American to return with Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12
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2009 women's time trial world champion Kristin Armstrong (United States of America).(Image credit: Sirotti)
America's Kristin Armstrong celebrates her second world championship.(Image credit: Sirotti)
Golden farewell: Kristin Armstrong finished off her Olympic Games career on top.(Image credit: AFP)
Kristin Armstrong recently announced that she will return to professional bike racing with Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12 in 2011. According to the team’s co-owner Nicola Cranmer, Armstrong is focused on capturing a second time trial Olympic Gold medal in London, 2012.
“Kristin will focus on the individual time trial at the London Olympics,” Cranmer told Cyclingnews. “She will race domestically for the most part but will compete in some later season European races with the US National Team. Kristin will also spend a little time training on the track as she has in the past.”
Armstrong is a double UCI Elite Time Trial World Champion, winning her titles in 2006 and 2009. She also won the 2008 Olympic Games time trial in Beijing. She took one year off and recently gave birth to her first child.
“We don't like to call it retirement, after her World Championship win in 2009, her focus changed to family, only eight weeks after her win she became pregnant. Like everything she was on the fast track to motherhood. She is fully supported by her husband Joe [Savola] in this decision.”
Armstrong and Cranmer are co-owners of Peanut Butter & Co TWENTY12. The team stemmed from the California-based development program ProMan-HitSquad. It is strongly focused on developing US riders for the Olympic Games in 2012 and 2016.
“While part owner, her duties will be to train, race and be a mother,” Cranmer said. “Kristin is very involved in the current and future plans for a sustainable development program. It’s my goal to take as much off her hands as possible these next 21 months.”
This year’s roster included US Road National Champion Mara Abbott, who became the first American to win the Giro d’Italia Femminile in July. It was recently announced that her, along with her teammates Shelley Evans and Sinead Miller will be racing with Safi-Pasta Zara in 2011.
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When asked if she was disappointed with the loss of three talented riders, Cranmer said. “No not at all, we are a development team, and we expect riders to move onto bigger European teams. This gives us the bandwidth to work with the next generation of talent.”
Cranmer will release the team’s sponsors and a full roster at a later date. “We have a bigger roster for 2011 including some promising young athletes,” said Cranmer.
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a background in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, reporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – overseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.
