Sam Bewley joins Lance Armstrong on team Radioshack

It might be a little overshadowed by today’s news that 2006 stripped Tour de France winner Floyd Landis will ride next month’s Tour of Southland, but the fact that Kiwi Sam Bewley has made Lance Armstrong’s new Team RadioShack is huge for New Zealand cycling.

Bewley, sponsored by Trek (NZ), and a consistent attender and performer at Wanganui meetings as a result, will still be able to ride international pursuit events for New Zealand, said local Trek boss Ron Cheatley today.

“I’ve got no comment on Landis coming, at all. But I think the most exciting news of the day is that Bewley has been signed by Armstrong’s team – that’s the hot news.

“This is the team Lance Armstrong formed. Sam was one of our sponsored riders, and we got him on to that Trek under-23 team, which is now sort of the feeder group for Lance’s team.

“Sam is now no longer 23, but he’s been selected to go on to Lance’s full-on team, so that’s exciting stuff.”

Another local area star in Feilding’s Jessie Sergent, still 23, has a second year on the Under-23 team.

Cheatley says Bewley is on the Armstrong team as a “domestic”.

“He’s ideal to ride on the front and look after the big riders. He’s proven he can do that – on the Tour of Southland we had three victories with Sam riding on the front, where basically he looked after the team leader Hayden Roulston.

“So he’s good at that – and he’s still able to maintain his place on the New Zealand track team, because that’s part of his contract.”

Team RadioShack will compete in both Europe and the United States.

@Landis, stripped of the 2006 Tour de France title after failing a doping test, was today confirmed a starter the Tour of Southland next month.

Landis would compete as part of the Cyclingnz.com/Biosport team, Tour of Southland race director Bruce Ross told NZPA today.

Cyclingnz.com team manager Wayne Hudson said the decision to approach Landis came about two weeks ago, when one of their original line-up for the Southland tour switched to another team.

“Although we asked a number of local riders to ride for our team, nearly all of them had already committed to other teams for the tour,” Hudson said.

He admitted it had been a long shot to ask Landis.

“We thought, `why not?’ All we can do is ask and if we don’t ask, we’ll never know whether or not he might have said yes.”

Hudson said the deal was struck after they were put in contact with Landis’ agent, Scott Thompson.

Landis will be supported by Auckland riders Nico de Jong, Nick Lovegrove, Jeremy Meech and Southland triathlete Jamie Whyte, all of whom will be racing their second Southland tour.

Ross said he was not too concerned about Landis’ history.

“To my mind, he has served his time, been cleared to ride again and he will be treated the same as any other bike rider will be treated.”

Landis helped Lance Armstrong to three Tour de France victories in the US Postal team between 2002-2004 before becoming the headline rider with the Phonak team from 2005.

(Source: wanganuichronicle.co.nz)

Sam Bewley joins Lance Armstrong on team Radioshack