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34-588: Johan Bruyneel was Team RadioShack's initial overall manager and Dirk Demol was the directeur sportif . Former Discovery Channel cyclists Viatcheslav Ekimov from Russia and José Azevedo from Portugal was also part of the managerial squad. Armstrong said that the team would promote the Livestrong anti-cancer campaigns of his Lance Armstrong Foundation , and will also be sponsored by Trek Bicycle Corporation , SRAM Corporation and Nike, Inc. sportswear. The team ceased to exist in its current structure from

68-521: A España ( Heras , 2003). Seven of these victories have since been nullified with the disqualification of Lance Armstrong from 1999 to 2005 from the Tour de France by USADA with ratification from the UCI At the time, Bruyneel announced his retirement and his plans to write a book. Bruyneel's book, We Might As Well Win , was published by Houghton Mifflin on 4 June 2008. Also, on 29 May 2008, Bruyneel joined

102-496: A Grand Tour when he finished 3rd at the 1995 Vuelta a España and won the Aalst criterium . In the 1996 Tour de France , he missed a curve when descending a hill in stage 7 ( Chambéry > Les Arcs ), and disappeared into a ravine. The moment was captured by a camera team that was driving right behind the group of descenders. After some time, Bruyneel could be seen climbing out of the ravine and getting back onto his bike to continue

136-523: A ten-year ban by USADA, who noted that "the evidence establishes conclusively that Mr. Bruyneel was at the apex of a conspiracy to commit widespread doping on the USPS and Discovery Channel teams spanning many years and many riders." Said Bruyneel about the ban, "I do not dispute that there are certain elements of my career that I wish had been different. However, a very small minority of us has been used as scapegoats for an entire generation." In October 2018,

170-556: The 1993 Tour de France . His stage win set the record for fastest stage at 49.417 km/h, since then only broken by two cyclists. His greatest successes as a pro cyclist came in 1995. At the 1995 Tour de France , he won stage 7, which began in Charleroi and ended in Liège , Belgium , and took the yellow jersey in his home country. Bruyneel launched an escape and was joined by eventual winner Miguel Indurain . The Spaniard took

204-803: The Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré . The UCI ProTour replaced the UCI Road World Cup series (1989–2004) which contained only one-day races. Many of the classics, and all the Grand Tours , were not part of the UCI ProTour for the 2008 season because of disputes between the UCI and the ASO , which organizes the Tour de France and several other major races. Since 2009, many classic cycle races are part of

238-792: The Omloop , but receive a lot of attention because of their position early in the season, typically in February. Together, Strade Bianche, Milan–San Remo, the Cobbled classics and the Ardennes classics make up the "Spring Classics", all held in March and April. After Liege, the one-day races begin to give way to the stage races leading to the Grand Tours between May and September. Although there are no 'monuments' in this period, some important summer classics are held from July to September. Following

272-482: The UCI World Tour . Although cycling fans and sports media eagerly use the term "classic", there is no clear consensus about what constitutes a classic cycling race. UCI , the international governing body of cycling, has no mention at all of the term in its rulings. This poses problems to define the characteristics of these races and makes it impossible to make precise lists. Several criteria are used to denote

306-523: The World Anti-Doping Agency successfully increased his ten-year ban to a lifetime ban. Sources: Johan Bruyneel is married to his wife, Eva Maria Bruyneel. They have two children together: a daughter named Victoria and a son named Christian. Classic cycle races The classic cycle races are the most prestigious one-day professional road cycling races in the international calendar . Some of these events date back to

340-555: The 19th century. They are normally held at roughly the same time each year. The five most revered races are often described as the cycling monuments . For the 2005 to 2007 seasons, some classics formed part of the UCI ProTour run by the Union Cycliste Internationale . This event series also included various stage races including the Tour de France , Giro d'Italia , Vuelta a España , Paris–Nice , and

374-603: The 2008 season. Although the team was banned from the Tour de France for its past doping history, Contador won both the 2008 Giro d'Italia and the 2008 Vuelta a España , making Contador the youngest rider to win all three Grand Tour championships. Additionally, Leipheimer finished second at the Vuelta. Contador's victory in the Tour de France meant that Bruyneel had won four of the last six Grand Tours that his teams entered, and thirteen Grand Tour championships in eleven years (seven of these victories have since been nullified with

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408-521: The Board of Directors of World Bicycle Relief . But his retirement did not materialize. In October 2007, after negotiations with the Kazakh government, Bruyneel was signed to take over control of the embattled Astana team, which had been kicked out of the 2007 Tour de France for doping violations and was in shambles over its doping connections. He brought Discovery's Contador and Leipheimer with him for

