Radio-Shack Nissan 2012 Season in Review

During the 2011 Vuelta de España what had previously been rumour and private became public knowledge. There was to be a merger between two new but big teams. RadioShack which had been created to accommodate Lance Armstrong’s return to racing and the Luxembourg backed Leopard team joined forces for the 2012 hoping their union will bring about Grand Tour success and a successful classics and one day onslaught. Instead this was an annus horribilis with injuries and doping scandals engulfing the team with the future of ex-director and star Fränk Schleck to be decided in coming weeks. Andy Schleck was retroactively awarded the 2010 Tour de France and in 2012 was focused on winning the race on the road. Swiss maestro Fabian Cancellara was looking to recapture his form of 2010 and had looked good early in the season till he crashed out of Ronde van Vlaanderen. Despite the dysfunction of team management and underperforming rides, surprisingly there were ten team classification victories which were more than any individual rider.