Former Portuguese national champion Manuel Cardoso (Footon-Servetto-Fuji) will be heading to the RadioShack team for 2011, according to abola.pt. The twenty-seven year old got his season off to a perfect start in January with a sprint victory over Alejandro Valverde and Cadel Evans in Stage 3 of the Tour Down Under. He then followed it up the following month with two podium finishes at the Mallorca Challenge.
He looked to be back on form in late May for the Circuit de Lorraine when he opened the race with a third place finish, but his next big result was an unfortunate crash in the prologue of the Tour de France that forced him to abandon the race.
Cardoso will join compatriots Sergio Paulinho, Tiago Machado and sports director José Azevedo on the American squad, and will add another dimension to their sprint team.
"It's true," Cardoso confirmed to abola.pt. "After some discussions, I came to an agreement with RadioShack for one season.
"The fact that I know I will have the company of Jose Azevedo, Sergio Paulinho and Tiago Machado were instrumental in the decision. The objectives are, you know, to compete to win. I do not promise victory, only hard work to try to achieve them."
The prospect of going to the team is something the Cardoso thinks can help him take the next step in his career: "RadioShack is at a higher level and they offering working conditions that lead me to expect to have success."
Footon-Servetto-Fuji has secured the sponsorship of Italian footwear company Geox which has substantially increased the budget for next season. Since the announcement, the team has already secured the services of two big name riders for next year in the form of triple Grand Tour winner Denis Menchov (Rabobank) and former Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre (Cervelo TestTeam).