UAE Team ADQ announced they have folded the Valcar-Travel & Service team into the organisation as the UAE Development Team.
Five of Valcar's 2022 riders moved to UAE Team ADQ for this season, with the transfers of stand-out rider Silvia Persico and sports director David Arenzi announced in September. Chiara Consonni, Eleonora Gasparini, Olivia Baril and Karolina Kumiega also joined the team from Valcar.
Bringing the remnants of the team into the larger UAE Team organisation will allow Valcar team founder Valentino Villa, who remains as the UAE Development Team manager, to continue the work of fostering new talent.
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"I made this choice to ensure a better future for the team and to give continuity to the project we have built over the past years," Villa said in a press release. "We have always worked to develop talent and become the pool of talent of World Tour teams. This has always been our key priority.
"Obviously, I was very happy to hear this consideration for our expertise from such a big and prestigious team as UAE Team ADQ. This is a priceless recognition of our excellence and the hard work done over the past years. Now begins a new challenge that gives me a lot of motivation and a new path to walk together."
Four riders will join the UAE Development Team from last year's Valcar continental squad: Federica Damiana Piergiovanni, Anastasia Carbonari, Carlotta Cipressi and Emma Redaelli, all under-23.
Yulia Biriukova, winner of a stage in the Thüringen Ladies Tour, joins from the Arkéa team. Irish track racer Lara Gillespie and mountain biker Gaia Tormena join as specialists, Linda Zanetti, 20, will shift from the WorldTeam to the development squad.
The team also includes two riders from the UAE, Huda and Zahra Hussein among a total of nine different nationalities represented.
The UCI allows riders from development teams associated with WorldTeams to participate in races with either squad, allowing young riders a chance to gain experience in major races. Both teams have to have the same paying agent and a common identity - either in name or jersey design.
Riders benefit from the mentorship and support of the larger team while being given an opportunity to grow. The WorldTeam also gains a well of riders to draw from to fill rosters for their calendar without the required minimum salaries of the top-tier team.
Other WorldTeams with development wings include Canyon-SRAM and, as was recently announced, Fenix-Deceuninck. The AG Insurance-Soudal QuickStep Continental team also has an affiliated under-23 squad.
UAE Team ADQ General Manager Rubens Bertogliati said the project aligns with the organisation's mission. "Women's cycling is growing exponentially and it is part of UTA's commitment to talent development to create and pave the way of growth to young riders who will then one day be able to represent a World Tour team," he said.
"Amongst women's cycling, there is no under-23 category, and the creation of a development team is designed to offer an intermediate step to young athletes who have time to mature under our supervision to prepare them better for the big jump to the World Tour. Developing a professional cycling career is never easy, but for riders without access to support networks, it is almost impossible.
"Through the UAE Development Team, we look to develop a new generation of female racing talent by identifying and nurturing them to reach their full potential. With the new Team Manager of the Development Team, we are starting this ambitious project that I am sure will allow us to climb a further level in the world of women's cycling."
