As the women’s Tour de France leaves Paris on Sunday, a second-tier American team is quietly settling into a luxurious location in southwestern France, looking to revive American women’s cycling.
Cynisca Cycling, named after the Spartan princess who became the first woman to win an Olympic title in 396 BC. AD in chariot racing, will begin the competition in 2023 after recruiting a dozen riders, including eight Americans. Backed by wealthy Indiana entrepreneur Jeff Jones, the team will be based at Chateau de Saint Martory in the foothills of the French Pyrenees with the aim of developing young talent after US women’s cycling was hit hard by the crisis. of COVID-19. .
“For American road cyclists, being in France is a dream come true,” said USA Cycling CEO Brendan Quirk. “It’s the epicenter of world cycling. Everything that makes it such a beautiful sport. All the romance around the sport. This country is what American road cyclists dream of.
“And so to have the opportunity for this team to come together for our young women is an incredible opportunity to launch our development program.” The team will be led by Chris Gutowsky, with two-time Olympic silver medalist and six-time world champion Marion Cliget, an American-born French rider, as the main athletic director.
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“COVID has been so devastating that our development programming… is pretty much dead in the water,” Quirk added.
“So what’s happened is our nation’s ranking for women with the UCI, we were historically one of the top three nations. We’re at an all-time low.” After two years of no racing and no travel opportunities for US-based runners, France will offer young women the opportunity to run and study – mostly online.
“Some of the riders are 18, 19, they’re in college. And so they’ll be doing programs that are maybe more US-based, especially early in the year,” Gutowsky told Reuters . “And then they will come to Europe for major boulders in the middle of the season. And some riders who are a bit older after college, they will come here and live.”
Although paying women’s continental team riders is not mandatory under UCI regulations, Cynisca Cycling has set a minimum annual salary of $20,000 for its recruits – the minimum for the elite being €30,000. per year in 2023. one year contract and they have to leave. We want to do two-year contracts so they have security for the following year,” Jones said.
It will represent a significant portion of the team’s budget, which is estimated at between $500,000 and $1,000,000 per year. Cynisca Cycling does not yet have a title sponsor, but Jones said the money is there for the first two years as he tries to find a title sponsor.
Trek-Segafredo is a registered American team that competes in the World Tour (top tier), but their roster of 14 riders only has two Americans. “A big difference with our team is that we are founded as a women’s team. There is no men’s team. We are looking to create an all-women’s platform,” Gutowsky said.
(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)