Louis Meintjes signs for Lampre-Merida

[Shebeen]

Seriously, the timing stinks a bit for mtnq, to lose one of their crown jewels whilst sponsorship is unconfirmed must really have hurt.

[Bianchisti]

Perhaps I am old school, but I feel Louis owes Doug a debt of gratitude and his move to Lampre is a slap in the face. Louis is still young, still developing, still learning and still maturing physically. He has enormous time in hand (accepted accidents can shut him down fast so there is always risk). He is a fantastic talent. Doug acknowledged this and spent a fortune developing him. Louis is only now (2016) coming to the point where he can reward the investment. To dump his team like this without considering the greater importance of ties, trust and reputation places, in my books, a question mark against his moral values.

I am very disappointed in the boy.

Every other company in the world has this problem of staff retention. Everyone is fighting for the best talent out there. Sadly it's just business. In the case of Pro cycling it's a cut throat business fighting for rare talent.

[Erroli8a8]

I think that Louis made the right decision to go to Pro team. If you knew that you were the best rider in a team that did not have a sponsor for next year then you have to think what future do you have? how he chose to go to LM only he knows and from all the stories about Louis being an intelligent bike rider etc I do not think that he made this choice willy nilly. He knows that he cant expect to step into a top team as the main GC rider so maybe he chose a slightly smaller team were he can be placed high on the list allowing him to race and not to support.

 

after the TDF it was just time before he got offers that he could not refuse, I think that we all knew that but deep down we wished that he would stay.

[tombeej]

LM goes to LM.next thing I hear they based in maputo

 

 

One step further, I can see a local Moz co-sponsor coming on board...

 

LM p/b 2M

[NotSoBigBen]

Seriously, the timing stinks a bit for mtnq, to lose one of their crown jewels whilst sponsorship is unconfirmed must really have hurt.

 

I think that may have put him between a rock and a hard place, risk staying with a team that ends up with no sponsorship or make the leap and move?

[Baaisikilist]

Perhaps I am old school, but I feel Louis owes Doug a debt of gratitude and his move to Lampre is a slap in the face. Louis is still young, still developing, still learning and still maturing physically. He has enormous time in hand (accepted accidents can shut him down fast so there is always risk). He is a fantastic talent. Doug acknowledged this and spent a fortune developing him. Louis is only now (2016) coming to the point where he can reward the investment. To dump his team like this without considering the greater importance of ties, trust and reputation places, in my books, a question mark against his moral values.

I am very disappointed in the boy.

Did you have a lil chat with Dougie boy over the phone between stages...?

[xcd]

I think that may have put him between a rock and a hard place, risk staying with a team that ends up with no sponsorship or make the leap and move?

I feel for Doug as well - it's a difficult juggling act this time of the year. you can't get a good sponsor without good riders and you can't get good riders if you don't have a good sponsor. Mtn disclosing there intent the way they did,does not help matters.

[Jewbacca]

It must really suck to follow the path of career success that leads you to the lime light..

 

One day you are a young bike rider vying for position, fighting for a place to fulfill your dream of riding a pro tour and the next you are having your morals, decisions and character picked apart by a bunch of keyboard bashing bicycle abusers.

 

In terms of nurture and investment of talent there will almost always be a party that loses out. The trick is not to throw sour grapes around about it.

 

Professional sport is just that, cut throat and competitive in every aspect. At one stage half the Chelsea and Man United teams were made up of West Ham youths, two thirds of the starting 15 Sharks 'invincible' team of the 90's were from Free State, both having groomed, nurtured and spent money on developing talent only to see it performing for their rivals.

 

I think lets just let it go and stop assuming we all know best.

 

It is done. Support the guy and wish him a bright future. Surely that is what is in everybody's best interest? Much like the Springbok selection, be positive in the decision and support it. They are our boys and represent our country. 

 

You can't change it and deep down you still want to see everybody do well at the end of the day, even if you don't wholeheartedly agree...

