NEW: Briefing
The pros and cons of a ‘female Team Sky’
s everyone who is anyone in cycling headed home from the Bergen World Championships, news broke that British Cycling was considering establishing a professional women’s team. A report in the Daily Telegraph quoted performance director Stephen Park saying such a team was a “real aspiration”.
British Cycling has since clarified Park’s comments to Cycling Weekly, saying, “The concept would allow our endurance riders to maximise their opportunities on both the road and track. The aim is not to recreate the Team Sky model. There is no intention to compete at Worldtour level; rather the aim is to provide more race exposure to our programme riders.”
Have they not been doing well? On the road Britain’s women are not performing badly. While Lizzie Deignan’s 2017 results were not on the level of previous seasons, the former world champion is one of six British women to win UCI races this year. Of those, three are under 25, and with strong performances from the elite and junior women in Bergen, the future looks bright.
So is BC missing a trick by not establishing a women’s equivalent of Team Sky? Orica-scott, FDJ and Sunweb all have successful women’s programmes, the latter especially proving what can be achieved. And Movistar recently launched a women’s outfit.
“A women’s Team Sky would be great for women’s cycling,” Wiggle-high5 head Rochelle Gilmore told Cycling Weekly. “Even if they had a massive budget there would still be competition, there are a lot of strong teams and it would be a great thing if there was another and a lot of riders getting good salaries.
“But you can’t service eight to 10 elite British athletes unless you’ve got eight that are content to be domestiques for their career. If they want to be a professional team it does not add up, you need to have an international mix.”
Is a pro set-up really necessary? As women’s professional racing increasingly follows the men’s model, international success on road and track is becoming less common. Of Britain’s top riders only Elinor Barker is currently pursuing a road and track career, riding a limited programme in both disciplines this season and has signed to Wiggle-high5 for 2018.
Start lists of many races all the way up to and including Women’s Worldtour events regularly feature national teams meaning, unlike the men, a GB Team can compete in national colours at any level.
Where does the balance lie? The new British team is an aspiration and perhaps it should stay that way. British Cycling can already expose its female Academy athletes to toplevel racing and control their programmes by way of Team GB. That model is proven and would allow the inclusion of riders from other trade teams where applicable. Plus, GB riders can be placed in trade teams very effectively. Effort could then be focused on training camps for elite riders at quiet times of the season. It works for the Dutch — the world’s top nation since 2009.
“There are a lot of strong teams and it would be great if there was another”