UnitedHealthcare announce men's and women's rosters for San Luis - News Shorts

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UnitedHealthcare announces men's and women's roster for Tour de San Luis

The UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team will launch its men’s and women’s seasons in Argentina at the Tour de San Luis, with the women's Tour Femenino de San Luis starting January 10, followed by the men's event starting January 18.

Over the past two years the women have taken two stage wins and the overall victory in 2014, followed by 3 stage wins in 2015.

“San Luis has proved to be a great season opener for the women’s team, and we are hoping to continue the success this year,” said Sporting Director Rachel Heal. “Each year the quality of the field improves, but we have once again assembled a strong and motivated team, ready to race hard.”

The UnitedHealthcare roster for Tour Femenino de San Luis includes Coryn Rivera, Katie Hall, Abbey Mickey, Iris Slappendel, Diana Penuela and Annie Ewart.

The 2016 Tour Femenino de San Luis begins with a 110km stage starting and finishing in El Durazno, followed by the 98.6km stage 2, starting and finishing in Villa Mercedes. The third stage covers 121km from Naschel to Merlo. Riders return to El Durazno on Stage 4 for a 12.8km individual time trial, followed by a 97.4km road stage from Juana Koslay to Mirador del Potrero on day 5. The final stage will cover 79.6 kilometers starting and ending in San Luis.

The men's Tour de San Luis starts in the town of El Durazno and branches out across the country for seven stages, totaling over 920km of racing.

New signing Matthew Busche will debut his UnitedHealthcare national champion’s kit at the race, where Heal says he’ll add more climbing strength to the team along with fellow new signing Daniel Jaramillo and Jani Brajkovic.

“They all have a good winter's training in their legs and are motivated to get the season started," Heal said, adding that Carlos Alzate and Marco Canola will contest the fast finishes.

“Both riders finished the 2015 season strongly and are keen to test themselves at the beginning of a new season," she said.

The UnitedHealthcare roster for 2016 Tour de San Luis includes Alzate, Brajkovic, Busche, Canola, Jaramillo and Chris Jones.

Coryn Rivera and Katie Hall lead the women out along the country roads.

Lupus Racing Team hires Phil Cortes as 2016 director, unveils new logo

The Lupus Racing Team this week announced it has hired former pro Phil Cortes as its sports director for 2016.

“I am excited to lead the team for a full season this year,” said Cortes, who lives most of the year in Montreal with his family. “We have tremendous support from our corporate and industry partners. And we continue to develop an aggressive strategy to support our mission to generate awareness for the proper diagnosis and treatment of the autoimmune disease of lupus.”

Cortes, who previously worked with Amore & Vita and Garneau-Quebecor, started working with Lupus Racing as a consultant near the end of the 2015 season. He will also serve as the Strategic Partnership Manager for the Team.

The US Continental team has been bolstering its 2016 roster, and signed Tour of Utah stage winner Jure Kocjan, who rode with SmartStop the past two seasons.

The team will focus on premier road race events across North America, as well as select UCI-sanctioned stage races. Steve Carpenter will return in 2016 as the assistant sports director, focusing on domestic races.

The team also released a new branding logo that will be incorporated in the redesign of all team kits, apparel and support vehicles. Borrowing the colors of purple and green used to promote awareness for lupus, the new logo was developed with the help of returning team rider Evan Murphy of New York.

“We aimed at giving the team a long-term image that is clean, and distinctive,” said Murphy, who studied at Rhode Island School of Design. “We are not just athletes working together as a professional cycling team, but we are also ambassadors working together to generate awareness to cure a disease.”

The complete redesign of the team gear and apparel will be unveiled at a team presentation event on February 5 in Atlanta. The full roster and race schedule for the Lupus Racing Team will be announced later this month.

Jure Kocjan in yellow at the Tour of Utah.

Bora-Argon 18 extend with German champion Buchmann

German national champion Emanuel Buchmann has signed a contract extension with Bora-Argon 18 that will take the 23-year-old through the 2018 season.

“For me, besides the professional structure and the race program, it is very important to feel the support of the people in the team,” Buchmann said. “As a rider, being with Bora-Argon 18 feels a little bit like being in a family. Everyone trusts each other and supports each other. That is very important when you struggle with your shape or results. So for me this attitude is key as a young rider to be able to develop my performance step by step.”

Highlights of Buchmann’s first year as a pro include his German championship and a third-place finish during the Queen stage of the Tour de France.

The team also renewed its goal to achieve WorldTour status, saying they want to make the step in 2017 when the Tour de France begins in Düsseldorf.

“Since five years we work now very hard for our big goal,” said Team Manager Ralph Denk. “We rode all three Grand Tours and also had some successes. But now it is truly time to become a member in cycling’s ‘elite club.’ It would be my personal biggest success to be at the Grand Départ 2017 in Düsseldorf with Bora-Argon 18 as a World Tour Team. And I have to say that I am very confident that we can achieve that, and celebrate then together with German cycling.”

Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Argon 18) in his German champion's jersey.