Race director Mick Bennett, Lizzie Deignan and Chris Houghton of OVO (Image credit: SWpixcyclingphotos.com)
There will be a new women's professional cycling team launched for the 2019 season under the same management as the men's WorldTour Trek-Segafredo program, and set to sign former world champion Lizzie Deignan, according to a report in CyclingWeekly on Thursday.
The women's team will apparently be named Trek Factory Racing, which already exists with off-road teams in mountain biking, enduro and cyclo-cross and includes stars such as Katie Compton, Evie Richards and Emily Batty.
The American bike manufacture already co-titles the UCI women's team Trek-Drops, which is run by Tom Varney. Drops launched the team in 2013, and became a UCI-registered outfit in 2016, while Trek only recently took over as co-sponsor at the start of this season.
The new Trek Factory Racing team has reportedly signed 2015 world champion Deignan, who is currently on leave as she is expecting her first baby. The new contract would bring to an end her five-year term with Danny Stam's Boels-Dolmans team.
CyclingWeekly also reported that the team is set to sign Sunweb's Ellen Van Dijk, along Wiggle High5 riders Elisa Longo Borghini and Audrey Cordon-Ragot after the team has been rumoured to come to a close at the end of the 2018 season - all are currently racing at the Giro Rosa.
Trek-Segafredo is expected to make a formal announcement from the Tour de France on the first rest day in Annecy on Monday.
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