Team News: Team for Vitus Pro Cycling Revealed

Graham Briggs, Chris Latham, Ali Slater joining Ed Clancy and other names at the 2019 Vitus Pro Cycling team

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Team News: Team for Vitus Pro Cycling Revealed

Ten lucky followers of Vitus Pro Cycling Team will receive an invitation to join the full 2019 rider line-up at an exclusive and intimate gathering in Derby on Thursday November 22, 2018.

Cherie Pridham’s team has been significantly strengthened for the coming season, thanks to continued and enhanced support from new and existing sponsors for a values-based approach to professional cycling.

Ed Clancy, Graham Briggs, Alistair Slater, Chris Latham, Joe Holt, Dylan Kerfoot-Robson, Michael Mottram, Freddie Scheske, Adam Kenway, Red Walters, Liam Davies and Tim Torrie will meet as a team for the first time at the University of Derby’s state-of-the-art sports centre from 6.30pm.

The facility, built at a cost of nearly £11m and opened just two years ago, will stage an informal gathering of riders, staff, sponsors and invited media. Competition winners will have the opportunity to mingle with the riders, including Clancy, a triple Olympic champion.

“We’re very pleased to extend an invitation to our community of followers on social media to meet our new rider roster for 2019,” said Cherie Pridham, Vitus Pro Cycling Team’s owner and manager.

Graham Briggs win the Ryedale GP in 2018

“We’re delighted with the squad. With proven winners like Ed Clancy and Graham Briggs, and riders of genuine pedigree, such as Ali Slater and Chris Latham, we’re certain Vitus Pro Cycling Team can make a real impact next year on the biggest races of the domestic calendar and key events abroad.

“By signing Joe Holt, Red Walters and Dylan Kerfoot-Robson, we’ve strengthened our commitment to developing young talent, and given the team a solid spine in the form of Michael Mottram, Freddie Scheske and Adam Kenway.

“Adam was one of three riders who really impressed me this season, and we’re delighted that he’ll represent Vitus Pro Cycling Team again next year, alongside Liam Davies and Tim Torrie, two of our brightest prospects.”

UCI win for Ali Slater in 2018 …

As well as winning three Olympic gold medals with Great Britain’s men’s team pursuit squad, Clancy has won six world titles on the track, and countless races on the road. This year, he won the Herald Sun Tour prologue, two rounds of the Tour Series and the London Nocturne.

Briggs is another prolific winner: a former British circuit racing champion, who sealed his place at this year’s Tour of Britain with victory at the Ryedale Grand Prix. Briggs won the combativity award in the 2017 Tour of Britain and raced for Pridham in 2012 and 2013.

Formerly a member of British Cycling’s vaunted Olympic Academy, Slater is one of the most respected riders in the British peloton, despite his comparative youth. Still only 25, he has learned his trade with Sean Kelly and John Herety, and is expected to be a mainstay of Vitus Pro Cycling Team’s roster for 2019.

Adam Kenway on the Cow and Calf in the Tour of Yorkshire

Kenway is one of just three riders retained from Pridham’s 2018 roster. A former British hill climb champion, he lit up almost every race he entered in the season just ended, including the Tour de Yorkshire, where he rode in a five-man breakaway that spent almost all of the third stage ahead of a peloton driven by Team Sky, Team Dimension Data and BMC Racing.

Latham and Mottram will add experience and maturity to the mix. The newcomers join Vitus Pro Cycling Team from One Pro Cycling and Morvelo Basso RT respectively. With Kenway and Scheke, their presence brings genuine strength-in-depth to Pridham’s squad.

Teenagers Davies and Torrie have been retained from the 2018 line-up and will be joined by 19-year-old Walters. Holt, 21, is another significant prospect: a former European champion in the under-23 men’s team pursuit, where he raced in a Great Britain line-up with Team Sky’s Ethan Hayter.

The quartet, with 22-year-old Kerfoot-Robson, exemplifies Vitus Pro Cycling Team’s commitment to opportunity – one of five key values, along with Responsibility, Accountability, Teamwork and Innovation (RATIO).

Winner of the Klondike GP in 2017, Chris Latham

The team’s values guide all of its actions, from sponsor negotiations to rider recruitment. Despite a challenging financial climate, Vitus Pro Cycling Team has retained its key supporters for 2019 and attracted new, carefully selected partners with a commercial model that rewards investment with online engagement, bespoke marketing assets and B2B opportunities, as well as more traditional methods of exposure.

“We’re very much looking forward to having followers of Vitus Pro Cycling Team with us in Derby at the first gathering of the 2019 Vitus Pro Cycling Team rider roster,” said Michael Kirkland, the chairman of Cherie Pridham Racing.

“Our team is open, inclusive and transparent, and engaging with fans whose support means everything to our riders in races like the Tour de Yorkshire and Lincoln Grand Prix is our way of saying thanks. To welcome them to the University of Derby, a key supporter in the home of Cherie Pridham Racing, is entirely fitting.”

 

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