Tour de France
Brajkovic to help Lance in TDF
2010-06-22 19:50
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Paris - Slovenian Janez Brajkovic was rewarded for his victory in the Dauphine Criterium stage race by being named on Tuesday in Lance Armstrong's RadioShack team for the Tour de France.
Also selected to help Armstrong in his quest for an eighth yellow jersey on July 3-25 were Americans Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner, German Andreas Kloden, Portuguese Sergio Paulinho, Ukrainian Yaroslav Popovych, Swiss Gregory Rast and Kazakh Dmitry Muravyev.
Brajkovic, 26, impressed in the one-week stage race earlier this month when he won a 49km time trial to take command of the race and countered a number of attacks by Tour de France champion Alberto Contador over four days in the mountains.
While it will be his first Tour, Armstrong also has experienced helpers in the shape of Kloden and Leipheimer, both of whom have vast major Tour experience and have finished on the podium of the race.
Kloden finished runner-up in both 2004 and 2006 while Leipheimer was a third place finisher in 2007 when his then teammate, Contador, won the first of his two yellow jerseys.
Armstrong finished third overall last year behind Astana team leader Contador, who is once again the overall victory favourite.
RadioShack:
Lance Armstrong (USA), Levi Leipheimer (USA), Andreas Kloden (GER), Chris Horner (USA), Janez Brajkovic (SLO), Sergio Paulinho (POR), Yaroslav Popovych (UKR), Gregory Rast (SUI), Dmitry Muravyev (KAZ)