HTC-Highroad receives the last tribute before leaving professional cycling
The professional cycling team, HTC-Highroad, has announced its demise after the end of the 2011 season. Both the men’s and women’s sides performed well during the year but had to face disappointment as the team disbanded itself from professional cycling.
The famous cycling website Cyclingnews.com conducted a survey for the best 2011 professional side. The American side won the poll with a total number of 513 points throughout its career.
Team Garmin-Cervelo and BMC Racing Team won the second and the third positions, respectively.
HTC-Highroad earned a total number of 886 points and secured the fourth position at the UCI World Tour team’s rankings as of December 2011.
Omega Pharma- Lotto managed the first position with Team Sky at second and Leopard Trek at the third position.
Highroad’s General Manager, Bob Stapleton was satisfied with the team’s performance especially in the 2011 season.
He mentioned, "It's wonderful to see the team successful again right to the very end of the season”.
He further added, "Both the men and the women won their first race of the season in January and now they have both won the last race (Tony Martin and Amber Neben won their respective events at the Chrono des Nations to conclude the season). It's testament
to the attitude of all of our staff and riders over the years and I'm very proud of their success".
Bob’s team managed to secure a handsome total of 56 victories in the running season. Mark Cavendish and Tony Martin’s contribution was commendable as the duo added 13 and 12 victories, respectively.
Stapleton made the announcement of the team’s demise on August 4th, 2011 as it failed to find a sponsor.
Almost all the cyclists have signed up with new teams for 2011. Tony Martin, Peter Velits and Martin Velits have joined the Team Omega Pharma. Leigh Howard, Michael Albasini and Matt Goss have joined GreenEdge for the coming season.
Bernhard Eisel and Mark Cavendish have signed the British squad Sky while Alex Rasmussen will ride for the Team Garmin-Cervelo for the 2012 season.
The team’s disassociation from professional cycling appeared as a disappointing shock for all the riders and the staff members.
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