Leopard Trek and RadioShack will merge officially to form RadioShack-Nissan-Trek – Cycling News
Team Leopard Trek and RadioShack joining for the coming seasons was one of the biggest rumours in the cycling world as two of the most famous and reliable sports newspapers published the news of their merger.
This was repeatedly denied by the management of both the teams. The silence has finally been broken by team Leopard Trek as they have confirmed the news that RadioShack and Nissan will be joining with Leopard Trek till 2013 at least and the team will be
renamed as RadioShack-Nissan-Trek.
Owner of team Leopard Trek commented on the merging of two teams as he said, “In modern cycling you cannot move forward without strong sponsors. It is in this respect that today is a further milestone in the development of this exciting young project.” He
is hopeful for the bright future of the team and the athletes.
The new team will be based in Luxembourg and the complete roster of the team has not been announced yet but Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck and Fabian Cancellara will be leading the team for the coming seasons. They will be accompanied by Andreas Kloden, Haimar
Zubeldia, Chris Horner, Jani Brajkovic, Matthew Busche, Nelson Oliveira, Ben King, Jesse Sergent, Jakob Fuglsang, Robert Wagner and Daniele Bennati as further details about the new team will be announced later on this month.
Johan Bruyneel will be taking care of the sporting operations of the team as mentioned by RadioShack and Armstrong’s Livestrong charitable foundation will still be a part of the team for 2012 and 2013 seasons.
Johan mentioned that Team RadioShack has performed really well over the years as they have secured 30 races and have dominated the cycling world. This is the case especially with the American races in 2011 and by including the star riders from Leopard Trek
team’s performance will only improve as he said, “With our sponsors continuing commitment and the professionalism of our riders, I’m confident that RadioShack-Nissan-Trek will dominate cycling for years to come.”
Bruyneel mentioned that his team has a potential of winning the Grand Tours as well as the Classics and contracts will be signed with 30 cyclists and the riders and staff members who already are in a contract with Leopard Trek or RadioShack will be taken
care of.
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