Veloforma Women’s Team Sets Roster and Sked

 

After an impressive racing season in the Pacific Northwest with sixty-three wins in 2008, the Veloforma/ZYM Women’s Professional Cycling Team has its sights set on the 2009 National Racing Calendar (NRC). As early as next year, Veloforma/ZYM hopes to become a UCI registered team. With a successful racing season and returning talent, the team is on track for an impressive 2009.

With Oregon emerging as a cycling mecca, the region is the ideal environment to produce a high-caliber program such as Veloforma/ZYM. Even so, the team is looking to branch out from the Pacific Northwest. “We plan to be at bigger races this year in preparations for our future,” said team owner Mark Duff. “This has been our goal from the beginning. In 2010 our goal is to add a European sponsor in order to help us set our sites on becoming a UCI team and having Europe on our racing schedule.”

Veloforma maintains its title sponsorship and is joined by ZYM Hydration Products as a presenting sponsor. The team’s success has attracted new sponsors for ‘09 and joining Veloforma bikes are Upper Echelon Fitness, Corsa Concepts, Dedacciai, Rol wheels, Defeet, Champion System, Rudy Project helmets and eyewear, Showers Pass rain jackets, Ironclad Performance Wear gloves, and Hudz. Additionally, Russell Cree of Upper Echelon Fitness will provide coaching, bikes and other support services for the women. Cree and Martha Walsh will serve as director sportifs for select races.

During its inaugural year Veloforma/ZYM collected some notable finishes including Tour of Willamette Stage Race overall leader for the senior women, the Eugene Cycle Celebration and the FIAC National Six Day Championships. Other highlights included a podium finish at the Elite National Road Championship race, two stage wins at Elkhorn Cycling Classic and a fourth place finish at Cascade Classic in Bend, Oregon. The Veloforma/ZYM women swept the top three podium spots in Oregon Bicycle Racing Association’s Oregon Cup, the premier road race series for Oregon’s elite riders.

For the 2010 racing season, the team roster includes five returning riders based out of Oregon: Rebecka Hartkop, Susan Peithman, Tina Brubaker, Alice Pennington and Miranda Moon. Part of Duff’s plan is to expand the club out from the Pacific Northwest and four new riders have been added: Robin Secrist from Kirkland, WA, Sabrina Savage from Mesa, AZ, Melissa McWhithers from Scottsdale, AZ and Christina Smith from Denton, TX. Duff is still in talks with other top notch talents to round out the roster. With the new talent, Duff lists Secrist, Pennington, Smith, McWithers, and Hartkop as GC contenders.

The elite squad’s ’09 focus includes the Tour of the Sun in Arizona, Redlands Bicycle Classic, the Oregon Pro Cycling Classic (formerly the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic), Philadelphia’s Liberty Classic, the Manhattan Beach Gran Prix, the Cascade Cycling Classic, and the Priority Health Cycling Classic and Ann Arbor Cycling Classic in Michigan.