UK gets first all-female UCI mountain bike trade team

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The United Kingdom's first all-female UCI trade team will race as the Trek - Extreme Medics Racing presented by thecyclejersey.com for 2008.

UCI Masters World Champion Petra Wiltshire, the only British downhiller to have twice won a World Championship (Bromont 2001, Pra-Loup 2007), will take on the role of team caption with her 12 years of racing experience. Instead of riding masters events in her rainbow jersey, she will race the 2008 World Cup competition.

New signing Jaymie Mart will join Wiltshire. Mart has broken into the top-30 riders in the world as the sole representative of the tiny island nation of Barbados.

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On the cross country side, Gemma Collins will fly the team colours. After a bruising introduction to World Cup racing in 2007, where she competed at the Champery round with broken fingers, Collins has set her sights on becoming one of the UK's top riders, both domestically and internationally. Having achieved her first podium finish at the final round of the 2007 British National Series, she is aiming to develop her skills (and UCI ranking) aided by her coach, multiple British Champion and international racer Jenny Copnall.

In an unusual move, the team has also agreed to promote, not a sponsor, but a campaign. The logo of the Tara Llanes Heart Of A Champion Fund will appear on race clothing and the team's pit area. Llanes is a close friend of the team, which will use the ongoing story of her fight back to health after suffering a serious spinal injury as an inspiration. The team will seek to publicise and raise money for the fund throughout the season through a number of initiatives.

Look for the squad at European rounds of the UCI World Cup, the World Championships, MegaAvalanche Week, selected rounds of the British downhill and cross country series, the British National Championships and the Fat Face Downtown Race.