Cromwell, Brennauer, Ryan among starters in Adelaide
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Barbara Guarischi CANYON//SRAM Racing teammates ahead of sign in at the 121 km Stage 1 of the Lotto Belgium Tour 2016(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Tiff Cromwell was smiling on the start line(Image credit: John Veage / Cycling Australia)
Former champion Lisa Brennauer (Germany) rides to sixth place(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alena Amialiusik (CANYON//SRAM) tops up her bottles head of Giro Rosa 2016 - Stage 4(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Alexis Ryan (CANYON//SRAM Racing) happy to be racing in the sprinters jersey on the 108 km Stage 2 of the Lotto Belgium Tour 2016(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
The Canyon-SRAM team will begin its 2017 campaign at the Santos Women's Tour this weekend in Adelaide, Australia, naming the six riders who will represent the German-registered team.
Australian Tiffany Cromwell is the only home rider for the race. The 28-year-old was fifth overall in last year's event. She is joined by Belarus national champion Alena Amialiusik, former individual time trial world champion Lisa Brennauer, Italian sprinter Barbara Guarischi, German champion Mieke Kröger and American Alexis Ryan.
Last season Cromwell raced the Santos Women's Tour on a composite team, but this year sees the race attract nine UCI registered teams including Canyon-SRAM, who will compete for the first time. Cromwell was excited to welcome her teammates to her home country after racing solo at the national championships.
"We'll see that the tour is going to be a lot different compared to Australian nationals and I'm happy that there's another five Canyon-SRAM teammates out on the road with me," Cromwell said in a press release.
"It's exciting to see a number of international teams who have come over to support the race and with the greater depth in the field to previous years, despite it still being very early in the season, I think we're going to see a dynamic and aggressive race that hopefully won't be dominated by just one team."
Directeur sportif Beth Duryea was happy for the team to support the event, which precedes the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race, even though neither race is part of the UCI Women's WorldTour. "It's great to see that the women's tour here is growing each year with UCI status, increased media coverage and a field that is becoming more and more international," Duryea said. "We believe supporting an event like this, supporting the tour organisers, and ourselves working on increasing the exposure on a global level is important to continue to grow the sport of women's cycling. We're proud our team is here."
