With Robbie McEwen’s participation in the Santos Tour Down Under being confirmed today by his new RadioShack team, race director Mike Turtur has expressed his satisfaction with the news.
McEwen was originally due to compete in 2011 with the Pegasus Sports team but it was refused a Pro Continental licence by the UCI. Turtur revealed after that decision that had the team succeeded in getting the licence, it would have been given a wildcard place in the UCI World Tour event.
With McEwen confirmed today as moving to the ProTeam RadioShack, he will get to compete in it as part of a pre-qualified squad.
“It is great to see Robbie back racing in Adelaide at the Santos Tour Down Under,” said Turtur. “McEwen has won more stages of our race than anyone else and is a big favourite with the fans. I’ve got great respect for him as a rider and I’m really pleased that he has secured a place with Team RadioShack.”
McEwen has said that 2011 will be his final season in the peloton and he is determined to go out with some big wins. He has been working hard and is likely to be in the hunt for stage wins in Australia.
He will be joined by Lance Armstrong (USA), Markel Irizar (Spain), Sebastian Rosseler (Belgium), Gregory Rast (Switzerland), Ben Hermans (Belgium) and 2010 stage winner Manuel Cardoso (Portugal) in the race. It runs from January 16-23.