With just five days to go until the Adelaide Cancer Council Classic and the likely first official use of the 2011 Team RadioShack kit, the team has released a sneak preview of the team clothing on its website.
The jersey is very different to last year’s model, with white replacing red as the primary colour. The chest features a large red ‘R’ contained in a red circle, with the sleeves and top of the shorts being the same colour. The shorts are mainly black.
A number of other brands are listed on the jersey and shorts, including Nissan, Livestrong, Trek, the Nike symbol, the UCI World Tour symbol. Also depicted is the Twitter logo, suggesting a new backing for the team.
The quality of the shots show here is basic due to the fact that they are screen grabs of moving images, but they give an indication of what the new kit is like.
Armstrong and most of the rest of the team for the Santos Tour Down Under are due to arrive in Australia soon. The Texan will join up with triple Swiss champion Gregory Rast, Spanish climber Markel Irizar, Sebastian Rosseler, Ben Hermans and Manuel Cardoso, who won stage three last year. The team will be completed by a rider who is already in Australian, namely the twelve-time Tour stage winner Robbie McEwen.
He recently moved to the squad after licence problems with his Pegasus Sports team. McEwen will be the team sprinter and if he is on form, should be in the hunt for stage wins and possibly the overall classification.
Armstrong has said that he plans to ride aggressively, wanting to put on a good display in what is his final international event.
“I'm definitely not flying halfway around the world to sit in the bunch,” he told the Herald Sun. “I feel I'm getting stronger every day, I've done a lot more cross training this year than I have in the past in regards to swimming and running if my knee holds up.
“It's really helped my cardiovascular stuff on the bike too. My legs were a little behind, (and) the lungs ahead of schedule - I'm just trying to get the two to line up.”
The Adelaide Cancer Council Classic does not count towards the overall classification but it is used by most of the Santos Tour Down Under riders as a warm-up event. The World Tour stage race starts on January 18th.