BMC Racing (USA)
GC rider: Cadel Evans (Australia)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 12
Summary: Cadel Evans is on top of the cycling world with a spectacular year. He won the Tirreno-Adriatico, the Tour de Romandie and became the first Australian to win the Tour de France. He also took second in the Criterium du Dauphine. Team is in its fifth year and also boasts former U.S. road race champion George Hincapie. Boulder High grad Taylor Phinney is a team member but is racing at the Vuelta a España.
Team RadioShack (USA)
GC rider: Levi Leipheimer (USA)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 9
Summary: At 37, Leipheimer is still outracing the kids. The four-time top-10 Tour de France finisher won this year’s Tour de Suisse and arrives after winning the Tour of Utah. Teammate and countryman Chris Horner won the Tour of California in May but will miss Colorado while recovering from a blood clot.
Leopard Trek (Lux)
GC rider: Andy Schleck (Luxembourg)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 5
Summary: The Schleck brothers, Andy and Frank, are national heroes in Luxembourg and a deadly duo on the road. Andy has finished runner-up in the Tour de France the past three years with Frank finishing third this year. Andy also took runner-up in the 2007 Giro d’Italia. Frank won this year’s Criterium International and last year’s Tour de Suisse. This is Leopard’s first year.
leopardtrek.lu
HTC-Highroad (USA)
GC rider: Tejay Van Garderen (USA)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 2
Summary: Has won more races (389) than any pro team since 2008. Boasts national champions from seven countries. Has 19 riders younger than 26, including Van Garderen, who just turned 23 and won the individual time trial at the Tour of Utah. He’s a 10-time national junior champion.
Liquigas-Cannondale (Italy)
GC rider: Ivan Basso (Italy)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 7
Summary: Basso is a major star in Italy, where he won the Giro in 2006 and 2010. The 2010 victory came two years after returning from a two-year ban for his connection with the 2006 Operacion Puerto. While initial charges were dropped, he received his ban after he admitted contacting Eufemiano Fuentes, the doctor in the center of the investigation. Team also boasts Boulder native and ex-Garmin rider Timothy Duggan.
Saxo Bank-Sungard (Denmark)
GC rider: Andre Steensen (Denmark)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 14
Summary: Proud team of three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador, it’s run by Bjarne Riis, who has won world team titles.
Rabobank (Netherlands)
GC rider: Robert Gesink (Netherlands)
Cycling Quotient ranking: 3
Summary: Gesink cycled in 2011 after the death of his father, who died from injuries suffered from a car accident while watching the Bart Brentjens Challenge mountain bike race in October. Robert Gesink had just finished sixth in the Tour de France three months earlier.
UnitedHealthcare (USA)
GC rider: Rory Sutherland (Australia)
UCI America Tour ranking (as of Aug. 8): 8
Summary: Sutherland lives in Boulder and has won 21 races. VeloNews named him domestic roadie of the year in 2010. Team is considered the top continental team in North America, reaching No. 1 in its second year then staying No. 1 for five consecutive years.
Team Type 1 (USA)
GC rider: Alexandr Efimkin (Russia)
UCI America Tour ranking: 13
Summary: Started by diabetic Phil Southerland to encourage proper self-treatment for other diabetics, the team has six riders with Type 1 diabetes, with Australian Fabio Calabria, who lives in Golden, and Spaniard Javier Megias Leal competing in this race. In 1999, the team won 55 races, finishing fourth among continental teams.
Skil-Shimano (Netherlands)
GC rider: Ronan Van Zandbeek (Netherlands)
UCI Europe Tour ranking: 2
Summary: One of the world’s best continental teams received a wild card for the 2009 Tour de France after outstanding showings at the 2008 and 2009 Paris- Nice races. Marcel Kittel won four stages of the Tour of Dunkirk and the Delta Tour Zeeland, but riding lead here is van Zandbeek. The 22-year-old won last year’s Tour of Normandie and the U-23 Dutch national road race title in 2008.
Team SpiderTech Powered by C10 (Canada)
GC rider: Lucas Eusar (USA)
UCI America Tour ranking: 5
Summary: Manager Steve Bauer rode with the famed U.S.-based 7-Eleven team that won many Coors Classics in the 1980s. It’s the top team in Canada and features Svein Turf, who took third in the time trial at the 2009 world championships. He didn’t make the trip. Eusar took 18th at last year’s Tour of California.
Bissell Pro Cycling (USA)
GC rider: Chris Baldwin (USA)
Cycling Quotient America Tour ranking: 4
Summary: It’s led by Boulder residents Chris Baldwin and Frank Pipp. Baldwin was second in the Tour de Toona, and Pipp won the CU Criterium and the Joe Martin Stage Race.
Team Exergy (USA)
GC rider: Andres Miguel Diaz Corrales (Colombia)
Cycling Quotient America Tour ranking: 9
Summary: This is the second year on the Continental circuit for the Idaho-based team. It returned nearly the entire team from last year. That includes Matt Cooke, a former U.S. Elite Road champion and Corrales from Colombia.
Jelly Belly (USA)
GC rider: Sergio Hernandez (USA)
Cycling Quotient America Tour ranking: 3
Summary: A consistently strong Continental team, Jelly Belly had 22 victories and 43 podiums in 2010. It won Stage 2 in its hometown Redlands (Calif.) Bicycle Classic. A year ago Hernandez won the Berry Wolf Grand Prix, the San Clemente Grand Prix and the Giro di San Francisco.
Gobernacion de Antioquia-Indeportes Antioquia (Colombia)
GC rider: Sergio Luis Henao (Colombia)
Cycling Quotient Colombia Tour ranking: 2
Summary: Henao is a sleeper in this race. Only 23, he finished second overall in the Tour of Utah while winning the prologue, finishing second in Stage 1 and winning Stage 5.
EPM-UNE (Colombia)
GC rider: Giovanni Manuel Baez (Colombia)
Cycling Quotient Colombia Tour ranking: 1
Summary: Baez won stages in the Vuelta a Colombia, Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid and the Vuelta Independencia Nacional.
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Note: Cycling Quotient ranking is a team’s world or national ranking based on its performances during the past 12 months.
