Blog: Hannan Farran of DriverPlan EDCO Continental Racing

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Hannan Farran of new women’s team DriverPlan EDCO Continental Racing writes about her new team and women’s cycling

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Blog: Hannan Farran of DriverPlan EDCO Continental Racing

Hannah writes … When an email popped into my inbox informing me of an up and coming women’s race team for the 2017 season, I was immediately interested. Having left my previous team in April and transitioning over from Triathlon to Cycling, I knew that DriverPlan EDCO Continental Racing had a good feel about it.

Committed passionate people with no ego’s to boost offering their time, energy and money to help us as both junior and senior women form what looks to be a great team.

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Women’s cycling has really taken off in this country and it is only in the last 18 months I have seen a real change in women’s cycling. When I was a teenager, all the girl’s bikes were pink so I always rode a boy’s bike, boys kit and cycled predominately with men.

Women’s only races weren’t really a thing. This has all changed now. Bike manufacturers now offer a full range of women’s specific bikes which haven’t just been painted pink and the geometry tweaked. Women’s only races are taking place and specifically for us, sponsors are now really behind us and see the value in women’s cycling.

Which leads me to the team’s sponsors. Swiss wheel maker EDCO will be offering their support by supplying the riders with the Aerosport Umbrial Lights Wheelset and also EDCO pedals.

Continental will be supplying the tyres to go with the wheels and DriverPlan will be offering their financial support. Velotec will be supplying the race kit to the junior members of the team. More sponsors will be announced in the coming months.

The Team is made up in two parts, an elite senior women’s team comprising of; Ellen McDermott, Hannah Brand, Jenn Batey, Hetty Niblet, Karolien Liesens and myself. The Junior women’s team boasts the following roaster; Alana Prior, Marie Lynn, Anna Kay, Megan Kay and Olivia Fawcett.

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The Junior team will support the senior riders whilst also learning from the older riders. Many of the senior riders are looking forward to helping the junior riders develop into confident and powerful riders, they will certainly be keeping us on our toes also.

The team has a three social media channels that you can keep up to date with what is going on;
Our Facebook is DriverPlan EDCO Continental Racing
Twitter is DriverPlan EdcoConti
Instagram is DriverPlan Edco Continental.

Jenn Batey comments ‘When most of the team first met, it was a mix of the known and unknown, some old faces mixed with some new ones. Millions of questions whizzed around over the coffee and cake but immediately everyone clicked as a team.’

We have set our targets high for the 2017 season. We are targeting the national level women’s races as well as having some foreign race targets including the Tour of Malta in April. I speak for all the riders when I say that we are really appreciative of all the support we have been given and also the belief that has been instilled in each rider.

We acknowledge we have lofty ambitions, however each rider is 100% committed to getting the best out of themselves over the winter and going into 2017 in the best shape possible. As a team we have strength and depth ranging from track riding to criterium racing. Each member of the team offers something unique and has a positive impact on the group as a whole.

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