Alé BTC Ljubljana have revealed their new yellow and orange kit at a team presentation on Tuesday. The team was granted a top-tier Women's WorldTeam licence beginning in 2020 and will be led Italian road race champion Marta Bastianelli.
Formerly known as the Alé Cipollini, management announced in September that they signed on the Slovenian company BTC as a second title sponsor, with the team name changing to Alé BTC Ljubljana for 2020.
Bastianelli had spent three seasons with Ale Cipollini (2016-2018) before moving to Bjarne Riis' Team Virtu Cycling in 2019 where she won the Tour of Flanders. She made the decision to return to the Alé team after Riis announced Team Virtu Cycling would fold at the end of the season.
The UCI is set to launch a new two-tier team system next year that includes eight WorldTeams and the rest will be Continental teams. The application to become a Women's WorldTeam required teams to provide athletes with a minimum salary, social and health benefits, and teams must be able to guarantee a four-year sponsorship.
Partnering with BTC and re-signing Bastianelli was all part of the team's push to secure a Women's WorldTeam licence through the 2023 season.
"It's an historical day for Italian Cycling and for our team: A one-year-long dream which is finally reality, thanks to the big help by our management, our sponsors, the staff. With Alessia Piccolo, the Alé Team and the new main sponsor BTC Ljubljana with have worked hard to realize something that seemed difficult, almost impossible, but we reached our target with determination. Thanks to who permit us to become a big team," said team manager Fortunato Lacquaniti.
Ale BTC Ljubljana will next meet at a team training camp beginning on December 12 through December 19 in Spain.
The UCI has confirmed seven of the eight Women's WorldTeams that will mark the highest level of the new two-tier team system set to launch in 2020. Those teams are Canyon-SRAM, Alé BTC Ljubljana, CCC-Liv, FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope, Movistar Team Women, Team Sunweb and Trek-Segafredo.
Absent from the list of top-tier teams was Mitchelton-Scott. The team's licence is pending approval after further evaluation by the UCI.
Alé BTC Ljubljana complete roster for 2020: Marta Bastianelli, Mavi Garcia, Tatiana Guderzo, Eugenia Bujak, Jutatip Maneephan, Anastasiia Chursina, Urša Pintar, Maaike Boogaard, Urška Žigart, Urška Bravec, Eri Yonamine, Anna Trevisi.
