Team Nutrixxion plans women's professional team in 2011

A new professional women's cycling team in Germany is set to continue that country's continued presence in the pel. The Continental men's Team Nutrixxion squad wants to expand its Elite 2 women's team, Team Nutrixxion Ladies, to become a professional team.

The partnership would continue the trend of men's professional teams adding women's programmes. HTC-Columbia was the first to combine forces, and was followed by Cervelo whose team will continue with Garmin-Cervelo in 2011. The new Team Geox will bring in the Italian Safi-Pasta set up in 2011.

The only women's team currently in Germany is Equipe Noris Cycling, which is stopping since it has been unable to find a sponsor. It was the follow-up team for the Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung, which lost its sponsor after the 2009 season.

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Team Nutrixxion Ladies has been made up of a mixture of professionals and amateurs. Its biggest name rider this season was Christine Becker, who has ridden for Nürnberger, Getränke Hoffman and T-Mobile.

"For next year we plan a German professional team for women," said team manager Mark Claussmeyer. "In the last few days we have had some very constructive discussions and I am confident that we will be able to do our part to ensure that women's cycling in Germany, which has been so successful in the past, will continue to exist. I hope that things will become more concrete as soon as the next few weeks."

He noted that he was in talks with ABUS, a German-based security products company, which has supported the Nutrixxion teams for five years.

"This step naturally means that we must strengthen ourselves in the women's field. There are countless female German cyclists, who have brought in some great successes in the past. That Germany is also a land for women's cycling is shown by the fact that the former Equipe Nürnberger set the international standard for more than 10 years. But we also have up-and-coming young talents, and for their sake we don't want to give up on women's cycling. How we will put the team together will be clarified in the next days," Claussmeyer said in explaining how the team would be established.