‘s has not been invited to the, or Tour of Spain, in September 2010. The line up comprises 22 teams, with 16 pre-selected and six wild cards. RadioShack manager Johan Bruyneel was shocked at the news, which he learned from the press.
“I am not only surprised, I am speechless,” Bruyneel said. “At first I thought it was a mistake so I called organizer Javier Guillén for some explanation. He told me that the other teams offered him better options on a sporting level. I had to ask him to repeat it as I could not believe this, but I heard right: We didn’t offer a good enough team. I cannot accept or understand this decision. With Levi Leipheimer, Andreas Klöden, Chris Horner, and Jani Brajkovic we had four potential Vuelta winners on the roster we sent to Unipublic.
“Our 2010 Team goals were the Tour de France and the Tour of Spain. That’s why–together with the need to perform well in the Tour of California–we skipped the Tour of Italy this year.”
Bruyneel called “for ‘professional’ cycling to become professional” and vowed to “fight for the interests of the cycling teams.”
–Aileen Torres