Leipheimer signs with RadioShack team, source tells VeloNews.
- By Steve Frothingham
- Published Aug. 14, 2009
- Updated Aug. 14, 2009 at 4:45 PM UTC
Levi Leipheimer signed yesterday to ride with RadioShack in 2010, a source close to the team told VeloNews.
“It’s not 100 percent, but it looks pretty likely on (Chris) Horner as well,” the source said.
(Horner later told VeloNews that he is still weighing offers from several teams.)
The two American riders were widely expected to follow Lance Armstrong from Astana to his new team. Contacted Friday, Leipheimer said he wasn’t at liberty to discuss his team situation for next year.
American George Hincapie, currently at Columbia-HTC, was not pursued by RadioShack, the source said, because the team understood that Hincapie had another deal for 2010 already in place.
Armstrong announced the new team at the Tour de France on July 23, but no riders were named. Since then, Portuguese rider Sergio Paulinho was reported to have come on board, with former pro José Azevedo signing as a sport director.
Steve Frothingham
VeloNews.com editor Steve Frothingham joined the gang in bike-crazy Boulder in early 2008. He is the former executive editor of the trade magazine Bicycle Retailer & Industry News. He also was a reporter and editor for The Associated Press, where he covered three presidential primaries in politics-crazy New Hampshire. His racing career began on a BMX track in 1980 and reached its zenith with several miserable road races as a category 2 in the early 90s. He subsequently retreated to cat. 3, where he has had a consistently mediocre (at best) record ever since, in road, mountain bike and cyclocross events. Follow him on Twitter at @steve_froth