Rumours of Leopard Trek and RadioShack merger getting stronger – Cycling News
An Italian sports newspaper published the news of Leopard Trek and RadioShack merging in 2012 as the new team will be known as RadioShack-Trek. The news however was denied by the Leopard Trek and RadioShack’s management.
Brian Nygaard will continue his previous job as a press officer most likely with team GreenEdge as suggested by the newspaper while GreenEdge manager Shayne Bannan commented on the issue, “I’ve been reading the rumours about RadioShack and Leopard Trek but
I’ve had no contract with Brian (Nygaard).”
A well known French newspaper has also printed the news about the unification of the teams as they believed that the Schleck brothers will be leading the team RadioShack in 2012. The paper also mentioned that the 11 cyclists still under contract with the
team Leopard Trek have been asked to look out for new teams in 2012 including Brice Feillu, Fabian Wegmann, Thomas Rohregger, Martin Mortensen, Martin Pedersen, Tom Stamsnijer, Bruno Pirès, Anders Lund, Davide Vigano and Jens Voigt. The French stated that
Geoffroy Lequatre and Sergio Paulinho will not be the part of the “dream team” in the coming seasons.
There has been no confirmations of the news from any of the teams but rumours are getting stronger first the Italian Sports newspaper and now the French newspaper has published the news as, “In 2012, RadioShack, with the financial support of Trek and Nissan,
should continue its adventures with the Schleck brothers as leaders. Becca will be part of the project but should not invest more than half of the budget he has personally put in this year.”
The two teams are currently participating at the ongoing Vuelta a Espana 2011 with Team Leopard Trek at second position and Radio Shack at 11th position while Maxime Monfort and Jakob Fuglsang both of Leopard Trek are at 5th and 7th
positions respectively and are the leading cyclists so far amongst the two teams after the stage 15 general classifications.
The merger of the two teams can really be a disaster for many riders as there is a limit of 30 cyclists in a Pro team which means a minimum of 10 cyclists will have to let go of their current teams and find a new home for the 2012 season.
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