 50th birthday dinner party. We had e-mails and phone calls,” Stapleton explained.

“We proceeded with other options. We ended our discussions with HTC last night. We decided that one final merger scenario would not succeed early this morning.”

Riders were informally told Monday they could start considering other options.



Cavendish on Tuesday told the BBC that he had already decided on a new team for next year.

The green jersey winner in Paris has been linked to Team Sky, but he was reportedly waiting for Stapleton to find a deal.

When a late-hour Stapleton deal looked increasingly unlikely, Cavendish pulled the trigger.

There is also growing speculation that Cavendish has reached a deal with GreenEDGE, but neither team backer Gerry Ryan or his son Andrew returned The Australian's phone calls this morning.

There was no official confirmation yet on where Cavendish is headed.

Stapleton expressed his frustration he was unable to “get it done” when it came to securing the team's financial future.

“It was becoming increasingly difficult to compete with what he called `super teams', such as the News Corporation-backed Team Sky out of the UK and Katusha, which boast budgets in excess of $20 million per season.

“We faced a tough dilemma,” Stapleton said.

“With the rise of the super teams, it was a question of having enough money to have the team be at a leadership level of the sport, and the need to bring in substantially more funds.

“The stakes of having a top team have changed. You have the haves and the have-nots, it's a destabilising factor in the sport. It was a factor in our decision-making process.

“We produced heavyweight results with a middleweight budget. We were very average in our budget.
“You can do that against people who are 50-per cent bigger than yours, but when it's 100-per cent more, with such a narrow talent pool, it becomes very difficult.

“If we couldn't be close enough with the financial power, and if we couldn’t be in a leadership position of the sport, we wouldn't be in position to drive change.”

Stapleton said he was hopeful that the team's top riders & staff, including media manager Kristy Scrymgouer, another Australian, would be able to find jobs within the professional peloton.

But the California-based Stapleton was still hopeful of keeping the women's program going next season.

“I'd like to come through for our girls,” Stapleton said.

“They deserve it and the signing schedule is a little different for women, so there is still some more time.”

Stapleton came into women's cycling in 2004, and the men's program two years later - largely to help salvage the scandal-plagued T-Mobile team.