mudrock:http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/transfers.asp Check out what Cycling Quotient has to say; a lot of big riders leaving CTT. Pauwels, Gerrans (thank you Van Poppel for the first 2), Hammond, Haussler, Klier (question marks about the last 3). Just as Saxo riders got fed up with sacrificing their chances for Sastre last year, so are some of CTT's most ambitious riders on the way out now.
The CQ ranking stuff is obviously highly inaccurate. There are potential riders mentioned we have zero interest in and never spoken to, Haussler is now completely gone from the list despite having signed until 2012, etc, etc. As for Carlos at CSC, out of the 29 teammates Carlos had at CSC last year, I will bet you that 27 would still go through a fire for him. Two would not. I have no idea why you would even think that, who sacrificed anything for Carlos last year? He wasn't appointed team leader, and until Alpe d'Huez where he had the strength to attack and Frank Schleck did not, the team really rode for Frank. So most of the sacrifices were not done for Carlos.
The riders at CSC liked riding for Carlos, in fact, several with their contracts up would like to join CTT, but we have no room as almost nobody is leaving. I just spent four days at Interbike, and saw a lot of (ex-) CSC riders and staff. It's amazing how every single one of them can see what apparently most on the outside cannot. They all know how important Carlos is for a team, that he is the best in the world to make a team function and that he is one of our key success factors. Those who can't understand that, too bad, I would just advice not to start your own cycling team.
As for a lot of big riders leaving CTT, I guess by now you have seen that none of the big riders are leaving, in fact they are all signing extensions. I think in the end 4-5 are leaving, a very low number compared to other teams, even teams with the budget to keep everybody if the riders wanted to stay. I don't see the problem with that, I know that some people think the Pauwels situation is something to get excited about, but the reality is that the Belgian teams never gave him a chance, CTT did, he was able to make himself visible, and in the end he was torn between Sky and CTT. He really didn't leave because of JP. He ended up with a very good contract, so it's all good. If you want to get upset about something, how about two Belgian ProTour teams who overlook such a local talent? Sometimes it seems people suspect a lot more intrige than is really there.
All our key riders, like Thor, Heino, Andreas, Carlos, Roger, Ignatas, Brett, etc, etc, etc are all here for the long run. For those who are looking for big name signings, with the core of the team staying, there is no reason to expect a big announcement. As for people wanting or not wanting to be on the team, I think the 300 applications we have received from riders say enough.
One more comment on the ProTour license, we are a Continental Pro team with Wildcard, which basically means we fulfill the same financial and administrative requirements as a ProTour team. Our budget is guaranteed for the four years, the bank guarantees are in place, and unlike some ProTour teams, ours aren't needed as we pay everybody on time (which where we come from isn't really anything special of course). The big difference between ProTour and non-ProTour is that if you get the ProTour license, you are obliged to do all ProTour races. And that's too much for us, we want to do some of them but not all (for example this year the Tour de Suisse but not the Dauphine, and not the Tour of Poland). Nothing against these races, but with a team of 22-25 riders, you are stretching your riders too thinly if you want to do all that, especially if you run into some injuries. The concensus is that you need 28 riders if you want to do a good job in all ProTour events, and we obviously don't have that many. And of course a big difference is that our budget is smaller. While the ProTour doesn't require any specific amount, it is clear that with a limited budget, it's better to stay a bit smaller than to stretch yourself too far.
In closing, I truly think it's nice to see that so many are passionate about how this team does, but I really wonder why the reactions have to be so extreme and sometimes hateful towards people you really don't know at all, other than what you may perceive in the media. I think everybody would have a lot more fun with this sport without those excesses.