Following a successful second season, the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team has announced the roster for its 2016 women’s racing team.
A number of riders from the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team’s debut season will return for 2016, including team captain Lauren Tamayo and track and road racer Cari Higgins.
Coryn Rivera returns to the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Blue Train on the back of several sprint victories in 2015, including a stage three win and the sprinter’s green jersey at the USA Pro Challenge where she earned a place on the 2015 World Championship road race roster.
Katie Hall will return following her breakthrough season with the team in which she took 2nd overall at the Tour of the Gila. That success was followed by a high-profile win in the opening stage of the Women’s Amgen Tour of California.
Rushlee Buchanan, Abby Mickey, Laura Brown, and Linda Villumsen will also return for the 2016 season. Villumsen will sport the coveted Word Champion’s rainbow jersey throughout 2016 in time trial events with the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team.
Speaking about the 2015 season, General Manager Mike Tamayo said: “When I look back at the season, I see wins from many different riders, in many different types of a races. As a director and general manager, a record like that shows depth, adaptability, and most of all, effective teamwork. That makes us at the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team immensely proud of these riders and this program.”
The team is also set to welcome five new riders in 2016.
Reigning British national time trial champion Hayley Simmonds (pictured below with Vamper’s Victoria at a recent VoxWomen event) boosts the team’s time trial lineup for 2016. Simmonds commented: “I am incredibly excited about starting my professional cycling career with UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team. The team has a very strong roster and an extremely professional set-up which I think will provide me with the perfect environment in which to develop further as I make the move to full-time rider.”
All-rounder and former two-time junior Canadian National champion Annie Ewart joins the team from Optum Pro Cycling following her breakaway victory on stage two at the Tour of the Gila and her win at the Dominguez Hills Criterium in 2015.
Former Dutch national champion and veteran racer Iris Slappendel will bring years of high-level racing experience to the team. Slappendel has wins at Thuringen Rundfahrt (2010) and Route de France (2014) under her belt.
Colombian rider Diana Carolina Peñuela, who was victorious at the 2015 Criterium Manizales Fair, will bolster the team.
Finally, American cyclist Shawn Morelli, 2014 UCI Para-Cycling Road Race World Champion and 2015 World Championship Para-cycling Track Pursuit Bronze Medalist, will complete the 2016 lineup.