2010 Team RadioShack season

2010 Team RadioShack season
Manager Johan Bruyneel
One-day victories 1
Stage race overall victories 3
Stage race stage victories 8
Next season

The 2010 season for Team RadioShack, its first, began in January with the Tour Down Under and ended in October at the Giro di Lombardia. Team RadioShack rode in 2010 a UCI ProTour team, and was thus automatically invited to and obligated to send a squad to every ProTour event.

Much of the team joined after having competed as members of the Astana team from 2009, including team leaders Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer, and Andreas Klöden, and team manager Johan Bruyneel. Many riders followed them, including all of Astana's 2009 Tour de France squad with the exception of champion Alberto Contador. The formation of the team was announced days after Alexander Vinokourov returned to Astana from suspension with new financial backers joining him – backers who favored Vinokourov and Contador over Bruyneel and Armstrong. The team also includes an assortment of riders who were members of other ProTour teams in 2009.

2010 roster

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Ages as of January 1, 2010

Rider Date of birth
  Lance Armstrong (USA) (1971-09-18)September 18, 1971 (aged 38)
  Fumiyuki Beppu (JPN) (1983-04-10)April 10, 1983 (aged 26)
  Sam Bewley (NZL) (1987-07-22)July 22, 1987 (aged 22)
  Janez Brajkovič (SLO) (1983-12-18)December 18, 1983 (aged 26)
  Matthew Busche (USA) (1985-05-09)May 9, 1985 (aged 24)
  Ben Hermans (BEL) (1986-06-08)June 8, 1986 (aged 23)
  Chris Horner (USA) (1971-11-10)November 10, 1971 (aged 38)
  Andreas Klöden (GER) (1975-06-22)June 22, 1975 (aged 34)
  Daryl Impey (RSA) (1984-12-06)December 6, 1984 (aged 25)
  Markel Irizar (ESP) (1980-02-05)February 5, 1980 (aged 29)
  Levi Leipheimer (USA) (1973-10-23)October 23, 1973 (aged 36)
  Geoffroy Lequatre (FRA) (1981-06-30)June 30, 1981 (aged 28)
  Fuyu Li (CHN) (1978-05-09)May 9, 1978 (aged 31)
  Tiago Machado (POR) (1985-10-18)October 18, 1985 (aged 24)
Rider Date of birth
  Jason McCartney (USA) (1973-09-03)September 3, 1973 (aged 36)
  Dmitriy Muravyev (KAZ) (1979-11-02)November 2, 1979 (aged 30)
  Sérgio Paulinho (POR) (1980-03-26)March 26, 1980 (aged 29)
  Yaroslav Popovych (UKR) (1980-01-04)January 4, 1980 (aged 29)
  Grégory Rast (SUI) (1980-01-17)January 17, 1980 (aged 29)
  Sébastien Rosseler (BEL) (1981-07-15)July 15, 1981 (aged 28)
  Ivan Rovny (RUS) (1987-09-30)September 30, 1987 (aged 22)
  José Luis Rubiera (ESP) (1973-01-27)January 27, 1973 (aged 36)
  Bjørn Selander (USA) (1988-01-28)January 28, 1988 (aged 21)
  Gert Steegmans (BEL) (1980-09-30)September 30, 1980 (aged 29)
  Tomas Vaitkus (LTU) (1982-02-04)February 4, 1982 (aged 27)
  Haimar Zubeldia (ESP) (1977-04-01)April 1, 1977 (aged 32)
Riders' 2009 teams

One-day races

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Spring classics

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Similar to the 2009 Astana team, Team RadioShack was not built for one-day races but rather for stage races. Its only win was earned in the Brabantse Pijl ("Brabant Arrow" in English) by Sébastien Rosseler.

Fall races

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Levi Leipheimer won the Leadville Trail 100 MTB mountain bike race in August.

Stage races

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Team RadioShack's first event in their history was the Tour Down Under. Armstrong and Bruyneel commented that they were eager to come away from the race with victories, likely with ace sprinter Steegmans, because the entire executive committee of RadioShack was in Australia to see the race in person.[1] Steegmans finished a close second behind eventual Tour winner André Greipel in the race's first stage,[2] but that was as close as the team came to any wins. Nonetheless, Bruyneel said he was satisfied with the team's performance.[3] In the Volta ao Algarve, Rosseler took the team's first-ever stage win, winning stage 4 from a breakaway.[4] Machado finished third overall in the event, Leipheimer finished fourth, and won its unique award for best Portuguese rider. The squad also won the teams classification.[5]

RadioShack had a decent year in stage races, although overall victories were rare. Through August, it had only three general classification victories: Chris Horner in the Tour of the Basque Country; Janez Brajkovič in the Critérium du Dauphiné; and Haimar Zubeldia in the Tour de l'Ain. However, four other riders had also finished on the podium: Lance Armstrong, second in the Tour de Suisse and third in the Tour de Luxembourg; Tiago Machado, third in the Volta ao Algarve; Levi Leipheimer, third in the Tour of California; and Matthew Busche, third in the Tour of Denmark. Leipheimer also won the Tour of the Gila, although technically the Team RadioShack riders in that race (despite wearing jerseys with "RadioShack" on the front) were riding for Armstrong's "Mellow Johnny's" team, and the Tour of Utah, in which he rode alone for Mellow Johnny's.

