Sweden gets first women's pro team

Sweden's first professional women's team has been announced this week. Former amateur squad AlrikssonsCykel.se has applied for an international team license with the International Cycling Union (UCI). The professional squad will race under the name of Alriksson GoGreen.

Team manager Martin Alriksson will present the team's riders and programme soon, but the amateur team's current riders including Jennie Stenerhag and Jessica Kihlbom are expected to remain in the outfit. This year, Stenerhag won the Swedish road race Championships, ahead of big name Swedish riders including Susanne Ljungskog and Emma Johansson. Kihlbom represented Sweden at the Montreal World Cup.

Alrikssonscykel.se has been a leading team among the Swedish Elite teams and almost reached its goal of becoming a professional cycling team last year, failing only because of financial problems.

"The team is very experienced, and we have some very good cyclists," said team manager Alriksson, who also underlined the environment-friendly policy of the squad, reflected in the team's name. "Our sponsors and everybody in the team thinks this is a very important issue."

Women's cycling in Sweden has had huge successes over the last ten years. Susanne Ljungskog won the World Championships twice, Emma Johansson won a Silver medal in the Bejing Olympics last year, and Emilia Fahlin and Monica Holler have won a number of medals at the European Championships.

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