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news
Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell on the London 2012 podium (copyright britishcycling.org.uk)New Bradley Wiggins backed women's team announced with host of star signings
Bradley Wiggins is backing a new, star-studded women’s cycling team, DTPC Honda Pro Cycling, whose first signings include Team GB’s world and Olympic team pursuit champion trio of Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell as well as double road world champion Giorgia Bronzini from Italy and Australia’s Rochelle Gilmore, Commonwealth road champion, who will lead the outfit.
Tour de France and Olympic time trial champion Wiggins had outlined his plans to help finance a women’s team during the summer, but even so the swiftness with which it has been unveiled, and the calibre of the riders signed up to DTPC – which stands for Dream Team Pro Cycling – comes as a surprise.
Among other riders named today as having signed to the team are the young Welsh pair of Elinor Barker – winner of the junior individual time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in the Netherlands in September – and Amy Roberts.
According to a statement from the team, Wiggins’ investment has been made via his Bradley Wiggins Foundation. "Wiggins's provision of generous support, assistance and encouragement will further enable the girls to fulfil their potential out on the road," it continued.
While Japanese motor giant Honda appears in the name of the team announced today, the statement added that Gilmore is "presently in deep negotiations [over the naming rights] with a global company based in the United Kingdom."
Trott, who besides that team pursuit gold medal also won the Omnium in this summer’s Olympics in London, commented: "I'm excited to be joining the DTPC Honda Pro Cycling Team for the 2013 season and look forward to being part of what I believe will be one of the most professional and most successful teams next year.
"I'm looking forward to gaining more experience on the road with such a great team next year."
While it is the presence of the three British Olympic champions that are likely to make the headlines here, perhaps the team’s biggest coup is in securing the services of Bronzini, winner of the road world championships at Geelong in 2010 and again in Copenhagen 12 months later.
Completing the roster are multiple Japanese national road and time trial champion Mayuko Hagiwara, Australian rider Lauren Kitchen, Italy's Beatrice Bartelloni, Anna-Bianca Scnitzmeier of Germany and New Zealand's Emily Collins.
The team will ride Pinarello bikes equipped with Campognolo groupsets, with other suppliers including Lazer helmets, Fizik, Look, High5 Sports Nutrition and motorhome specialist Vanomobil.
The 29-year-old from Piacenza rode for Diadora-Pasta Zara in 2012, taking a stage win in the Giro della Toscana, and the Italian came fifth in the Olympic road race, won by Marianne Vos of the Netherlands, who had been silver medalist to Bronzini in both her world championship wins.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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39 comments
Wiggle announce title sponsorship of WIGGLE HONDA PRO CYCLING find out more here - ow.ly/g2Bq2
announcement due imminently....
good article/interview on the BBC site today (miracles
do happen)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cycling/20241339
is Mrs Wiggins involved in any capacity?
Nothing said about any involvement. Funnily enough when Brad first spoke about wanting to do something to help womens cycling, someone did ask Cath Wiggins on Twitter whether she'd be driving the team car - her reply was emphathically no, that would never happen
Wonderful Time For A Ladies Professional Racing Team.
Wiggo was true to his word; and his involvement will surely spur the ladies on to great achievements in 2013.
Lets hope the womens Dream Team get the Press; and Media coverage that UK cycling deserves. So looking forward to seeing some televised coverage of the Womens Dream Team.
Hey, if Vigin were the main sponser? What a catchy name for a ladies Racing Team (The Virgins) it would certainly get the press and media on board; and theres no such thing as bad press because of a name.
Great news - well done Bradley must be a good feeling to do something so needed for UK Women's cycling. I hope Pooley can be signed when she's bagged her PhD
NICOLE COOKE
Thing is that according to her manager Nicole seems to be at a crossroads as to whether she wants to continue or not, after a very lean period....
Shame if she did pack it in, she is still one of the Top Lady Cyclists in the world; and still has a lot to offer womens road racing.
Brilliant news! Cycling continues to the future as the past crumbles behind. I hope they get a lot of TV coverage.
Great news!
