The Santos Women's Tour opener on Saturday will be a special day for South Australian Carlee Taylor. The 27-year-old, who hails from Adelaide, hopes to impress on stage one when home and home-away-from-home collide as Taylor lines up alongside her Alé Cipollini teammates in front of friends and family.
"This is the only race that I get do at home," Taylor told Cyclingnews. "For me, it means a lot. My family doesn't get to come and watch me do my job for the whole year. This is the only time they can come out to cheer. It's special to ride on the roads you grew up on and trained on your whole life.
"I'm really looking forward to doing Tour Down Under," she added. "I know it's not the biggest race of the year, but it's one I really want to do well in."
ADVERTISEMENT
Taylor has twice raced the Santos Women's Tour – both times before it was designed UCI 2.2. status in 2016 – but never with a European-registered trade team. In 2014, she raced with Orica-Scott (then Orica-AIS) and supported Dutchwoman Loes Gunnewijk to the win. The race was only three stages then and the field was mostly comprised of Australians. The following year she lined up as part of a composite squad pulled together solely for the stage race.
"Having Alé Cipollini come down this year and having Chloe Hosking, an Australian and a sprinter, in the team is huge," said Taylor. "It's a big thing for an Italian team to come to this part of the world. They're all really excited. We've been reminding them to bring power adapters, bathers. Hopefully they're prepared.
"I think it will be a good week, showing my team my home," Taylor added. "Usually it's the other way around in Europe the whole year."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2ikhAvE
No comments:
Post a Comment