The 27-year old Portuguese climber and allrounder Tiago Machado will greatly contribute to our line-up. In the season of 2013, he took the mountain jersey at the Tour de Wallonie as well as at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and also ranked inside the top ten at four other races. He reached another six top ten placings during the 2012 season at high-class races, among other a third place at the Tour Down Under. Lastly, he helped his then-teammate Chris Horner to a second place overall at the Tour of Utah, where he placed tenth himself.

Tiago Machado is not just a great climber, his strengths also lie in time trials. He was Portuguese U23 national time trial champion twice and won the title as an elite rider in 2009. Machado grew up in the north of Portugal and joined his first cycling club at the age of 14. He rode in several Portuguese teams, until he joined Team Radioshack in 2010

According to team manager Ralph Denk, Tiago Machado will be able to play his cards at shorter stage races and, as a good climber, can also be a big help for his teammate Leo König during bigger races or Grand Tours.

Alex Sans Vega, Sport Director of Team NetApp-Endura comments on the new rider: “Tiago will support us at the stage races at the beginning of the season and will surely be able to get good results. His many top ten placings in such races show how well they suit him. In his former teams he proved himself to be a valuable support for his teamleaders. Another important aspect is his experience, which he was able to gain in his last four years in a ProTour team like Leopard-Trek.”