Orbea-For Goodness Shakes! officially unveiled a new race team comprising of men and women squads at the Redbridge Cycling Centre this past weekend.
This team is unique in that both men and women riders are support. With Olympic Gold Medallist Rebecca Romero MBE heading the Women’s Squad alongside Multiple National and World Masters Champion Janet Birkmyre, Cassie Gledhill, Caroline Wojcik-Gammell and Emilie Fisher, there is a wealth of talent and experience designed to deliver results on the road, in time trials and on the track.
The Men’s Squad brings together a mix of youth and experience, captained by the former GB rider Andy Lyons. With the experience of Lyons, Dean Shannon and Ben Thompson to guide them, expectations are high for the youngsters, Dan Kogan, Marcel Six, Steven Griffiths, Lewis Atkins and Kristian Downs to come through and shine in the mixture of Domestic and Continental racing the team will undertake in 2010.
The men’s team manager, Steve Charles says: “I couldn’t be working with a better bunch of riders. The guys have really clicked and already there’s a real team spirit, both on and off the bikes.
“We’ve got a training camp in Mallorca in late February to fine tune the form before we kick off the season in France at Paris-Evreux. Then it’s back to the UK for some early season local classics before the Premier Calendar starts. This is a big season for us but we’ve been training hard this winter, the fitness is good and we’ll be looking to get off to a flying start come March.”
Renny Stirling, head of Orbea UK, is very positive about the launch of both of the squads, saying: “To be able to launch both a Men’s and Women’s Squad for 2010 is fantastic and a natural progression for Orbea-For Goodness Shakes! The Men’s Road Calendar is becoming more and more exciting with the introduction of The Tour Series and the fierce competition between all of the teams involved in the domestic scene.
“Women’s racing has faced some difficult times of late and Orbea wanted to show that we are backing Women’s racing and are proud to be supporting some of the finest Women athletes in the country.”
Jodie Shann, Athlete Sponsorship Manager at For Goodness Shakes! is added: “Cycling has always been at the heart of For Goodness Shakes, and after sponsoring Olympic Gold medallist Bradley Wiggins in 2008, we are now extremely excited about taking this to the next level, with the addition of two top cycling squads. Both the men’s and women’s teams carry the same ethos as our brand, and we are looking forward to seeing them both challenging for honours in some of the UK’s most prestigious cycle races.”
