Radioshack powerhouse

[Ibanez]

Python is on the money with this...Discovery did nothing in 06 and folded after 07 despite having a tour winner and podiumer finisher on the books. It's all about Lance kids.

 

[bianchigirl]

Do you really think Bruyneel would sacrifice the respect that he has in European sports to be vindictive on Contador? Do you think Bruyneel is that stupid or immature to play those petty mind games.

Granted he has been siamese twins with Lance for years. When and if Lance does something really hurtful to Contador Bruyneel will get up from the table, cut ties with Lance and walk away clean.

I have heard the hatred of Bruyneel on this forum, but never for a moment have i thought him stupid.

On your first point - yes, of course Bruyneel plays those 'petty mind games'. Have you forgotten 'the Look'? Wheelgate and all those other petty little misinformation campaigns directed against Contador were just an effort to help him grow as a human being and a rider were they?

On your second point - you are joking, right?

 

[flicker]

My guess is that if Lance or Pharmstrong as the haters in the forum call him I call him Lord Armstrong, really got nasty, or got a pos,or had some sort of meltdown and the shack got hit by a wreckingball, yes Bruyneel would bail.

A more likely scenario is Lance retires and heads the Livestrong Corp. as CEO and Bruyneel fades into helping Lance in his new and profitable endeavors.
Maybe some position withNIKE?

I do believe that Johann enjoys taking his beautiful wife to nice resturants in Belguim and Spain,verdad?

 

[TRDean]

Question...when Lance does hang it up...will he continue with the U23 squad?

 

[Anonymous]

I find it funny how people are bashing RS about being built around LA. Did anyone really think it was going to be any different than before? We all knew it was going to be that way, period. End of story.

 

[VeloCity]

No other consumer electronic retailers are flying high. Best Buy has not risen with the market. Please just agree with me that it's Lance's fault it makes things way funnier

I doubt very much that many people outside of the cycling world are even aware of the association between RadioShack and Armstrong. Check out the website: not a sign of Armstrong or that RS is sponsoring a cycling team.

http://www.radioshack.com/home/index.jsp

 

[flicker]

Question...when Lance does hang it up...will he continue with the U23 squad?

Why not? Good PR for Lance and LIVESTRONG corp.

Plus its good for the sport, which I know the haters will disagree with me on,but it is good for the sport to develop good young pros.

My Lord Armstrong does love the sport of cycling.

 

[fatandfast]

Question...when Lance does hang it up...will he continue with the U23 squad?

With the right travel structure and budget. Radio Shack can have a pretend euro squad for a couple of years dumping strong and fast talent on the US racing schedule. With the current makeup I don't see any grand tour hope on Radio Shack. They should just use the euro schedule to train for US races so that Radio Shack looks really dominant. Lance is going to have to change styles soon, maybe add 10 pounds and get his short race legs under him. Peaking for 2 and 3 week races would seem a risky tactic. If I were Lance I would keep racing the anti-schedule, South Africa, Ireland,Austin, Australia Gila,ToC,Anything on the Adriatic or Med. Stay away from real racers and races. Don't let anybody see your cards until July

 

[cyclopeon]

... Its a sad, sad waste of talent for one mans ego.

Make that 2 men's egos; LA and JB are joined at the hip in this thing, and JB is not exactly modest either.


edit: Angliru used the joined at the hip phrase first, but I had already posted this before I saw it.

 

[pmcg76]

I find it funny how people are bashing RS about being built around LA. Did anyone really think it was going to be any different than before? We all knew it was going to be that way, period. End of story.

Any team with Armstrong/Bruyneel is built around Armstrong. We dont doubt that but look at all the crap that was being spouted about Contador/Astana last year, not being a team player, blah, blah, blah. This was Bruyneel, Lance, Ekimov & all the Lance fans spouting this crap. It was all about the TEAM, not the best rider on the team.

We all said Lance/Bruyneel would try to screw Contador last year and that is exactly what happened. We all said that the stuff they were spewing was BS. We all predicted that RadioShack would see a completely different attitude than at Astana last year. We pointed out the hypocrisy but all we got was the usual 'we are haters' rubbish.

Bruyneel and RadioShack fans have made a big deal about how strong they are but they are not perfroming like a strong team. We just think its a pure waste of some talented riders. They made a big fuss of getting a ProTour license. Why bother if your only focus is California/Tour.

 

[cyclopeon]

...I'm looking at the Cataluyna results today and wondering why the hell they won't give JB the reins during these early stage races when Levi, Kloden and Armstrong aren't on form. ...

You mean they should be putting the breaks on Brajkovic, instead of putting the brakes on him?

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

I doubt very much that many people outside of the cycling world are even aware of the association between RadioShack and Armstrong. Check out the website: not a sign of Armstrong or that RS is sponsoring a cycling team.

http://www.radioshack.com/home/index.jsp

The reason there is no mention of Armstrong or the cycling team on the website is because their website is ran by GSI Commerce, an e-commerce company that creates and runs websites for large retailers. They operate as an entirely different company and just use the company's name to sell products, and as such aren't involved with the cycling team.

I get what your saying, but more people know of the involvement than you may realize. Maybe not quite as many that were aware of the US Postal and Discovery Channel Teams, but it's out there. And come july, everyone will know because every major network will have quick snippets of what team Lance presented by Out the Back is doing. There will still be no mention of anything else TdF related, just what Lance is doing

 

[Publicus]

The reason there is no mention of Armstrong or the cycling team on the website is because their website is ran by GSI Commerce, an e-commerce company that creates and runs websites for large retailers. They operate as an entirely different company and just use the company's name to sell products, and as such aren't involved with the cycling team.

