The future of the Radioshack-Leopard team has been secured as long-time sponsor Trek has bought the license from Flacio Becca, taking over the ownership i 2014. The company aims to retain most of its current roster while Luca Guercilena will keep his position as general manager of the team.

Ever since Radioshack announced that they would not continue as main sponsor of the eponymous WorldTour team, the squad's future has been in doubt. At the same time, rumours have circulated that Luxembourgish businessman Flavio Becca who created the team in 2011 to support his compatriots Andy and Frank Schleck, was keen to get out of his association with the project which had not lived up to expectations.

Today everything has fallen into place as long-time sponsor, American bicycle manufacturer has bought the license from Becca and will take over ownership of the team from 2014 onwards. Hence, the team will go on while Becca will no longer be associated with the team he once founded.

The squad was created in 2011, bringing together a number of world stars and taking over much of the Saxo Bank roster as the team set out to build up a team around the Schleck brothers. However, the team's results during its first year failed to live up to expectations and so Becca was keen in to bring some fresh blood for the 2012 season.

The squad merged with the American Radioshack team, bringing together the best parts of the two rosters and inserting Radioshack manager Johan Bruynell as general manager of the team. However, the team once again had a terrible season with Fabian Cancellara crashing out of the cobbled classics, Frank Schleck testing positive at the Tour de France and Andy Schleck missing much of the season due to a crash.

Things only got worse when the team had to cut its association with Bruynell due to his involvement in the Lance Armstrong affair. Luca Guercilana took over the reins and has gradually put the team back on track with Fabian Cancellara once again dominating the cobbled classics.

Nonetheless, rumours have continued to circulate around the team, some of them claiming that riders had - once again - not been paid according to their contracts. At the same time, the uncertainty over the team's future has done nothing to calm down speculations.

Those should now be put to rest as Trek will take over ownership from next year. The bicycle company which rose to fame by virtue of Lance Armstrong's 7 Tour victories, has seen rival Specialized enjoy success by its association with Mark Cavendish and Alberto Contador and now wants to get more involved at the highest level by managing its own team.

"We're thrilled to be able to reach this agreement with Leopard," said Trek VP Joe Vadeboncoeur. "The team has established a great foundation of staff and athletes. Great Athletes Ride Trek is something we are incredibly passionate about and we are looking forward to everything the future holds with this new team. We will have the ability to create more and better marketing content. The rider’s nationalities represent our major markets and become an army of ambassadors at events all over the world.  We can have better integration into new product development and the ability for hospitality and activation at events.”

Flavio Becca is happy to hand over the license and claims to be proud of what he has achieved during his two and a half years in the sport.

"I am proud to hand over this project to the people at Trek Bicycle, who have been a very dependable and loyal partner over the past three years," he said. “When we started in the summer of 2010 we had a blank canvas in our hands, a puzzle. Now, three seasons later, we have a team that has won some of the biggest races of cycling with Fabian Cancellara and put two Schleck brothers from Luxembourg together on the podium of the Tour de France. I am also especially pleased to have launched the professional career of a young talented rider like Bob Jungels and that the team has become a major player in professional cycling. I believe cycling has entered a new era, in which a bike manufacturer like Trek Bicycle takes on full ownership of a team. I have taken a lot of pleasure in running this project and I wish the team and all its members a bright future."

Trek will now start to look for potential sponsors and are already in negotiations with a number of potential signings that they hope to announce shortly. They hope to retain much of the existing team while Guercilena will stay in the position of general manager.