The Wiggle-Honda Women’s Pro Cycling Team was presented to the press at London’s Millbank Media Centre on the banks of the River Thames on Friday, by Europsport’s voice of cycling David Harmon, with the key aim of putting the word “professional” to the fore in women’s professional cycling. The team is the result of a four-year labour of love for Australian Commonwealth champion Rochelle Gilmore, and includes a number of the sport’s brightest stars, as well as its biggest names.
The team’s major goal is to provide the riders with everything they need to fulfil their potential, in terms of equipment, support and training. Gilmore cited an example of a previous team, where she and the other riders were expected to perform after having endured a 13-hour car journey from Italy to Belgium; not eating or getting to bed until after midnight but still having to race the next day.
Wiggle-Honda’s two biggest riders are manager Gilmore, and former two-time World champion Giorgia Bronzini, but the rest of the roster is packed with some of the sport’s brightest young stars.
The British Cycling connection has secured the services of Olympic and World champion Team Pursuit trio Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott [Trott is also World and Olympic Omnium champion - ed], as well as World junior time trial champion Elinor Barker and multiple junior track champion Amy Roberts, who both move up to the senior ranks in 2013.
Italian Beatrice Bartelloni is also set to take her first steps into the elite road peloton, having already impressed on the track, and the team is completed by New Zealander Emily Collins, who spent the last two seasons with Vanderkitten in the United States, Lauren Kitchen, who rode for Rabobank in 2012, German all-rounder Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier, and seven-time Japanese champion Mayuko Hagiwara, who hopes to build on some impressive European appearances over the years.
Despite the inexperience across much of the squad, the speed of Bronzini and Gilmore, coupled with the power of the numerous track specialists gives the team cause for optimism and confidence heading into its first season.
“We’re aiming for World Cup wins and I think a World championship with Georgia is not impossible this year,” said Gilmore. “With the young track riders we can put a lead-out train together.”
Bartelloni, Bronzini, Collins, Gilmore, Kitchen and Schnitzmeier will get the team’s competitive season under way at the Ladies’ Tour of Qatar, between January 29th and February 1st, while Barker, King, Roberts and Trott have joined up with British Cycling to prepare for the World track championships in Minsk, Belarus, in late February.
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Team rider roster 2013
Elinor Barker (GBr)
Beatrice Bartelloni (Ita)
Giorgia Bronzini (Ita)
Emily Collins (NZl)
Rochelle Gilmore (Aus)
Mayuko Hagiwara (Jap)
Lauren Kitchen (Aus)
Dani King (GBr)
Amy Roberts (GBr)
Joanna Rowsell (GBr)
Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier (Ger)
Laura Trott (GBr)
Click on the thumbnails below for a gallery of images from the Wiggle-Honda team presentation