There was a lot of anticipation, lots of excitement, as Team RadioShack (TRS) traveled to South Australia earlier this month for the Santos Tour Down Under stage race, the first event of the 2010 ProTour season. In the wake of this first race, barely a month after coming together for their first training camp in Tucson, Arizona, the riders, their coaches, management, and sponsors should feel pretty good.
Sure, team manager Johan Bruyneel and also leader Lance Armstrong had expressed their team goal of winning a stage during the week. This result eluded The Shack during the seven days of racing, but not by much. Shack sprinter Gert Steegmans came within about a bike’s length of capturing the Stage One victory, finishing second behind the three-stage and GC winner for the week, Andre Greipel (HTC Columbia). Other Team RadioShack riders that finished toward the front during the week included Sebastien Rosseler with a 7th place finish in Stage Five, and Daryl Impey with a 13th place finish in the Sunday Prologue.
Bruyneel commented at the end of the week that he was happy with the team’s effort, with several of the riders racing together for the first time. Indeed, six of the seven TRS rider finished in the top 50. Not too shabby. And they worked well together. There were a few times during the week where the Shackers also tested the peloton: Rosseler had a nice breakaway for a period early in Stage Three; Armstrong and Tomas Vaitkus attacked in a late breakaway in Stage Four over the final 10km.
These were all good outcomes for a team that turned up down under to set the tempo for the 2010 season and give their sponsors, especially title sponsor RadioShack, a proper sense of what the ProTour is about: plenty of top racers, great crowds of fans, and what event organizers called some of the best racing in the tour’s twelve years.
There was also a clear communication technology break through in this first race for Team RadioShack: several riders, as well as Bruyneel, team physiologist Dr. Allen Lim, and other members of The Shack’s personnel, kept the Twitter-sphere updated with posts throughout the week, giving this writer for one the sense that he was in South Australia wearing a team ID with total access, and following the action from the team race car. In fact, the TDU race organizers had virtual Twitter broadcasting during each stage, with practically play-by-play updates posted throughout each stage. Tweets from Lance Armstrong and Impey among others, let us know how the team was feeling, how hot the weather was, and other tid-bits of insight. Awesome.
Now the team’s got a week or so off before gathering in Calpe, Spain. There they’ll come together for their second camp, in lead-up to the Volta ao Algarve in Portugal, which runs the third week of February. Bruyneel has yet to post the start list for that race, no doubt waiting until after camp. It’s sure to include another good mix of riders, another early test for TRS to support each other during a multi-stage road race and see just what they can accomplish. One thing’s for sure: The Shack’s hung its shingle, and it’s open for business.
By Jeff Ludlum, staff writer
