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I have 4 names...

Schleck A. Tour de France
Cancellara North classics / Vuelta?
Bennati Sprints
Schleck F. All the rest

Maybe the stronger team of the season?

3 leaders, no team, I hope they'll go straight into continental pro

Hushovd says he doesn't fear Leopard in the classics. Too fresh a team. They need at least one season to sort themselves out, he said.


I say, they have lots of ex-riders from Saxo, who know each other well. Especially in the Tour it may help confirmung past performances. Fuglsang still improving, and he was already strong in the last season. Also Feillu could be there in the mountains (although I don't know their plans with him). And after all the brothers are the biggest help for each other. Voigt as huge experience. Cancellara also knows how to act as a team in different situations.
So I think Tour will rock. The rest... uncertain.

i think, that at Giro have no chance, and no intrest

I think at the tour they can be pretty good, especially the duo, although the helpers could be quite weak, unless they improve compared to last year, where they were disappointing.
Then you have cancellara for the classics. But almost on his own.
And not much else to be an important team... 2 crappy sprinters, and some decent riders who can score. But I can't see them as an armada, especially for the other important races. Of course they can win some smaller races. Ok probably those milram-guys could become good again...

Anyway I dont like those schlecks Much money and noise for nothing.

Don't like them from the start, just like Sky last year.

Sprints: Bennati in all three GTs I heard, this means they are desperate. Weylandt & Wagner will be used for the smaller races. Support will come from semi-fast people like Nizzolo, Klemme, Vigano.
Flanders&Roubaix: Cancellara, Weylandt, Klemme, OGrady, Posthuma, Stamsnijder, Wagner, Lund. Sounds ok, but the really super teams next year will be Garmin&BMC. I see Cance vastly outnumbered in the finale by them.
Ardennes: Saxo+Milram here. Schleck, Schleck, Voigt, Fuglsang, Wegmann, Gerdemann, Monfort, Feillu,... strong team, especially in the second row. This is also their division for Giro&Tour GC.

Overall: Weak sprinting department, solid support for Cancellara in the classics, big group of good climbers. Clearly a Schleckteam built for Tour success that neglects the other races. Trek. Also just 25 riders, which I think is an embarassment for such a team of big words. Euskaltel the only PRT with fewer, and they're on the brink of folding every year because they have no billionaire writing the cheques. Lampre 31 next year...

Just read Bennati saying that a start at the Tour is less likely ( http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bennati ... opard-trek ).

I had and have my problems with Sky, too. Murdoch, bah. And these ultra slick looking jerseys. Buh. But Leopard is different for me. I don't love them, though. But I find it interesting. How will the Milram boys perform in such an international surrounding? What will happen to Wagi? Benna gives an extra note, as I also like him for a while. Furthermore I like their jersey more than that of Sky for example (that's always an important point concerning sympathy). They look very humble, rough, uncomplicated. I always imagined it to be looking that way or similar. Also the attitude of management and riders is rather modest compared to the material of riders and their calibre. Finally, teams that don't name themselves after a sponsor have my special sympathy.

Ok, Benna not sure for the Tour, so he is likely for Giro+Vuelta and the Tour will be 100% for the Schlecks. So they probably send a B-Team for the Giro with one of the second row climbers as GC leader. Someone like Gerdemann, Monfort or Fuglsang with support from Zaugg, Denifl, Lund + a sprinter division around Benna and some allrounders like Wegmann. Schleck, Schleck, Cancellara, OGrady, Voigt, Feillu, Gerdemann, Monfort, Posthuma for the Tour.

Yes, seems like they won't rule the GC on every GT. But sending a team around Benna to the Giro must not be the worst thing to do. One or two stage wins would be a fine result even with the highest placed overall rider on rank 25 or so.
Don't think that Gerdemann again wastes his energy on trying to keep up with the cracks in the mountains. Fuglsang will also concentrate on peaking at the Tour for the Schlecks, as far as I know. But they could have a nice stage hunting team in Italy.

For sure they want the tour, victory of giro don't give all the sponsor who give victory of tour and i think this team can make 1 - 2 years, make money and *puff*

*puff*?!

