Long-term sponsor of women's cycling stay in the game
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Smile for the cameras - Cervélo Bigla sign in - 2016 Omloop van het Hageland - Tielt-Winge(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Lotta Lepistö celebrates with her Cervelo Bigla teammates after winning the final stage of the Aviva Women's Tour in Kettering.(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Bigla Cervelo was the top team at Emakumeen Bira(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Lotta Lepisto (Cervelo-Bigla)(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Ashleigh Moolman Pasio wins the most aggressive rider at Aviva Women's Tour 2016 - Stage 3(Image credit: Sean Robinson/Velofocus)
Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling Team announced Tuesday that co-title sponsor Bigla has extended its sponsorship of the UCI women’s team for another two years, which will see the Swiss company support the team until the end of 2018.
“Bigla has inspired us for many years because they had the vision to grow women’s cycling over a decade ago,” said team manager Thomas Campana. “We could go so far as to say Bigla is women’s cycling. The list of athletes they have supported over the years is incredible. If you go onto what the riders have achieved, it inspires us to get out of bed every day and build a really special project to honour Bigla and our other partners. We want to thank Fritz Boesch and Monika Loeffel-Boesch, Bigla is not just a partner, it stands for women’s cycling.”
Bigla manufacturers high-end hospital care and office furniture and has been a long-term sponsor in women’s cycling, sponsoring a team beginning in 2008. The team’s founder Fritz Boesch began with hopes of playing a role in the development of women’s cycling.
Bigla's owner, Monika Loeffel-Boesch weighed in on the company’s decision to re-up its sponsorship for two more years, saying in a team press release, “We’re proud to be a supporter of this project.”
Although the team is registered in Germany this year, the management, sponsors and riders have strong ties to Switzerland.
“Switzerland is an important market for us and it’s great to have the team based here but also racing across Europe. We love what the women have achieved over the last few years and it is in conjunction with what we as a company achieves," Loeffel-Boesch said.
“We have very high standards and believe in being world class so it’s great to partner with a high performance cycling team with the same values.”
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So far this season, the Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling Team has nine victories accompanied by a further 18 podium spots. Lotta Lepisto has won five events; the prologue at Euskal Emakumeen Bira, stae 1 at Elsy Jacobs, stage 5 at Aviva Women’s Tour and the road and time trial championships in Finland. Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio has secured two victories; Auensteiner-Radsporttage overall and stage 2b, and Joelle Numainville won the White Spot/Delta Road Race and Carmen Small won the US time trial title.
Moolman-Pasio is currently ranked seventh in the UCI world ranking, while Cervelo-Bigla is ranked sixth in the world.
The team will next compete at the Internationale Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen (July 15-21) followed by La Course by Le Tour de France on July 24.
