The American RadioShack team has announced the signing of three new riders for 2011: Portuguese Manuel Cardoso, New Zealander Jesse Sergent and Pole Michal Kwiatkowski.
Cardoso, the 2009 Portuguese champion, currently rides for the Footon-Servetto team. His 2010 season started well with victory in stage 3 of the Tour Down Under, beating riders such as World Champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) in the process; he also took two third places in the Trofeo Mallorca races on his return to Europe.
Unfortunately for the 27-year-old though, his summer went as badly as his spring went well. He was disqualified from the Crierium du Dauphiné for hanging on to a team car on Alpe d’Huez. His first ever Tour de France went even worse as he crashed in the Rotterdam prologue, fracturing his jaw and shoulder.
Sergent has been riding as a stagiere for RadioShack since August 1st, having ridden for the Trek-Livestrong team for two seasons. He is best known as a track rider, taking the silver medal in the 2010 World Championship individual pursuit, as well as the bronze medal in the team pursuit at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
In May Sergent won the time trial at the Tour of the Gila, beating future teammate Levi Leipheimer and Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions).
Kwiatkowski is another time trial specialist having been both World and European junior champion in the discipline in 2008, as well as the European junior road race champion in 2007. In 2009 he won the Polish national under-23 time trial championships and has spent 2010 riding for Spanish Continental team Caja-Rural.
“All three riders are classy riders. They have a lot of potential,” said RadioShack team manager Johan Bruyneel. “We believe in them. These talents will be well surrounded by our experienced riders. We need to work on the future of Team RadioShack and of cycling in general. This is a first step. Currently we are negotiating with other potential future riders for our 2011 team.”