Top three Canadian women sign with same team

Three of the top female racers in Canada are all joining the same team for 2011. Tara Whitten, Joelle Numainville and Erinne Willock will race for Team TIBCO/To the Top next year under team founder and director Linda Jackson, who is originally from Nepean, Ontario. The team is based in the U.S., but also has riders from Australia, New Zealand and now Canada on the roster.

There will be five new riders added to the roster for 2011. In addition to the Canadians, Alison Powers, the 2008 U.S. national time trial champion and Carlee Taylor, who spent most of 2010 racing for the Australian National team.

But there’s no question the team will have a Canadian flavour in 2011, which Jackson said is intentional.

“I’m Canadian and a former Canadian Olympian and I want to be able to support Canadian cycling a bit more,” she said. “I want to be able to provide Canadian cyclists with more opportunities than I had when I was starting out.”

Leading the new group will be Whitten, who won the gold medal in the Commonwealth Games individual time trial earlier this week and will be Canada’s flagbearer at the closing ceremonies. A former elite skier, Whitten began racing in 2006 and has quickly risen to the top level of international cycling. Earlier this year, she won both omnium and points gold medals at the Track World Championships. She is also a two-time Canadian National Track Champion.

“Tara is an immense talent who is still so new to the sport that she hasn’t even begun to reach her potential as a road racer,” said Jackson. “The fact that she won the time trial and also finished 7th in the road race – after picking up three bronze medals on the track earlier in the Games – is a testament to her all-around ability and determination.”

Whitten will focus her attention next spring on the track with an eye toward defending her World Championships, before joining Team TIBCO on the road for summer races. Whitten won the challenging final stage of the 2010 Cascade Classic and finished 6th overall.

Numainville, who took sixth in the Commonwealth Games road race, will turn 23 next month. Despite her young age, the Quebecois has plenty of experience, racing for two years with French squad ESGL 93 before coming back to North America to race for Webcor with Willock.

Numainville brings exceptional speed to the squad, while Willock, who hails from Victoria, BC, brings strong all-around ability that will boost the team’s prospects for stage races. She finished third overall at the Cascade Classic this year after winning the individual time trial, and posted a stage win at the Nature Valley Grand Prix. She was part of the 2010 Canadian World Championship road team, along with Numainville and Whitten, and finished seventh in the 2009 Worlds road race. She was a 2008 Olympian as well.

“Joelle is another rider who is developing into a top-flight international rider, while Erinne has been a consistently strong rider for most of the past decade,” Jackson said. “They both bring great experience to Team TIBCO.”

Team Captain Meredith Miller leads the returning group of Team TIBCO riders. The 2009 U.S. Road Race Champion will be joined by Joanne Kiesanowski, Megan Guarnier, Emma Mackie and Samantha Schneider.