Rise Racing announces roster, new kit, new sponsors as the Canadian women’s team gears up for 2016
In 2016, Rise Racing is returning for the squad's sophomore season, with a focus on growing the women's cycling scene—particularly in Ontario and across Canada.
In 2016, Rise Racing is returning for the squad’s sophomore season, with a focus on growing the women’s cycling scene—particularly in Ontario and across Canada. The Elite women’s team has competition both at home and abroad in its sights, with big, bold plans to raise the competitive tempo it powerfully set last year.
Along with 2016’s roster of competing athletes, the team has also announced some new sponsorship.
For its second year of racing, Rise has highlighted the season’s major Canadian races, with National Racing Calendar ambitions as well as UCI-level competition in mind. In gearing up for those races, Rise also has the support of some new sponsors. Training and nutrition specialists Infinit Nutrition Canada and Beet-It Sport Canada will be fueling the squad’s riders, while returning sponsor Smith Optics will be providing athletes with helmets and glasses, outfitting the team with the company’s signature Overtake headgear and Pivlock Arena eyewear.
In terms of technology, OCTTO Components, based in Toronto, will provide riders with top-of-the-line equipment, while their striking new kits will be provided by Jakroo Apparel Canada.
The talent rolling out this season in that kit’s colours, though, is no doubt the team’s greatest asset. Ashley Barson of Bolton, ON—the co-founder and director of Rise Racing—returns after a strong 2015 that saw her bearing the team’s standards at Cross Vegas. The 25-year-old rider, the team announced, will continue to focus on her natural prowess as a climber, while balancing cyclocross with further sharpening her skills on the road. From Toronto, Barbie Hope has also signed on for 2016, bringing a talent well-refined by wins at the Calabogie Classic and at the Tour de Waterloo of 2014.
Specializing in road and track, London, ON’s Sarah Mason, meanwhile, will be building on her past successes in 2016, a list of achievements that includes the junior omnium track national title of 2014 and a win at the 2015 Ontario Cup Elite Women Road Series. Joyce Sprewitt, also from London, is similarly well-positioned as the 30-year-old cyclist rolls out with Rise Racing this year, driven by a bronze medal win at the 2015 provincial road race and criterium championships and gold at the 2015 Spring Bank Ontario Cup Road Race.
Thea Mizuhara, finally, is focused on raising the dynamic of women’s road races in Ontario, building both her knowledge of team tactics and her distance and speed. The 25-year-old Toronto rider took multiple Ontario podiums throughout the 2014 season.
The team also took the opportunity to celebrate one of its former riders, Jamie Gilgen, who ascends the professional ranks in 2016 with US-based Visit Dallas DNA Pro Cycling.