Grand Tours

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Because the three Grand Tour events are not part of the UCI ProTour, teams must be invited to each of the events and may choose not to participate. Team RadioShack requested not to be invited to the Giro d'Italia, instead sending their best riders to the concurrent Tour of California. Though the team actively sought a place in the Vuelta a España, they were not one of the 22 teams chosen for participation in that race either.[6] They only participated in the Tour de France among the year's Grand Tours.

Tour de France

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The 2010 RadioShack team in the Tour de France was almost identical to the 2009 Astana team, with seven of the nine riders. The only changes were Chris Horner, replacing Alberto Contador, who remained with Astana, and Janez Brajkovic, replacing Haimar Zubeldia, who was recovering from a broken wrist. Although the team once again won Best Team, its highest individual result came from Horner, who finished 10th.

Season victories

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Date Race Competition Rider Country Location
February 20 Volta ao Algarve, Stage 4 UCI Europe Tour   Sébastien Rosseler (BEL)   Portugal Tavira
February 20 Volta ao Algarve, Portuguese rider classification UCI Europe Tour   Tiago Machado (POR)   Portugal
February 21 Volta ao Algarve, Teams classification UCI Europe Tour [N 1]   Portugal
February 27 Giro di Sardegna, Teams classification UCI Europe Tour [N 2]   Italy
March 28 Critérium International, Youth classification UCI Europe Tour   Tiago Machado (POR)   France
March 28 Critérium International, Teams classification UCI Europe Tour [N 3]   France
April 7 Circuit de la Sarthe, Stage 2B UCI Europe Tour   Tiago Machado (POR)   France Angers
April 10 Tour of the Basque Country, Stage 6 UCI ProTour   Chris Horner (USA)   Spain Orio
April 10 Tour of the Basque Country, Overall UCI ProTour   Chris Horner (USA)   Spain
April 14 Brabantse Pijl UCI Europe Tour   Sébastien Rosseler (BEL)   Belgium Overijse
April 18 Vuelta a Castilla y León, Teams classification UCI Europe Tour [N 4]   Spain
May 2 Tour de Romandie, Teams classification UCI ProTour [N 5]   Switzerland
May 30 Tour of Belgium, Stage 5 UCI Europe Tour   Ben Hermans (BEL)   Belgium Herstal
June 6 Tour de Luxembourg, Teams classification UCI Europe Tour [N 6]   Luxembourg
June 9 Critérium du Dauphiné, Stage 3 UCI World Ranking   Janez Brajkovič (SLO)   France Sorgues
June 13 Critérium du Dauphiné, Overall UCI World Ranking   Janez Brajkovič (SLO)   France
July 11 Tour of Austria, Teams classification UCI Europe Tour [N 7]   Austria
July 14 Tour de France, Stage 10 UCI World Ranking   Sérgio Paulinho (POR)   France Gap
July 25 Tour de France, Teams classification UCI World Ranking [N 8]   France Bordeaux
August 10 Tour de l'Ain, Prologue UCI Europe Tour   Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)   France Amberieu-En-Bugey
August 14 Tour de l'Ain, Overall UCI Europe Tour   Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)   France
August 14 Leadville Trail 100 MTB Mountain bike event   Levi Leipheimer (USA)   United States Leadville, Colorado
August 27 Tour du Poitou-Charentes, Stage 4 UCI Europe Tour   Markel Irizar (ESP)   France Vouillé

Footnotes

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References

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  1. ^ Greg Johnson (2010-01-17). "Bruyneel: RadioShack very motivated for Down Under success". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  2. ^ Greg Johnson and Les Clarke (2010-01-19). "Greipel grabs number one in Tanunda". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 2010-01-22. Retrieved 2010-01-20.
  3. ^ Greg Johnson (2010-01-24). "Bruyneel happy despite leaving Tour Down Under empty handed". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 27 January 2010. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
  4. ^ Cycling News (2010-02-20). "Rosseler rolls to solo stage win". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 22 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
  5. ^ Stephen Farrand (2010-02-21). "Contador wins the Volta ao Algarve". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 22 February 2010. Retrieved 2010-02-21.
  6. ^ Peter Cossins (2010-06-14). "RadioShack miss out on Vuelta a España invite". Cycling News. Future Publishing Limited. Archived from the original on 15 June 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-14.
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