Cycling Australia, Apis Consulting Group, and Performgroup partnered to announce a new national women's road cycling development program aimed at supporting the development of Australia's most promising female road cyclists in their quest for future gold medal success.
Cycling Australia's National High Performance Manager Kevin Tabotta said that Cycling Australia had identified a gap in the development of women's road cycling as a consequence of limited opportunities for international competition.
"Until now female cyclists have not had a complete developmental pathway due to a gap between the state institute programs and AIS elite development programs," said Tabotta. "The ability to support Australia's most promising women cyclists has long been a goal of the high performance program."
The inaugural Performgroup National Women's Road Cycling Team was announced Thursday at a media conference in Canberra. The team will be coached during their European Tour by Paul Brosnan and Michele Vermande. Team members are Louise Kerr, Kate Mercer, Peta Mullens, Ruth Corset, Belinda Goss, and Tiffany Cromwell.
National women's cycling coach Warren McDonald said the women had been selected based on both their performance over a number of national races earlier this year and the growth benefit that inclusion in the team would bring to each team member.
"The women will travel to our European training camp where they will compete in a number of European races and be exposed to an international training and racing environment," said McDonald.
Before departing on July 12 for their tour of Europe, the team will undertake a specifically designed Performgroup program aimed at building an exceptional team experience. Designed to fast track healthy team function and member respect the highly interactive and experiential four day training program will also cover presentation, media and sponsorship training.
Apis Consulting Group will fund travel, accommodation, living expenses, and access to various sports science and athlete support services.
