Team RadioShack is excited to begin the 2011 season and build off of its inaugural campaign from 2010.
The team is built for stage races, but we did capture a one-day road race victory in De Brabantse Pijl with Sébastien Rosseler last April. That capped off an excellent span of just a few days after Chris Horner became the first ever non-European to win the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco. After skipping the Giro in May, Janez Brajkovič stunned the world by winning the Critérium du Dauphiné over Alberto Contador. Though he would not factor in his first ever Tour the following month, Brajkovič has continued to show his promise and finally broke through in a pivotal time for the new team.
The Tour de France was rough, as Lance Armstrong finally cracked and didn't play any significant role in the Tour. Chris Horner cracked the top ten but we could only watch as the favorites dueled it out in the high mountains for the best places in the final standings. Sérgio Paulinho did win a stage and Team RadioShack captured the team classification in the race, a big goal after our GC ambitions faded. This was one of eight team classifications the squad won in 2010. The only major race victories after this belonged to Haimar Zubeldia in the Tour de l'Ain and Levi Leipheimer on the mountain bike at the Leadville Trail 100 MTB, both occurring on August 14th. The team was snubbed from the Vuelta a España in 2010, but we will certainly be there this season.
Team RadioShack will be in attendance for all UCI World Tour races as a UCI Pro Team. The sponsors have put special emphasis on placing as high in the GC standings as possible for each of the three grand tours, win the Critérium du Dauphiné for the second straight year, and place well in Milano-Sanremo and at Liège–Bastogne–Liège. We will also look to win the Amgen Tour of California in May and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in August.
Without further ado, here are the guys that will help us achieve these goals (and possibly more):
Age: 39
Palmarès: 2010 Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco; 2003 Tour de Georgia; 2000 Tour de Langkawi
Targets: Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Amgen Tour of California, Tour de France
The ageless wonder entering his 15th season as a professional is just now starting to hit his stride. Last season, his victory in the Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco was the first major stage race victory for our new team. Horner is 39 but shows no sign of slowing down so far. The main focus of his season will come in the spring as he looks to repeat his victory in the Basque country before turning his sights on Liège–Bastogne–Liège, where he finished 7th last season. He will then represent the team in the premier American race out in California, where he finished 4th last season. The other major goal will be the Tour de France, where he finished 10th last year.
Andreas Klöden
Age: 35
Palmarès: 2008 Tour de Romandie; 2007 Tirreno–Adriatico; 2004 German RR Championship; 2000 Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco
Targets: Vuelta Ciclista al País Vasco, Tour de Suisse, Tour de France
The youngest of our three team leaders, Klöden will turn 36 years old in June. It has now been five years since his second 2nd place finish in the Tour de France in 2006, though he did finish 6th in 2009 despite riding on a stacked Astana team. Outside of a couple of stage wins in 2009, Klöden has not won a race overall since 2008. He will look to change that this year as he returns to the Basque country, where he won in 2000, as a co-leader alongside Chris Horner. He will then turn his focus to the Tour de Suisse, where he has finished in the top 10 for each of the last four editions, which should carry his good form into another assault on the Tour de France.
Levi LeipheimerAge: 37
Palmarès: 2007, 2008, 2009 Amgen Tour of California; 2007 USA RR Championship; 2006 Critérium du Dauphiné; 1999 USA TT Championship; 2 stages at the Vuelta a España (2008)
Targets: Paris-Nice, Amgen Tour of California, Tour de Suisse, Tour de France
Leipheimer may still be the best positioned of our riders to battle for a podium in a grand in 2011. He has done so three times in his career, most recently with a 2nd place finish at the Vuelta a España in 2008. For the early part of the 2011 season, he will prepare for Paris-Nice, as our sponsor has requested a captain to show up for that race. He will then join Chris Horner in California. Leipheimer won the race for three straight years before having to settle for third last year. He will then join Andreas Klöden in Switzerland to prepare for the Tour de France. Depending on his and the team's results for the year, Leipheimer may also be a backup captain selection for the Vuelta a España.
Our three captains all have several events to focus on in 2011, but each will come together to focus on the big prize, the Tour de France. This leaves plenty of other races on the schedule for some other rides to take lead. Janez Brajkovič will run in his second ever Tour in July, as well, but he will be the team leader for several week-long races such as the Critérium du Dauphiné, where he won in 2010, and the Tour de Romandie. Robbie McEwen will be there for races where stage wins are important and there are a couple of sprints up for grabs, but he will focus on Milano-Sanremo in March to try and cap off an excellent career. Our cobbles team is one of the weakest in the peloton, but Grégory Rast will nonetheless prepare to sneak into a good finish in some of the classics this spring.
Next time, we will go through the rest of the professional tour and look at the cycling landscape as we enter the 2011 season.
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