As for the other company Astrazeneca would be another possible drug company and are in need of some good publicity. BT might want to stick another one on SKY and certainly has global reach. The statement says "a global company based in the UK" so it does not have to be a UK company Google are based in the UK as they once were in China. This guessing game is far more fun than trying to predict the next casualty from Armstrong gate.
I'm sure we'll find out in due course but as other have said I hope that whoever the companies is that they are in it for the long haul. Womens cycling deserves no less
Bout bloody time to
excellent excellent news, well done Bradley I salute you
Anyone inclined to torture Seth until we find out?!
Any of the banks/utility companies/telcos/BP could use the positive PR.
Alternatively, I wonder how much the Team Sky clothing contract was costing Adidas, and have they worked out that they could capitalize more on being a named sponsor of a side of the sport that hasn't been constantly dragged through the media for all the wrong reasons?
Adidas weren't particularly big on the whole sponsorship of Sky, or rather Cycling in general any more (just like Nike), hence dropping the shoes and team kit availability being a little sporadic (even though it was Nalini producing it rather than Adidas themselves)at one point they weren't even going to produce fan kit this season as it wasn't lucrative enough.
I think this is where the teams miss a trick. Everyone approaches the fan kit as a simple replica of the team kit, but cycling isn't like other sports - for a start, no-one wants to be labelled a wannabe, so sales of replica kit is poor. I've been following the Fan Backed Women's Team efforts being led by Stefan at Matrix Fitness Prendas, and a suggestion I made to him was for a supporters kit, that allows allegiance to be displayed without the wannabe aspect. He seemed to like the idea; whether or not that will actually translate into something is anyone's guess I suppose, for any number of reasons.
It's not that sales of SKY kit were poor (you just had to go for a ride in July to see that wasn't the case!) it's that compared to say Chelsea kit or an LA Lakers vest the numbers are low (no one wears a bike jersey down the pub etc.) so it was more hassle than Adidas wanted for little return.
Maybe News International?
Whoever it is it's great news. Let's hope the sponsors are in for the long term, this time. It would be good to see Lucy Garner joining the team in a year or two to keep the UK talent theme going.
Brilliant news, lets hope it goes from strength to strength.
you will just have to keep guessing for a few weeks...
Good news, at a good time. Lots of focus on cycling following the Olympics and tour and the Uk women's squad is so strong. Good to see wiggins pushing this.
Do wonder who the Uk company is BP maybe?? Certainly big enough??
nope, not Virgin either!
Well, I guess Sky aren't really a global company - main business is really only in UK and Italy. Virgin is more a series of different companies many of whom pay Branson to use the brand.
Global UK companies that I can think of - BP? Barclays? Another bank? GSK? There must be a good few others but I can't think of them right now...
In any event, it's fantastic news that this team is coming in to being and also fantastic news if women's cycling can attract some big sponsors that the men's teams can't. One thing women's cycling has over men's right now is that it can distance itself from the Armstrong debacle, which can only be a good thing.
Not being Sky is probably a good thing - the more corporate non-cycling investors buy into the sport the better.
Please don't say they will have 'Virgin' plastered across their jerseys... the innuendoes will be horrific.
it's not SKY...
Perhaps the Swiss team suits Pooley just fine this year. She's made no secret of her desire to finish her PhD and maybe she likes the idea of coaching younger riders through.
Anyway, it's terrific to see Wiggins back up his words with cash. Has got to be SPOTY now!
Fantastic! I've only been into road racing for two years but what I saw at the Olympics was that women's races are just if not more exciting. Hopefully some more coverage via the GB girls too. Could I ask someone if the main races have women's equivalents, including the grand tours or whether they have their own 'grand tours'?
Great stuff, I didn't think the "backed by Wiggo" thing would take off so soon.
However, it's a shame there's no room for a rider of the calibre and experience of Emma Pooley, who has joined a Swiss development squad (that's akin to Contador signing for Node-4, no offence to the team).
A request to all media outlets: Let's cover this sport properly now, please!
Great news. Not too sure about calling the team "girls", which does seem to trivialise. (Probably just me)
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