Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling is delighted to announce that its Italian superstars, Elisa Longo Borghini and Giorgia Bronzini, have both extended their contracts with the team. Former two-time Road World Champion Bronzini plans to retire after one final bid for the rainbow jersey in Doha, Qatar, at the end of next season, but Longo Borghini will remain in the black and orange colours for at least another two years.
Both riders won World Cup races with Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling in 2015, with Longo Borghini taking the Tour of Flanders with a stunning solo breakaway, and Bronzini taking the Tour of Chongming Island in a bunch sprint, and both hope for more success in the coming season.
“The team is really strong and I believe we can achieve even better results than this year,” Longo Borghini said. “For me it would be really nice to win another World Cup – although they won’t be the World Cup next year, they will be WorldTour races!
“I have really good teammates and I really hope to work well with them again as I did this year.”
Along with her Flanders victory, Longo Borghini also took two stages and the overall victory at the Route de France, and finished as best Italian rider at the Giro d’Italia once again. It’s not only her teammates on the road that the 23-year-old credits for those victories, however, with Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling’s World class support team behind her all the way.
“I’m really happy to work again with all the staff, because [Directeur Sportif Egon van Kessel] was really helpful this year,” Longo Borghini added. “I’m sure that next year he will improve the team even more. He’s a development coach so he knows how to bring the best out of the riders.”
Bronzini has been a member of Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling since its inception at the start of the 2013 season and has enjoyed some of the best years of her career. Along with her Chongming Island victory this year, the 32-year-old also won the Drentse 8 this season, and matched Longo Borghini’s Route de France stages with two of her own.
“It’s the last season of my career, and this team feels like a home for me,” Bronzini said. “I know it will be really tricky because it is an Olympic year, and everyone is going to be fighting to be in the Olympics. Maybe there will be some points that the girls will be with their national teams, but I’m really sure that I want to take the opportunity to stay with this team.
“The team is so close to my heart. I want to stay together, and work together like we have always done. I hope that the power will stay with this team, because when we decide to go for something we work together for it. That is the main strength of the team.”
Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling was built around the former World Champion’s sprinting power in its first seasons, but it has been her role as a mentor to her younger teammates that has motivated her most this year.
“Of course we have a lot of sponsors that support us,” she added. “I know that a lot of those sponsorships will continue and we are happy for that. I hope to have a good finish in the last year of my career, and I hope I can give some instruction to the other girls. It was already a good year with Jolien D’hoore and Elisa, but we have also seen Mayuko Hagiwara’s career come up. This was one of my best goals, to be a kind of teacher.
“We’re not just teammates, we are friends.”
“It’s an extremely proud day to announce the re-signings of Gio and Elisa,” said Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling Owner and Manager Rochelle Gilmore. “This team simply would not be what it is today without the dedicated passion and guidance Giorgia has offered all the athletes we have welcomed into the team. Giorgia has played a major role in strengthening the team year by year, identifying talent and personalities that could fit well in our structure and environment.
“Gio and I have analysed and selected athletes over the past 3 years who we believe have a much larger potential than we were at the time witnessing, we then make it our ambition, together with our other dedicated staff, athletes and sponsors to ensure the athletes brought into the team are offered an environment where they can reach their maximum potential.
“Elisa has exceeded our expectations this year with her Tour of Flanders victory and Route De France overall general classification win so we’re extremely motivated to assist her ambitions in 2016 and we’ll do our part to ensure that she continues ticking boxes relating to her personal ambitions in the Olympic year,” Gilmore added.
“It won’t be long until Elisa Longo Borghini will reach World No.1 in Women’s Cycling. She’s an incredible talent.”
Longo Borghini and Bronzini are the fifth and sixth riders to be confirmed as part of the Wiggle Honda Pro Cycling team in 2016. Alongside the two Italians will be their current teammate, Belgian Champion Jolien D’hoore, along with new signings, Swedish Champion Emma Johansson, Dutch all-rounder Amy Pieters and British sprint prodigy Lucy Garner.
More members of the 2016 team will be announced in the coming weeks.
