Erica Allar (CARE4CYCLING powered by Solomon Corp) wins the St. Charles Criterium(Image credit: Karl Hendrikse)
Erica Allar (Care 4 Cycling) at the start before clinching the USA Crits Series title.(Image credit: Jonathan Devich)
Erica Allar with the Terrapin Twilight trophy(Image credit: Brandon Andrews)
The Colavita/Fine Cooking team announced the signing of 2013 National Criterium Calendar overall winner Erica Allar for the 2014 season. Coming along with Allar are her 2013 teammates Lenore Pipes and Jessica Prinner.
Allar has been the dominant woman of the American criterium scene, having taken the USA Crits and National Criterium Calendar overall titles two years in a row.
"We are thrilled to welcome Erica to our program," John A. Profaci, the Vice President of Colavita USA, said. "With Erica's speed and our strengths in teamwork and strategy, Colavita/Fine Cooking will be delivering results that make headlines."
Allar joins returning riders Lindsay Bayer, Laura Brown, Jennifer Purcell, Whitney Schultz, and Mary Zider on the team. "Colavita/Fine Cooking is a very accomplished squad," Allar said. "We will have lots of options next year for breakaways and sprints."
The team will work to win Allar a third overall title in the NCC in 2014, a task made somewhat less daunting by the large reduction in the number of race days on the calendar, just announced by USA Cycling this week.
Allar said it was a challenge to get to all 24 of the events this year - a calendar that amounted to nearly 40 days of racing for the women - but that the reduced calendar will be better.
"I am glad that the NCC is shorted next season. There were simply too many events in the NCC this year," Allar told Cyclingnews. "I was interested to see how the shortened NCC schedule would affect the NRC schedule. I have confidence in the people at USA Cycling and the committees in that they would create balance in both series and it looks as though they've done just that. I am excited about the 2014 season."
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Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