442-829: The PWS Eijssen team to the RadioShack roster as "stagiaires" ("trainees" in French) for the remainder of the season. The 2011 season for Team RadioShack began in January at the Tour Down Under , and ended in October with Robbie McEwen 's participation in the Noosa Grand Prix . As a UCI ProTeam , they were automatically invited and obligated to send a squad to every event in the UCI World Tour . While

476-526: The RadioShack-Nissan team. While some accused in this case, such as Lance Armstrong and Michele Ferrari , did not seek to formally contest the charges via arbitration, Bruyneel asked for an arbitration hearing. In October 2012, while still waiting for his hearing, Bruyneel left his position as managing director of RadioShack–Nissan , shortly after documents from the USADA case were released to

510-408: The Tour de France from 1999 to 2001. The suit was settled for an undisclosed sum the day before Armstrong was scheduled to give an oral deposition under oath. In a written deposition for the lawsuit, Armstrong stated under oath that, "Johan Bruyneel participated in or assisted with Armstrong's use of PEDs, and knew of that use through their conversations and acts." In April 2014, Bruyneel was given

544-660: The Tour in five years. The team's principal successes were the three major stage races in the United States, the Tour of California , the Tour of Utah , and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge . Team RadioShack fielded the overall winner in all three events, Chris Horner in California and Levi Leipheimer in Utah and Colorado. The team also won seven other stage races, easily the most of any major team on

578-581: The World Anti Doping Agency imposed a lifetime ban on Bruyneel for his role in a doping scandal that also saw Lance Armstrong stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Born in Izegem , Belgium, Bruyneel was a successful professional cyclist. Early wins included the 1990 Tour de l'Avenir , the 1991 Rund um den Henninger Turm , the 1992 Grand Prix des Nations and Coppa Placci , and stage 6 ( Évreux > Amiens ) and finishing 7th at

612-596: The agreement. Radioshack described it as a merge, while Flavio Becca, owner of Leopard Trek stated that his team was continuing, and simply taking over Radioshacks sponsors, and some of their riders. The new team was registered in Luxembourg with the UCI . On November 25, 2009, The UCI ProTour Council (UPTC) announced that the team was successfully registered for the 2010 season The team's final 2010 team roster includes 26 riders from 16 countries, after Japanese rider Fumiyuki Beppu joined in February. Demol and twelve of

646-742: The disqualification of Lance Armstrong from 1999 to 2005 from the Tour de France by USADA with ratification from the UCI). In 2010, Team RadioShack was formed with sponsorship from Radio Shack and Trek Bicycle Corporation . Bruyneel confirmed his departure from Astana at the end of the 2009 season to join Team RadioShack. As of May 2010, he was under investigation by the Belgian cycling federation, after being accused by Floyd Landis of involvement in systematic doping while director sportif of Lance Armstrong's US Postal team. On 28 June 2012, Bruyneel

680-524: The end of the Vuelta a Espana in early September, the nature of the racing once more tends towards the one-day races. The autumn classics are held from September to November. Some Classics have disappeared, often because of financial problems. These include: The Monuments are generally considered to be the oldest, hardest and most prestigious one-day events in cycling. They each have a long history and specific individual characteristics. They are currently

714-457: The end of the 2011 season as Radioshack returned their World Tour Licence to the UCI. Their two main sponsors, RadioShack and Nissan, moved their sponsorship to Team Leopard Trek . Sporting Director Johan Bruyneel moved to the newly named RadioShack-Nissan team along with several of the current Radioshack riders. While effectively a merge, there is some debate between the two teams as to the nature of

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748-446: The importance of a cycling race: date of creation, historical importance and tradition, commercial importance, location, level of difficulty, level of competition field, etc. However, many of these paradigms tend to shift over time and are often opinions of a personal nature. One of the few objective criteria is the official categorization of races as classified by the UCI, although this is not a defining feature either, as many fans dispute

782-499: The lead and rode the stage as a time-trial to gain time on his main rivals, with Bruyneel latched onto his wheel, barely able to follow the tempo. He then beat Indurain in the end sprint to win the stage. Bruyneel admitted he felt somewhat uneasy about how he had won. However, the win into Liège afforded him a chance meeting with the King of Belgium during the prize presentations. That same year, Bruyneel achieved his only podium finish in