Iban, whom of Garmin you expect to be any threat to Cancellara in the final km?

hm, i think iBan doesn't think about one single rider...the mass of good riders, especially for the classics, at garmin is impressive

Ok i have to correct myself, i looked at their last years team. Hushovd and Haussler are that guys that can do it, and so the rest of the squad really got their chance, too, using the tactical posibilitys. Sry for that.

This is the beautiful reply from liquigas cannondale

http://video.gazzetta.it/ciclismo-never ... 144f02aabc

Very nice the lie "when road start to climb or you're Ivan Basso and you love it or you're in a big trouble" ok i hope Contador join Giro 2011

Nice clip.


(Basso will focus on the TdF this year. If you want him to challenge A.C. then it's meant to be in France (if they get the poor food contamination victim cleared until then))

yes, Contador have to much fear in Italy to ride,that maybe must ride in italian jail

i don't think that A.Contador will ride the TDF.
His case will be brought to CAS, and this will take maybe 6 months )

Welcome Leopard.


The Spanish federation gets little advised by the UCI. They'll share documents before they all go to trial. So there is one small chance for Contador: if the Spaniards convince the UCI of Albertos innocence then the UCI won't go to CAS after he maybe got cleared by the national federation.

We're drifting offtopic..

we'll see, i'm from Luxembourg, so it would very hard to know that Contador just won because he has dopped, but if he's innocent it's ok that he won, then he was just better then Andy! (yess just e little bit offtopic^^)

so some people say that Leopard-Trek is no team, i say thats wrong because many of the saxo-bank riders went with the schleck-brothers to the new team!
for example : Dominic Klemme, Jens Voigt, Fabian Cancellara, Jakob Fuglsang, Stuart O'Grady, Anders Lund, Fränk Schleck, Andy Schleck
they know each other very well, so in my opinion this is until now a team
then we have two ex-milram riders, gerdemann and wegmann who know the other german riders also very well and if i'm not wrong gerdemann was 2005 also at thesaxo bank team

this are just few examples but in fact al these pro riders know each other, and i agree, that they have to ride some races to be a really team but i think that this will be soon, and then they will win many races!

Leopard-Treck HUEL SE!!!!!!

http://www.gazzetta.it/openxlink.shtml? ... 0111714_F3
Under the body, evidently the threadlike Schleck is wearing - just out of view of his deformed chest - a prosthesis that makes it much more aerodynamic. A true technological doping, banned by the UCI regulations (art. 1.3.033).

The gazzetta is not always very quick, is it? Cyclingnews reported about it already about a week ago.

gazzetta reported this on 1 april, but i have this week no time to read it, while i worked to much

http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/01-04-2 ... 1773.shtml

Luna wrote:The gazzetta is not always very quick, is it? Cyclingnews reported about it already about a week ago.

Gazzetta is not very quick???

cyclingnews reported on 3 april, and say:
Questions about the strange looking bulge under Schleck’s skin suit first circulated on Twitter and then picked up steam when Gazzetta dello Sport suggested Schleck had broken UCI rule 1.3.033.

The Italian newspaper suggested that the Camelbak could give an advantage of two seconds per kilometre at a speed of 50km/h. Schleck finished seven seconds slower than main rival Vasili Kiryienka (Movistar) in the 7.8km time trial but hung on to win the overall classification by 13 seconds.

auxilium torino wrote:

Luna wrote:The gazzetta is not always very quick, is it? Cyclingnews reported about it already about a week ago.

Gazzetta is not very quick???

cyclingnews reported on 3 april, and say:
Questions about the strange looking bulge under Schleck’s skin suit first circulated on Twitter and then picked up steam when Gazzetta dello Sport suggested Schleck had broken UCI rule 1.3.033.

The Italian newspaper suggested that the Camelbak could give an advantage of two seconds per kilometre at a speed of 50km/h. Schleck finished seven seconds slower than main rival Vasili Kiryienka (Movistar) in the 7.8km time trial but hung on to win the overall classification by 13 seconds.

i red the uci-referees gave him the "ok" before the start
so kind of a bad joke in my eyes..