Armstrong welcomes Lim, Garmin confirm Marc Quod from Australian Institute of Sport
Allen Lim leaves Garmin and will take up an appointment with RadioShack (Image credit: James Huang)
Allen Lim and Team RadioShack have confirmed that the Boulder-based sports physiologist will be joining the new squad, headed up by Lance Armstrong, for the 2010 season.
Speaking to Cyclingnews on Sunday evening, Lim confirmed the news that he had left the Garmin-Slipstream set-up and described rumours that he was set to join RadioShack as "interesting". Confirmation that Lim's link to RadioShack was more than just 'interesting' came on Monday when he admitted that the rumours were true and was subsequently welcomed to the new team by Armstrong on his twitter page.
While some will no doubt see this as a continuation of the rift between Garmin boss Jonathan Vaughters and Armstrong, his former team leader at US Postal, it had been clear for some time that Garmin wanted to change the make-up of its backroom staff. Lim, too, was wanting to spend less time on the road and more at home in Boulder, Colorado. This move should allow both sides to achieve those objectives.
Lim has admitted that one aspect of the offer from RadioShack that especially attracted him was the opportunity to spend less time on the road. Over the past few seasons he has had to spend increasing amounts of time working out of Garmin's base in the Spanish city of Girona. At the same time, Garmin have brought in several new members to their backroom staff to provide their riders were more support in specific areas.
Vaughters confirmed to Cyclingnews on Sunday that what will be the Garmin-Transitions team in 2010 has already taken on the head of sports physiology at the University of Colorado, Dr Iñigo San Millán. He will oversee the team's physiological testing. Also joining is Marc Quod, who has worked with members of the Australian under-23 team - including new Garmin signing Jack Bobridge - at the Australian Institute of Sport.
Lim, who said on Sunday he was "looking for a new challenge and trying to better oneself", looks set to return to a more sports science-focused role at RadioShack. "I'm here in a sports scientist role as opposed to a coaching role," Lim said of his move.
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Peter Cossins has written about professional cycling since 1993 and is a contributing editor to Procycling. He is the author of The Monuments: The Grit and the Glory of Cycling's Greatest One-Day Races (Bloomsbury, March 2014) and has translated Christophe Bassons' autobiography, A Clean Break (Bloomsbury, July 2014).
