| Team RadioShack | |
| Code: | RSH[1] |
| Registered: | United States |
| Disbanded: | 2011 |
| Discipline: | Road |
| Status: | UCI ProTeam |
| Bicycles: | Trek |
| Generalmanager: | Johan Bruyneel |
| Teammanager: | Dirk Demol |
| Kitimage: | Team RadioShack Jersey 2011.gif |
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 was 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.[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, 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 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.
See main article: 2010 Team RadioShack season. 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, after Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu joined in February.[13] [14] Demol and twelve of the riders were previously with the Kazakh team 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. 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.[16]
See main article: 2011 Team RadioShack season.
The 2011 season for 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.
As at December 31, 2011.
As of December 31, 2012.[17] [18]
| Grand Tours by highest finishing position | |||
| Race | 2010 | 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Giro d'Italia | – | 19 | |
| Tour de France | 9 | 15 | |
| Vuelta a España | – | 22 | |
| Major week-long stage races by highest finishing position | |||
| Race | 2010 | 2011 | |
| Tour Down Under | 24 | 15 | |
| Paris–Nice | 11 | 2 | |
| Tirreno–Adriatico | – | 7 | |
| Volta a Catalunya | 9 | 3 | |
| Tour of the Basque Country | 1 | 1 | |
| Tour de Romandie | 5 | 7 | |
| Critérium du Dauphiné | 1 | 9 | |
| Tour de Suisse | 2 | 1 | |
| Tour de Pologne | 9 | 18 | |
| Eneco Tour | 8 | 9 | |
| Monument races by highest finishing position | |||
| Race | 2010 | 2011 | |
| Milan–San Remo | 14 | 23 | |
| Tour of Flanders | 27 | 42 | |
| Paris–Roubaix | 11 | 4 | |
| Liège–Bastogne–Liège | 7 | 22 | |
| Giro di Lombardia | 20 | 32 | |
| Classics by highest finishing position | |||
| Classic | 2010 | 2011 | |
| Omloop Het Nieuwsblad | 54 | – | |
| Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne | 9 | – | |
| Strade Bianche | – | – | |
| E3 Harelbeke | 16 | 41 | |
| Gent–Wevelgem | DNF | 19 | |
| Amstel Gold Race | 10 | 8 | |
| La Flèche Wallonne | 7 | 17 | |
| Clásica de San Sebastián | 4 | 6 | |
| Paris–Tours | 3 | 7 |