Former US Professional highway champion Emma Langley strikes to Virginia’s Blue Ridge – TWENTY24 subsequent season on a two-year contract, discovering a brand new residence when EF Training-TIBCO-SVB folded. She is a part of a 10-rider roster of multi-discipline athletes led by multi-time monitor World Champion Jennifer Valente, who has been a part of the programme for the previous decade.
Sprinter Marlies Mejias, GC rider Emily Ehrlich and off-road specialist Melisa Rollins, who’s a part of the Life Time Grand Prix collection in 2024, headline the roster of returning riders. Laurel Quinones and Sofia Arreola return to the squad alongside two U23 athletes, Ruth Holcomb, who joined mid-season in 2023, and Ella Sabo, who’s a graduate from the workforce’s junior programme.
Jamie Whitmore additionally returns to the VBR TWENTY24 programme and shall be supported in her efforts to make Workforce USA and compete within the Paralympics.
“The Paris Olympics subsequent summer season have been a main aim. I’m wanting ahead to persevering with to stability my monitor racing ambitions with home highway races within the upcoming season. This stability has labored effectively for me previously and shall be a key a part of my construct towards Paris,” Valente stated in a workforce assertion.
“The help wanted to compete at an Olympic Video games goes far past race day. Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 continues to be a constructive and motivating atmosphere for me to push myself. I am wanting ahead to representing each VBR and Workforce USA subsequent yr.”
Mejías was probably the most prolific winners on the North American circuit final yr, accounting for 16 victories. The 30-year-old from Cuba received phases on the Tour of the Gila and Joe Martin Stage race and each criteriums on the Armed Forces Biking Basic. She’s seeking to qualify on the monitor for her third Olympic Video games this subsequent yr.
Ehrlich received GC titles at nationwide stage races, Valley of the Solar and Redlands Bicycle Basic, in addition to two phases on the Tour of the Gila. She capped off her highway season with a 3rd place at Chrono Gatineau, a 1.1 UCI time trial in Canada, Ehrlich has additionally been spending time coaching on the monitor with workforce pursuit objectives in thoughts.
“I achieved a couple of large desires of mine this season together with profitable a stage race and a number of time trials,” Ehrlich stated. “I’ve very large objectives for subsequent season together with the opportunity of qualifying for the Olympic workforce in a number of disciplines, Professional Highway Nationwide Championships in Charleston, West Virginia, and naturally, stage races.”
Langley ended her 2023 season on the Tour of Scandinavia, crashing on stage 1 and affected by a viral an infection, the latter decided to be pericarditis. She went again to the US to relaxation and start winter driving in Arizona with a few of her new teammates, together with Rollins. Her WorldTour expertise will put her within the position as workforce captain subsequent yr.
Workforce Normal Supervisor Nicola Cranmer pointed to various North American highway races which is able to be a magnet for Langley and the workforce, together with UCI occasions – Joe Martin Stage Race, Tour of the Gila and GP Gatineau. Additionally within the combine are nationwide championships, Redlands Bicycle Basic and criteriums at Intelligentsia Cup and Tour of America’s Dairyland.
“The highway to Paris shall be our nineteenth yr as an expert ladies’s biking program and our fourth Olympic cycle,” stated Cranmer. “Every yr offers a chance to determine and develop new expertise, help the continuous progress of those ladies and ladies as athletes and as unimaginable folks, rejoice by the successes, and be taught and enhance by the challenges alongside the way in which.
“Workforce dynamics evolve in so some ways primarily based on the assorted strengths, personalities, energies, and experiences the athletes convey to the desk, and I am pleased with how our workforce has maintained such an encouraging, supportive, and significant atmosphere through the years, to assist information our athletes to succeed in their very own private gold at the side of the workforce’s achievements.”
Valente is the reigning Omnium gold medalist from the Tokyo Olympic Video games and received silver in Rio as a part of the ladies’s Workforce Pursuit. She received back-to-back World titles within the Omnium this yr and added a Scratch race victory as effectively in Glasgow. Along with Valente and Mejías, Olympic hopefuls on the squad are Holcomb and Ehrlich, who’re engaged on workforce pursuit consideration for the USA.
Whitmore has 20 medals throughout the UCI Para-cycling World Championships on the highway and on the monitor, and received gold within the highway race and pursuit occasions on the 2016 Paralympics.
Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY24 2024 roster
- Sofia Arreola (Mex)
- Emily Ehrlich (USA)
- Ruth Holcomb (USA)
- Emma Langley (USA)
- Marlies Mejías (Cub)
- Laurel Quinones (USA)
- Melisa Rollins (USA)
- Ella Sabo (USA)
- Jennifer Valente (USA)
- Jamie Whitmore (USA)