I get what your saying, but more people know of the involvement than you may realize. Maybe not quite as many that were aware of the US Postal and Discovery Channel Teams, but it's out there. And come july, everyone will know because every major network will have quick snippets of what team Lance presented by Out the Back is doing. There will still be no mention of anything else TdF related, just what Lance is doing

I'm looking forward to seeing the little Team Out the Back jersey on Versus! I wonder if they will have an Astana jersey with an "X" through it as well???

 

[Jonathan]

Bruyneel and RadioShack fans have made a big deal about how strong they are...

Radioshack has fans??? We've hardly seen them race. I mean, I can imagine Armstrong having fans, but his team is a blank slate.

That said, the team does offer some opportunities to riders who want to prove themselves outside the Tour. Men like Vaitkus, Rosseler and Steegmans are in an excellent position to increase their CV with some good performances at races Armstrong isn't interested in. So I don't agree that setting up this team is only good for Armstrong and Bruyneel, although its goals do seem to be very short-term. That is not something fans should be happy with.

 

[cyclopeon]

it is March not July.

It's the bitter end of March, nearly April. You're about to start running out of time.

 

[cyclopeon]

I think for someone to claim Bruyneel, despite the fact that the team is a one-trick pony, cannot identify, develop and harvest talented riders, is wrong.

I am not a fan of the guy but that is me.

Identify and harvest, yes; that only takes half a brain and a big chequebook. Develop? Do armies that rape and pillage also build schools to educate the coming crop of little ones?

I can relate to your last sentence there!

 

[El Oso]

Question...when Lance does hang it up...will he continue with the U23 squad?

Yes! It feeds the ego and he gets to mold new riders to become little Lances. Little Phinny's seems to be developing the same ego that Lance has.

I wonder where he learned it from (mom and dad seem grounded) ... hmmm
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/riders/2009/diaries/phinney/?id=phinney0901

Plus, if a former U23 rider wins the Tour Lance [vicariously] gets his 8th win.

 

[ImmaculateKadence]

I'm looking forward to seeing the little Team Out the Back jersey on Versus! I wonder if they will have an Astana jersey with an "X" through it as well???

Wouldn't surprise me. If Contador gets in yellow, they'll "X" the maillot jaune!!

 

[DigitalIbis]

You're about to start running out of time.

Running out of time for what? To say he's wrong and your right, or vice versa. Some of you seem to take this almost a little to personally. When the weatherman can't accurately predict the weather for a 48 hour window, I am pretty sure none of you can predict what's going to happen 1 month from now, let alone 4 months from now. Its fun to make your predictions, but some of you seem to really take it to heart, like its life or death. Perhaps there is something else going on thats bothering you. Perhaps some of you should ride your bike a little bit more.

 

[kurtinsc]

Radioshack actually looked to be starting okay... but then fell off a lot in March.

The team is based primarily on stage racing. They have a couple of guys who can sort of sprint and a couple of classics guys... but it's clear from their roster where their focus is... stage races ( and I mean the ones with climbs... not races like the TDU or Oman ).

Early stage races had decent results for RS. No wins, but some decent early finishes (2nd in Sardegna for Horner, 4th for Brajkovic, 3rd at volta ao Algrave for Machado, 4th for Leipheimer). But things seemed to not get better... those results didn't lead to anything of note at Paris-Nice, Murcia was a disappointment (only a 4th for Kloden, 7th for Lance).

Unless they can rescue a podium at Catalunya somehow, the early part of the RS seasons can't be called anything but a poor showing. A win at the TOC is almost necessary to prevent it from being a total disaster.

 

[bianchigirl]

Identify and harvest, yes; that only takes half a brain and a big chequebook. Develop? Do armies that rape and pillage also build schools to educate the coming crop of little ones?

+1 If Boonen, Devolder and Hincapie were still with Bruyneel, Boonen and Devolder would still be riding for Hincapie and none of them would have won a Classic

 

[El Oso]

+1 If Boonen, Devolder and Hincapie were still with Bruyneel, Boonen and Devolder would still be riding for Hincapie and none of them would have won a Classic

And neither would Hincapie The thing I don't get about that is why Postal/Disco with their genious director would let Hincapie make such poor equipment choices in the Cobbled Classics, specifically why would they let him use carbon deep aero wheels instead of the durable 32 spoke box rims ... Then again Columbia let him do this too, and I believe it wasn't until he was with Columbia that he cracked one of those carbon rims.

 

[thehog]

I think part of the problem was the approach to the recruitmen of riders. Whereas Sky targeted specfic riders who would help the end game of winning races Radiosnack hired the former Astana team to p1ss of Contador. I'm not sure much thought went into a game plan of who would win what races and who would ride classics etc. As mentioned it was a Tour team they hired and a Tour team to help Lance. Now that's ok if Lance was in his prime but his 38 and the next guy who could take over as leader is 35. In addtion to this no young rider is ever going to want to ride for them for this reason and there's no future nor support for races outside the Tour.

Gawd knows why it was so easy for them to get a ProTour license when the idea of the ProTour is to race all season.

 

[riobonito92]

Then again Columbia let him do this too, and I believe it wasn't until he was with Columbia that he cracked one of those carbon rims.

Didn't he break either a carbon bars or a carbon stem one year?

 

[El Oso]

Didn't he break either a carbon bars or a carbon stem one year?

I believe you're referring to 2006 Paris Roubaix when his aluminum steerer snapped

Although I always thought that was Trek's fault, not Hincapie's equipment choice. I thought they would consider aluminum too subject to snapping to use it at Roubaix