Two new American women's teams launched
There’s good news for women’s cycling. After the collapse of two women’s ProTour teams, Vera Bradley Foundation and Webcor Builders, two new teams have been announced for 2011,
Danbury Audi and Primal-MapMyRIDE.
"I felt, along with Danbury Audi, that with some women's programs disappearing now was the right time to get a new program off the ground," said Team Danbury Audi manager Greg Wolf
in a press release.
Danbury Audi had announced a preliminary line-up included Rebecca Much, Kathleen Billington, Hillary Billington and Linsey Myers. That line-up competed in the Green Mountain Stage in Vermont in September
and secured a stage win and two podium spots.
"Women's cycling has so much potential but people don't give it the credit that it's due," said Wolf. "Our long term goal of the team is to build a top women's program."
The loss of two top-level teams had left a poor job market for professional female cyclists, but each new team, both based in the US, has announced the plan to fill an eight-rider roster. Primal-MapMyRIDE
has expressed a focus on developing women-specific cycling technologies. Their main presenter is American bicycle-maker BH Bikes.
"We've formed a very strong team of women," said sports director Susannah Gordon. "People that other women, and even men, can look to for training advice and competitive inspiration. Besides riding to
win, two unique aspects of the team will be helping develop women's specific products and fans will be able to learn from and interact with team members using GPS-based social media."
Primal-MapMyRide has announced their eight-rider roster of Nicole Evans, Emily Kachorek, Gwen Inglis, Kasey Clark, Liza Rachetto, Megan Hottman, Nicky Wangsgard and Tiffany Pezzulo.
"There are a lot of talented female cyclists around the country that would like to race," said Dave Edwards, founder and CEO of Primal Wear. "Our hope for Primal-MapMyRIDE is that others will see what
we are doing, build similar teams on the same model, and come out and race."
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