IIRC, the HTC team were the ex T Mobile team and were still receiving residual funding as part of the deal when T Mobile withdrew from cycling i.e. the HTC team were never fully funded by the sponsors on the shirts. When Cav left, the team had no offering to attract additional sponsors and were no longer viable.
I thought Cav left
because the team was folding. And went to Sky who were so obviously unsuitable even I could see it.
Maybe you're right and it was the other way round and the team folded in part
because Cav left.
I just remember being disappointed that a team with Cav, Renshaw and Eisel and others all on top of their game suddenly stopped.
But he only did a year at sky didnt he ? I think he had more wins there than at quickstep.
Yes, but the momentum of his career was interrupted by the HTC team being broken up. (That's my memory of it. Maybe it was interrupted by him leaving HTC)
I saw Cav win a sprint stage in 2011, but as I was about 200m from the finish all I saw was a blur. An abiding memory of the 2016 tour, when he made a comeback, was watching his stage wins on a big screen in a local village hall in France. That was a great summer holiday. Some friends went out to see a TT that year (I think it was that year) and got a great photo of Cav who they swore was the only rider to freewheel past them.
Another favourite stage was - I think - in his first year at OPQS (2013) when the stage was blown apart by crosswinds. There was so much going on in that stage. The GC was shaken up, Valverde got a mechanical, there were echelons and to cap it all it was a Cav v Sagan finish.