816-545: The next nine editions of the Tour de France , with Armstrong winning seven straight prior to his retirement in 2005 and then Alberto Contador winning in 2007 with Levi Leipheimer finishing third. However, Discovery Channel, which had taken over as the sponsor of the team in 2005, decided to withdraw in 2007 in the wake of the sport's extensive doping scandals, and the team disbanded. At that point, Bruyneel's teams had won ten Grand Tour championships in nine years (8 Tours de France, 1 Giro d'Italia ( Savoldelli , 2005) and 1 Vuelta

850-609: The one-day races in which most points can be earned in the UCI World Tour . Since the early 2000s, many classic events have started women's races, now part of the UCI Women's World Tour . These events are often held on the same day or on the same weekend of the men's races. Three of the five cycling 'monuments' have equivalent races: Tour of Flanders for Women (first held in 2004), Liège–Bastogne–Liège Femmes (first held in 2017) and Paris–Roubaix Femmes (first held in 2021). A women's version of Milan–San Remo, named Primavera Rosa ,

884-763: The presence of some of the highest-categorized races and some older races are not included in the UCI World Tour . Because of the growing ambiguity and inflation of the term "classic", the much younger term "monument" was introduced in the 21st century to denote the five most revered of the classic cycling races. Until the 1980s there were originally eight recognised classics, the five Monuments (see Cycling Monuments below) plus La Flèche Wallonne , Paris–Brussels and Paris–Tours . Due to various traffic and organizational problems these events came and went in various guises (for example, Paris–Tours became Blois–Chaville, before returning in its current form). Paris–Brussels disappeared altogether between 1967 and 1976. Flèche Wallonne

918-604: The public. The termination was by mutual agreement with owners of Leopard SA. The day after Armstrong's acknowledgment that he doped during all of his Tours, Bruyneel announced that he would be in Brussels as soon as possible to speak to the Belgian national cycling organization and cooperate with its investigation. In November 2013, Armstrong settled a lawsuit with Acceptance Insurance Company (AIC). AIC had sought to recover $ 3 million it had paid Armstrong as bonuses for winning

952-400: The riders were previously with the Kazakh team Astana Qazaqstan Team in the UCI ProTour, including eight of the team's nine riders on the winning team in the 2009 Tour de France . In April 2010 Li Fuyu was suspended by the team after failing a doping test. The team had planned on racing in the 2010 Tour de France and the 2010 Vuelta a España , among other races, but it controversially

986-433: The season. As at December 31, 2011. As of December 31, 2012. Sources Johan Bruyneel One-day races and Classics Johan Bruyneel (born 23 August 1964) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and a former directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team RadioShack–Nissan , and U.S. Postal Service (later known as Discovery Channel), a US-based UCI ProTour cycling team . On 25 October 2018,

1020-578: The stage, apparently unscathed. Following his retirement from cycling in 1998 at age 34, Bruyneel accepted the position of managing director of the U.S. Postal Service cycling team , whose star, Lance Armstrong, had finished fourth in the 1998 Vuelta a España , but whose team, in Armstrong's words, was the Bad News Bears, a mismatch of bikes, cars, clothing, equipment," with a total budget of only $ 3 million. Bruyneel's team promptly won eight of

1054-404: The team had 28 wins in 2011, and showed well enough to briefly be the leading team in the UCI World Tour rankings, they were nearly invisible in the Grand Tours , the races which have defined manager Johan Bruyneel 's managerial career. A Tour de France besieged by crashes and injuries led to Haimar Zubeldia in 15th place being their best finisher, the worst showing for a Bruyneel-led team at

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1088-424: Was accused by USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), although he is not an American citizen. Allegations include the assumption that Bruyneel was part of a long-running doping conspiracy, including the use of banned methods to augment the performance of the cycling teams that he directed. As a result of the allegations, Bruyneel declined to appear at the 2012 Tour de France , where he had been expected to direct

1122-490: Was always on the Saturday before Liege–Bastogne–Liege (it was known as The Ardennes Weekend), before being shortened and moved to the preceding Wednesday. The remaining five then became known as the 'Monuments'. Rik van Looy is the only rider to win all eight. Eddy Merckx and Roger De Vlaeminck both won seven, both missing out at Paris–Tours. Season openers are usually not regarded as highly as other classics apart from

1156-506: Was not invited to the Vuelta. Team RadioShack went on to achieve the team victory of the 2010 Tour de France, while leading the team classification after about half its stages. It was the second time that an American team had won the team classification, preceded by Discovery Channel in 2007. After the Tour de France, the team promoted Taylor Phinney and Jesse Sergent from the Trek-Livestrong U23 team and Clinton Avery from

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