Lex Albrecht announces new team

Lex Albrecht will be wearing new colours in 2013 after signing with the U.S.-based Now-Novartis team.

Albrecht, 25, raced in 2012 alongside Joëlle Numainville for Team Optum powered by Kelly Benefit Strategies. As that team stepped up to the UCI level for 2013, Albrecht was told she was out of a job in order to ensure the majority of the riders were from the U.S.

“I decided I wanted to look for a team I’d be really happy with, a good roster and a good mentality,” Albrecht said Monday, shortly after announcing her new team. She approached Now-Novartis director Kurt Stockton in the fall and they hit it off. That first meeting developed in December when Albrecht got to spend some time with her new teammates in California.

“I got to meet all the other girls I’d be riding with – I was stoked. It’s a group of girls that’s going to be really fun to ride with,” she said. “I think that Kurt was really careful in the riders that he selected.”

Those riders include former U.S. time trial champion Alison Powers and 2011 road race champion Robin Farina.

The one drawback is that Now-Novartis isn’t a UCI-registered team, which means Albrecht will have to rely on the national team to race world cups or the Exergy Tour.

“Other than that I think I’ll have a full race calendar, a really satisfying season,” she said.

Albrecht, who grew up in Barrie, Ont., but now lives in Quebec City, had a strong season in 2012, winning a stage of the Cascade Classic stage race and taking the mountains and best-young-rider titles as well. She said she hasn’t set any specific goals for 2013 besides a strong performance at nationals and representing Canada at the worlds again.

“My main goal is to make some leaps and bounds as a cyclist,” she said.

Albrecht will begin her season with the MERCO Cycling Classic in Merced, Calif., from Feb. 28 to March 3. She expects to make her first Canadian appearance at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Gatineau on May 18.