Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling returns for its second season in the UCI Elite Women’s peloton with very few changes to what was a winning formula in 2013. The black and orange team will once again be led by former two-time road World Champion Giorgia Bronzini, who took an incredible 17 victories last year, but is packed with strength and power in all areas with results coming from all riders.
“We have 13 out of 14 riders from last year staying on in 2014, which is almost unheard of in women’s cycling,” said Wiggle Honda team manager Rochelle Gilmore. “Only Lauren Kitchen has left the team, and she’s been replaced by three really strong and exciting riders.”
Despite only one rider leaving the team, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling has added three new faces to the 2014 line-up, to take the squad strength up to 16. Australian Peta Mullens has already proven her strength and talent in the Australian criterium season, taking a silver medal in her National Championships, while the team becomes even more international with the addition of Swedish champion Emilia Fahlin and former Spanish champion Anna Sanchis.
As a British team, Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling will continue to be built around the prodigious talents of Great Britain’s World and Olympic Track champions Dani King, Joanna Rowsell and Laura Trott, along with World Track champion Elinor Barker and the talented Amy Roberts.
Along with the five Britons, Wiggle Honda will also continue to boast two Germans in Charlotte Becker and Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier, two New Zealanders in Emily Collins and Linda Villumsen, and Bronzini will be accompanied by Italian compatriot Beatrice Bartelloni.
Bronzini has already made a winning start to 2014 with an almost total domination of the Mitchelton Bay Cycling Classic – the Bay Crits – with victory on three of the four stages as well as becoming the first non-Australian winner of the overall classification.
“With so many Italian sponsors, the Giro d’Italia will be a big target for this year,” Gilmore said, “where we hope we can get a repeat of Giorgia’s stage victory in 2013.
“Other big targets will be the Chongming Island World Cup, in China, which Giorgia came close to winning last year, as well as the Sparkassen Giro in Germany, which will be part of the World Cup this year.
“As a British team though, the Women’s Tour of Britain will be the biggest race of the season for us,” Gilmore added. “It’s going to be huge.”
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s first UCI race of the season will be the Ladies’ Tour of Qatar, between the fourth and seventh of February.
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling 2014 Rider Line-Up
Elinor Barker (Great Britain)
Beatrice Bartelloni (Italy)
Charlotte Becker (Germany)
Giorgia Bronzini (Italy)
Emily Collins (New Zealand)
Emilia Fahlin (Sweden)
Rochelle Gilmore (Australia)
Mayuko Hagiwara (Japan)
Dani King (Great Britain)
Peta Mullens (Australia)
Amy Roberts (Great Britain)
Joanna Rowsell (Great Britain)
Anna Sanchis (Spain)
Anna-Bianca Schnitzmeier (Germany)
Laura Trott (Great Britain)
Linda Villumsen (New Zealand)
Directeur Sportif
Franky Van Haesebroucke