[ewep]

Perhaps I am old school, but I feel Louis owes Doug a debt of gratitude and his move to Lampre is a slap in the face. Louis is still young, still developing, still learning and still maturing physically. He has enormous time in hand (accepted accidents can shut him down fast so there is always risk). He is a fantastic talent. Doug acknowledged this and spent a fortune developing him. Louis is only now (2016) coming to the point where he can reward the investment. To dump his team like this without considering the greater importance of ties, trust and reputation places, in my books, a question mark against his moral values.

I am very disappointed in the boy.

 

Moral values vs. making a good living?  We have a saying in the IT contracting world, if you want loyalty get a dog!  Best move for him as a person at this point in time as the Qhubeka team is sponsorless and why should he stay?  Good luck to him.

[Patchelicious]

Everybody wants everybody else to play, ride, race or work for "pride"... until it comes to their own salary negotiations.

[Oxter]

It must really suck to follow the path of career success that leads you to the lime light..

 

One day you are a young bike rider vying for position, fighting for a place to fulfill your dream of riding a pro tour and the next you are having your morals, decisions and character picked apart by a bunch of keyboard bashing bicycle abusers.

 

In terms of nurture and investment of talent there will almost always be a party that loses out. The trick is not to throw sour grapes around about it.

 

Professional sport is just that, cut throat and competitive in every aspect. At one stage half the Chelsea and Man United teams were made up of West Ham youths, two thirds of the starting 15 Sharks 'invincible' team of the 90's were from Free State, both having groomed, nurtured and spent money on developing talent only to see it performing for their rivals.

 

I think lets just let it go and stop assuming we all know best.

 

It is done. Support the guy and wish him a bright future. Surely that is what is in everybody's best interest? Much like the Springbok selection, be positive in the decision and support it. They are our boys and represent our country. 

 

You can't change it and deep down you still want to see everybody do well at the end of the day, even if you don't wholeheartedly agree...

This +1...People should Stop B!thsen around and just support the guy in what he does.  If you get a better career opportunity at work would you say "no thank you, this company spent a lot of money training me so i owe them".  I Watched an interview with Kevin Anderson this morning and it got me thinking(a SA tennis player for those of you who don't know).  He went through the same thing or even worse.  He received no real support from TSA to get where he is now, but everyone questioned him (his morals and Patriotism).  Fact is he is flying our flag in grand slams and has never said anything bad about SA.  Point is people are stupid and bring to much emotion into stuff like this.

[Jaco-fiets]

I was waiting for Andrew to run his mouth about Louis signing with Lampre. I am sure he really had to keep it in....

[Nibali]

Check this weeks GCN Show, LM gets a mention and there's a brief explanation as to why he moved over. Quite cool to see a Saffa featuring on the show.

[Shebeen]

Check this weeks GCN Show, LM gets a mention and there's a brief explanation as to why he moved over. Quite cool to see a Saffa featuring on the show.

would like to watch that, link?

 

I've kind of changed my view on this a bit. I do think that Doug would feel a bit let down, especially since he had indicated that he would be staying, 

 

BUT

 

c'mon we all knew this oke was golden. put him in the limelight this year and watch him light the hills up! So he does exactly that, and now the big offers start coming in.

Why, didn't they contract him for a longer period - when they had the opportunity?

 

BUT chapeau to Doug Ryder, he's built an amazing team up, it's definitely bigger than the sum of all its parts. 

[Nibali]

would like to watch that, link?

 

I've kind of changed my view on this a bit. I do think that Doug would feel a bit let down, especially since he had indicated that he would be staying, 

 

BUT

 

c'mon we all knew this oke was golden. put him in the limelight this year and watch him light the hills up! So he does exactly that, and now the big offers start coming in.

Why, didn't they contract him for a longer period - when they had the opportunity?

 

BUT chapeau to Doug Ryder, he's built an amazing team up, it's definitely bigger than the sum of all its parts. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1wmZJv2fSE

 

Featuring Pauline Ferrand-Prévot as well

 

I agree with everything after the first BUT in your post. He is a major talent and Doug knew the offers would start rolling in soon, so bad luck for Qhubeka there. I'm looking forward to see what he manages to do at Lampre-Merida.

[Oxter]

Check this weeks GCN Show, LM gets a mention and there's a brief explanation as to why he moved over. Quite cool to see a Saffa featuring on the show.

Will have a look thanks.  i like that show