Team RadioShack

Team RadioShack

Team information
UCI code	RSH[1]
Registered	United States
Founded	2009 (2009)
Disbanded	2011
Discipline	Road
Status	UCI ProTeam
Bicycles	Trek
Key personnel
General manager	Johan Bruyneel
Team manager(s)	Dirk Demol
Jersey

Team RadioShack was a professional road bicycle racing team, with RadioShack as the title sponsor, the creation of which was announced on July 23, 2009. Lance Armstrong co-owned and led the team, which raced in the Grand Tours and the UCI ProTour. The team was managed by Capital Sports and Entertainment, an Austin, Texas sports and event management group that also manages the Trek-Livestrong U23 development cycling team and that ran the former Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team.^[2]

Johan Bruyneel was Team RadioShack's initial overall manager^[3] and Dirk Demol is the directeur sportif.^[4][5] Former Discovery Channel cyclists Viatcheslav Ekimov from Russia and José Azevedo from Portugal was also part of the managerial squad.^[3][6] Armstrong said that the team would promote the Livestrong anti-cancer campaigns of his Lance Armstrong Foundation, and will also be sponsored by Trek Bicycle Corporation, SRAM Corporation and Nike, Inc. sportswear.^[7][8][9]

The team ceased to exist in its current structure from the end of the 2011 season as Radioshack returned their World Tour Licence to the UCI. Their two main sponsors, Radioshack and Nissan have moved their sponsorship to Team Leopard Trek. Sporting Director Johan Bruyneel moved to the newly named RadioShack-Nissan team along with several of the current Radioshack riders. While effectively a merge, there is some debate between the two teams as to the nature of the agreement. Radioshack have described it as a merge,^[10] while Flavio Becca, owner of Leopard Trek stated that his team was continuing, and simply taking over Radioshacks sponsors, and some of their riders.^[11] The new team was registered in Luxembourg with the UCI.

Team History

2010

On November 25, 2009, The UCI ProTour Council (UPTC) announced that the team was successfully registered for the 2010 season ^[12] The team's final 2010 team roster includes 26 riders from 16 countries,^[3] after Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu joined in February.^[13][14] Demol and twelve of the riders were previously with the Kazakh team Astana in the UCI ProTour, including eight of the team's nine riders on the winning team in the 2009 Tour de France. In April 2010 Li Fuyu was suspended by the team after failing a doping test.^[15]

The team had planned on racing in the 2010 Tour de France and the 2010 Vuelta a España, among other races, but it controversially was not invited to the Vuelta.^[16] Team RadioShack went on to achieve the team victory of the 2010 Tour de France, while leading the team classification after about half its stages. It was the second time that an American team had won the team classification, preceded by Discovery Channel in 2007. After the Tour de France, the team promoted Taylor Phinney and Jesse Sergent from the Trek-Livestrong U23 team and Clinton Avery from the PWS Eijssen team to the RadioShack roster as "stagiaires" ("trainees" in French) for the remainder of the season.^[17]

2011

The 2011 season for Team RadioShack began in January at the Tour Down Under, and ended in October with Robbie McEwen's participation in the Noosa Grand Prix. As a UCI ProTeam, they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour.

While the team had 28 wins in 2011, and showed well enough to briefly be the leading team in the UCI World Tour rankings, they were nearly invisible in the Grand Tours, the races which have defined manager Johan Bruyneel's managerial career. A Tour de France besieged by crashes and injuries led to Haimar Zubeldia in 15th place being their best finisher, the worst showing for a Bruyneel-led team at the Tour in five years. The team's principal successes were the three major stage races in the United States, the Tour of California, the Tour of Utah, and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Team RadioShack fielded the overall winner in all three events, Chris Horner in California and Levi Leipheimer in Utah and Colorado. The team also won seven other stage races, easily the most of any major team on the season.

2011 team roster

Rider Date of birth  Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN) (1983-04-10) April 10, 1983  Sam Bewley (NZL) (1987-07-22) July 22, 1987  Janez Brajkovič (SLO) (1983-12-18) December 18, 1983  Matthew Busche (USA) (1985-05-09) May 9, 1985  Manuel Cardoso (POR) (1983-04-07) April 7, 1983  Philip Deignan (IRE) (1983-09-07) September 7, 1983  Ben Hermans (BEL) (1986-06-08) June 8, 1986  Chris Horner (USA) (1971-11-10) November 10, 1971  Robert Hunter (RSA) (1977-04-22) April 22, 1977  Ben King (USA) (1989-03-22) March 22, 1989  Andreas Klöden (GER) (1975-06-22) June 22, 1975  Michał Kwiatkowski (POL) (1990-06-02) June 2, 1990  Markel Irizar (ESP) (1980-02-05) February 5, 1980  Levi Leipheimer (USA) (1973-10-24) October 24, 1973

Rider Date of birth  Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA) (1981-06-30) June 30, 1981  Tiago Machado (POR) (1985-10-18) October 18, 1985  Jason McCartney (USA) (1973-09-03) September 3, 1973  Robbie McEwen (AUS) (1972-06-24) June 24, 1972  Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ) (1979-11-02) November 2, 1979  Nelson Oliveira (POR) (1989-03-06) March 6, 1989  Sérgio Paulinho (POR) (1980-03-26) March 26, 1980  Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) (1980-01-04) January 4, 1980  Grégory Rast (SUI) (1980-01-17) January 17, 1980  Sébastien Rosseler (BEL) (1981-07-15) July 15, 1981  Ivan Rovny (RUS) (1987-09-30) September 30, 1987  Bjørn Selander (USA) (1988-01-28) January 28, 1988  Jesse Sergent (NZL) (1988-07-08) July 8, 1988  Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) (1977-04-01) April 1, 1977

2012 Bontrager-Livestrong U23 team roster

As of February 5, 2012.^[18][19]

Rider Date of birth  Joshua Atkins (NZL) (1992-06-28) June 28, 1992  Ian Boswell (USA) (1991-02-07) February 7, 1991  Nathan Brown (USA) (1991-07-07) July 7, 1991  Lawson Craddock (USA) (1992-02-20) February 20, 1992  Jasper De Buyst (BEL) (1993-11-24) November 24, 1993

Rider Date of birth  Joseph Dombrowski (USA) (1991-05-12) May 12, 1991  Ryan Eastman (USA) (1992-07-28) July 28, 1992  Gavin Mannion (USA) (1991-08-24) August 24, 1991  Conor O'Leary (USA) (1991-01-01) January 1, 1991  Dale Parker (AUS) (1992-05-12) May 12, 1992  Jasper Stuyven (BEL) (1992-04-17) April 17, 1992

List of wins

National Championships

2010

USA Road Race Ben King

USA Time Trial Taylor Phinney

U23 World Road Race Taylor Phinney

2011

Japan Road Race Fumiyuki Beppu

Japan Time Trial Fumiyuki Beppu

USA Road Race Matthew Busche

Slovenia Time Trial Janez Brajkovič

Portugal Time Trial Nelson Oliveira

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Team RadioShack.

• Official website
• UCI Team Profile
• Team RadioShack on Facebook
• Team RadioShack on Twitter
• Building the Team RadioShack Trek Madone on YouTube
• Trek-Livestrong U23