Sprinter Andrea Cyr lands lead role for Fount Cycling Guild in 2025
'Our biggest differentiator as a women's pro team - we aren't rinse and repeat' says founder Jennifer Wheeler about finding talent
Fount Cycling Guild confirmed veteran sprinter Andrea Cyr will be among the eight new riders on the 2025 roster for the US-based women's elite racing team. The team moves into a fifth season with a 15-rider lineup.
Cyr was second overall for elite women in the 2023 American Criterium Cup series with the Miami Nights. She had a mixed bag of guest appearances for racing this past season when the Nights team, and two other squads owned by the National Cycling League, were abruptly shut down in April. She scored sixth at Athens Twilight Criterium for Texas Roadhouse Cycling and a string of 10 top 10s at the Chicago Grit race series for Goldman Sachs ETFs.
"Andrea Cyr was an obvious choice. Besides her amazing personality, she brings leadership, experience, and a brave, gritty type of racing to help mentor and bring power and leadership to the squad," Jennifer Wheeler, the team co-owner who is an active member of the roster, told Cyclingnews.
"When she attended camp, it was like she had already been on the team forever. It was a seamless fit and we can't wait to have her in the fold with the other strong returning riders."
Wheeler is proud that her women's elite team, which operates as a 501c3 non-profit to develop talent, provides coaching, equipment, race entry fees, travel costs and other support for team members. The most recent talent camp had 21 riders in attendance from 50 US applicants.
"I think our biggest differentiator as a women's pro team is that we aren't a rinse and repeat team from those already on the pro circuit and put a lot of resources into finding talent outside of the pro cycling world in other sports and take chances on people with potential and few results."
Dr. Cyr, who is a medical director at Indianapolis Rehabilitation Hospital of Carmel in Indiana, attended a recent talent camp held at the team's new headquarters in Kentucky. She was an easy selection for Wheeler, who also added Allison Edgar (20), Brooklyn Raddin (18), Catherine Van Doorn (34) and former motocross competitor Lauren Baker Smith (36) from talent camps.
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"I'll be joining the very strong Fount Cycling team. Their passion, dedication, and work ethic are already influencing me. Big things are in the works for next season with this wrecking crew. Might see this team in a few more crits next year too," Cyr posted to Instagram.
Belgian Eleanor Wiseman moves from Baloise-WB Ladies after she won third on GC at Tour of the Gila as a guest rider with Fount last year. Dani Audino is a US Marine off the bike and has competed at the Armed Forces Triathlon Championship. She moved to category 2 level on her road bike a year ago. Also added to the roster for cyclocross experience from junior mountain biking is 16-year-old Bella Kroutil.
Returning to the roster is a group of US riders: Alia Shafi, who was second on the ITT stage and fifth overall at Tour of the Gila last year; Ellexi Snover, who was 32nd at Big Sugar Gravel; Elizabeth Dixon, stage winner at Tour of the Gila; Andre Buttine, Marj Minagawa and Wheeler.
Riders will compete across several disciplines in 2025, the US road campaign beginning at Redlands Bicycle Classic in California in April. Several riders will return to gravel, including Unbound Gravel in Kansas at the end of May.
Fount Cycling Guild roster 2025
- Dani Audino (USA)
- Lauren Baker Smith (USA)
- Andrea Buttine (USA)
- Andrea Cyr (USA)
- Elizabeth Dixon (USA)
- Allison Edgar (USA)
- Bella Kroutil (USA)
- Minori Minagawa (USA)
- Brooklyn Raddin (USA)
- Marj Rinaldo (USA)
- Alia Shafi (USA)
- Ellexi Snover (USA)
- Catherine Van Doorn (USA)
- Jennifer Wheeler (USA)
- Eleanor Wiseman (Belgium)
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. She has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast). Her favorite road and gravel rides are around horse farms in north Georgia (USA) and around lavender fields in Provence (France), and some mtb rides in Park City, Utah (USA).