Ready for the New Year

Lance returned in 2009. Can't do much better than that for a successful year, although the year alone was pretty much a disappointment. Without Lance LeTour was dreadful and the other grand tour events were a bit boring when compared to the past 10 years. Some big names returned along with Lance, albeit for other reasons, and that alone brought more interest to the cycling events of 2009.
Now it's time to look forward to 2010 and what I would like to see:
1. Lance goes back on top of cycling world.
2. Victory for Lance and Team Radio Shack in the Tour de France.
3. Alberto Contador acknowledge the greatness of a legend.
5. A successful return for Landis, Hamilton and Basso. Must wait one more year for Ricco.
6. A classic battle in LeTour between Alberto and Lance, ala Ullrich and Armstrong.
7. Somebody (anybody) give Cavendish some competition. Does Robbie McEwen have another year in him.
8. More TV coverage on the Grand Tours and the classics.

I believe this will be a great year. What are your thoughts and predictions?

To my followers and friends:
"May the best of 2009 be the worse of 2010 for us all"


Joeshico

Practice Begins For Team Radio Shack.

Team Radio Shack and Lance Armstrong are in Arizona for their first practice as they begin preparations for the the 2010 season. Many of the team are still under contract with Team Astana and must remain with Astana until the end of the year.
Lance has now made it public that he will retire (again) after the 2011 season.

Speaking to an Italian newspaper the seven time Tour de France champ confirmed that he plans on racing professionally for two more years.

"I'll go on for another two years but this time I'll have the experience of this season behind me and I'll be better because I'll also have the best team in the world," he said.

"Of the nine Astana riders (from the Tour) eight are here now. Of course we're missing a great champion like Alberto Contador but we'll still have the same chances of winning," he added.

The first race for Team Radio Shack will be the Tour Down Under.

The 2010 Santos Tour Down Under will take place in South Australia from 17 to 24 January 2010.

Win a Ride With Lance

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Special promotion is good until 12/7.

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Tour de France 2010 Stage Routes

The route for the 2010 Tour de France was announced on October 14th.

All info can be found on the official Tour web site. www.letour.fr

Tour de France 2010

Running from Saturday July 3^rd to Sunday July 25^th 2010, the 97^th Tour de France will be made up of 1 prologue and 20 stages and will cover a total distance of 3,600 kilometres.

These stages have the following profiles:

• 1 prologue,
• 9 flat stages,
• 6 mountain stages and 3 summit finishes,
• 4 medium mountain stage,
• 1 individual time-trial stage (51 km).

Distinctive aspects of the race

• le Tourmalet climbed twice,
• a hint of the Classics and cobblestones,
• 2 rest days,
• 23 level 1, level 2 and highest level mountain passes.

The stages

Stage	Type	Date	Start and Finish	Distance	Details
P	Prologue	Saturday 3 July	Rotterdam > Rotterdam	8 km
1	Plain	Sunday 4 July	Rotterdam > Bruxelles	224 km
2	Hilly	Monday 5 July	Bruxelles > Spa	192 km
3	Plain	Tuesday 6 July	Wanze > Arenberg Porte du Hainaut	207 km
4	Plain	Wednesday 7 July	Cambrai > Reims	150 km
5	Plain	Thursday 8 July	Épernay > Montargis	185 km
6	Plain	Friday 9 July	Montargis > Gueugnon	225 km
7	Medium mountains	Saturday 10 July	Tournus > Station des Rousses	161 km
8	High Mountains	Sunday 11 July	Station des Rousses > Morzine-Avoriaz	189 km
R	Rest Day	Monday 12 July	Morzine-Avoriaz
9	High Mountains	Tuesday 13 July	Morzine-Avoriaz > Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne	204 km
10	Medium mountains	Wednesday 14 July	Chambéry > Gap	179 km
11	Plain	Thursday 15 July	Sisteron > Bourg-lès-Valence	180 km
12	Hilly	Friday 16 July	Bourg-de-Péage > Mende	210 km
13	Plain	Saturday 17 July	Rodez > Revel	195 km
14	High Mountains	Sunday 18 July	Revel > Ax-3 Domaines	184 km
15	High Mountains	Monday 19 July	Pamiers > Bagnères-de-Luchon	187 km
16	High Mountains	Tuesday 20 July	Bagnères-de-Luchon > Pau	196 km
R	Rest Day	Wednesday 21 July	Pau
17	High Mountains	Thursday 22 July	Pau > Col du Tourmalet	174 km
18	Plain	Friday 23 July	Salies-de-Béarn > Bordeaux	190 km
19	Individual time-trial	Saturday 24 July	Bordeaux > Pauillac	51 km
20	Plain	Sunday 25 July	Longjumeau > Paris Champs-Élysées	105 km

Team Radioshack Granted Pro Tour License

Lance Armstrong’s new Team Readioshack has been given permission to race in many of cycling’s top events for the next four years.

The International Cycling Union said on Friday that it has granted Team RadioShack a license to compete in ProTour races for the 2010-13 seasons. The team still needs an invitation to race in next year’s Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

The season-long ProTour series includes one-day classics such as the Amstel Gold Race in the Netherlands and Belgium’s Tour of Flanders, plus stage races such as the Dauphine Libere in France and Switzerland’s Tour de Romandie.

lance Armstrong rode for the Kazakh-backed Astana roster when he finished third in this year’s Tour. He announced afterward that he was leaving to create his own team.

Source: AP

Horner Signs With Team Radio Shack

American Chris Horner has signed a two-year deal with Lance Armstrong's Team Radio Shack for 2010.

Team Radio Shack has already signed up Horner's Astana team-mates Levi Leipheimer, Sergio Paulhino, Haimar Zubeldia and Andreas Kloden.

2010 team roster

NAME................................FORMER TEAM

	Lance Armstrong		Astana
	Janez Brajkovic		Astana
	Ben Hermans		Topsport Vlaanderen–Mercator
	Chris Horner		Astana
	Andreas Klöden		Astana
	Daryl Impey		Barloworld
	Markel Irizar		Euskaltel-Euskadi
	Levi Leipheimer		Astana
	Geoffroy Lequatre		Agritubel
	Tiago Machado		Madeinox - Boavista
	Nikolas Maes		Topsport Vlaanderen-Mercator
	Sérgio Paulinho		Astana
	Grégory Rast		Astana
	Sebastien Rosseler		Quick Step
	José Luis Rubiera]		Astana
	Gert Steegmans		Team Katusha
	Tomas Vaitkus		Astana
	Haimar Zubeldia		Astana