Norwegian turns down director sportif position with Team Sky
Kurt Asle Arvesen has decided that he will see his contract through with Team Sky…as a bike racer. Recently, Dave Brailsford’s team offered Arvesen this interesting possibility of hanging up his race wheels for the wheels on the Sky Jaguars – the 35 year old all-arounder was offered a spot as a director sportif on the first year squad.
After weighing his options, Arvesen has decided that he will continue racing through at least 2011. The multi-time Norwegian national champion’s adviser, Geir Kamsvag, recently spoke with VG Nett on the topic of Arvesen’s future.
“Kurt is at an age where it is natural that has other job offers. We have reviewed these and found that he has much more to give as a cyclist. The calls were so serious though that we had to take a step back and look at the alternatives.”
A collarbone fracture at the very start of the season, a hurt knee, and sickness all have combined to make his debut season with Team Sky a difficult one to say the least. The bad luck of the early season manifested itself later in the season in a slew of missed opportunities in the biggest races of the year, notably the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana, and most recently, the World Championships. The struggling Norwegian star is back to racing now though and is currently headed to Canada to take part in the country’s two one day ProTour events.
“First and foremost, the injuries have wreaked havoc on him. He has been hurt several times, and it’s hard having to build up [from scratch] again and again.”
There is still time for the Tour de France stage winner to notch up some hopeful results ahead of the end of 2010. 2011 will be a critical year for the former E3 Prijs winner, and it’s certainly not clear whether he will continue one past next season.
“We have not talked about whether he will continue beyond that though. Kurt wants to take it one year at a time, then we’ll see. He knows, however, that he is nearing the end of his career.”