[Jason1500]

With Lance gone and Levi's best days behind him as far as a GC who do you think will be Team Radio Shack's GC contender next year? I'm going to guess the sponsors would prefer an American GC contender. Who do you think it will be? Is Taylor Phinney ready to content for the yellow jersey or at least the white?

 

[Salsa_Lover]

do you think TRS-80 still will be active next year ?

 

[55x11]

do you think TRS-80 still will be active next year ?

Jani and Klodi.

 

[gh1]

I predict they will fold

 

[Jason1500]

During today's TdF a Radio Shack guy (not a rider) was taking about next year and how they had a lot of good riders on the team. Didn't sound like they were going to pack it in.

 

[moabbiker]

Looks to me like they were burning bridges by the change of the jerseys, which didn't give any prominence to the Radioshack sponsorship logo. So I'd imagine the sponsorship will be torn up in anger, for both LA's poor performance along with the antics of the last stage race. Radioshack corp certainly dropped a lot of $$ on this endeavor and made them look foolish after LA failed so miserably with all the hoopla coming out beforehand.

 

[shabbasuraj]

With Lance gone and Levi's best days behind him as far as a GC who do you think will be Team Radio Shack's GC contender next year? I'm going to guess the sponsors would prefer an American GC contender. Who do you think it will be? Is Taylor Phinney ready to content for the yellow jersey or at least the white?

Lance said he will be the GC rider as long as he lives. [Contador voice]

 

[penn_rider]

Looks to me like they were burning bridges by the change of the jerseys, which didn't give any prominence to the Radioshack sponsorship logo. So I'd imagine the sponsorship will be torn up in anger, for both LA's poor performance along with the antics of the last stage race. Radioshack corp certainly dropped a lot of $$ on this endeavor and made them look foolish after LA failed so miserably with all the hoopla coming out beforehand.

I am not an LA fan boy,, but you are definitely out to lunch. Lance,, while out of the tour GC, did not perform badly. He was a victim of bad luck which he had previously managed to avoid. And that jersey change actually worked very well for them. Antics or not, they (the entire enterprise, not just Lance) garnered more attention for a very serious cause.

Who knows what Radio Shack will do. They will need to bring in someone that they can shine a light on. They have talented riders, but not a "that" guy.

 

[bas]

I am not an LA fan boy,, but you are definitely out to lunch. Lance,, while out of the tour GC, did not perform badly. He was a victim of bad luck which he had previously managed to avoid. And that jersey change actually worked very well for them. Antics or not, they (the entire enterprise, not just Lance) garnered more attention for a very serious cause.

Who knows what Radio Shack will do. They will need to bring in someone that they can shine a light on. They have talented riders, but not a "that" guy.

I really did wish that LA was there to follow AC's wheels and attack and make him look like a child.


I mean it would have been great to see him mix it up... but he was definitely past his prime on this one..

and his final ITT performance, he said it hurt even to go as hard as he did.

 

[adimiro]

...and his final ITT performance, he said it hurt even to go as hard as he did.

Seems he should have been able to predict this outcome and overall poor GC performance based on his training logs and power outputs. All the pre-race hype was just smoke and mirrors.

 

[WAZCO]

Is Taylor Phinney ready to content for the yellow jersey or at least the white?

They'll have to test TP on some longer stage races first before they can even start to think about GC. I'd start w/ Tour of California, Utah, or Missouri? He is interning at 19 so why not start there first. Don't want to burn him out to early. Maybe he'll get taste of Grand tour, Giro or Vualta at 21? If he does well then at 22 or 23 he'll shoot for TDF? That's still young and kind of pushing it but who knows? But take it one day at time since he hasn't even gone over a week of stage races yet. He may sucks for we know.

 

[godot]

Contador

 

[LostViking]

Isn't it Ironic?

Contador

Ha! Funny.

 

[WAZCO]

Contador

and Specialized will supply the bikes, helmets, shoes, sunglasses and other equipments.

 

[godot]

It's possible

AC hasn't signed a contract for next year
RS has no GC threat
RS has invested a bunch of money and didn't get much ROI at the Tour.
They have a strong, but aging roster of support riders
Astana's been a bit shaky on the finances front

If you're AC, can get Navarro to come with you, and get a "no more LA comebacks" clause in your contract - it makes sense.

 

[zosocane]

Contador at Radioshack -- assuming he gets contractual protections -- would make a lot of economic sense for him. Trek needs a "big name" rider to go head-to-head against Specialized which is spending tons of markeing $ in cornerning the big GC riders. Radioshack still has (I think) 2 years left on its sponsorship commitment. Question is how much of a falling out was there, if any, between Contador and Bruyneel?

 

[gh1]

I think Contador is smart enough to not get involved with any LA venture at this point. He still remembers last year quite well.
Several of you keep blaming LA's performance on one bad day. Cadel Evans finished 3 places back with a broken elbow. LA might have lost 4 minutes that day but should have lost less. He was 39 minutes back at the end, get over it. Jeez, this thread was about the future of RS instead of what you want LA to do.
Of course a PR guy is going to take the high road and will say everything is rosy, its what they do. The reality is that RS is a mostly american company, the general american only knows about one race, the TDF. RS has zero contenders and half the team is at retirement age or possibly past it. I agree with the above post about dissing their sponsors by changing jerseys. I cant see this moving forward into next year. Someone mentioned on another thread that RS was for sale so they were drawing attention to raise the price or interest. Thats sounds very feasible and logical to me so that might be over now.

 

[stevesbike]

Seems he should have been able to predict this outcome and overall poor GC performance based on his training logs and power outputs. All the pre-race hype was just smoke and mirrors.

If anything he may have come in too close to peaking (he beat Contador in the prologue). The flat on stage 3 took him out of GC contention then sliding on his back for 100 feet at 60 km/h didn't help...

 

[Snakebitten]

Your mental state is key in any sport and especially in the TDF. You could be physically able but if you become mentally weak for any reason a la multiple falls at the wrong time, a puncture etc it will have a serious affect on your performance. I think this is what happened to LA. Before he even got a chance to get going, just got too much misfortune transpired and mentally he just gave up. If you have a goal thats within reach you will suffer for it. Once its no longer in reach that very necessary mind/body thing takes a powder.

Look at Cadel Evans and even Cavendish in that one race. Being mentally tough is key to overcoming pain for the reward. Gotta say LA is one of the most mentally tough TDF riders ever. 7 tour wins speak volumes. But this tour showed that he is actually human. To come in 23rd out of 170 younger riders is phenominal especially when you consider that he had given up a long time ago.

 

[JSR]

Looks to me like they were burning bridges by the change of the jerseys, which didn't give any prominence to the Radioshack sponsorship logo. .

How much more prominent would it need to be in order to be prominent?