Not to be outdone by the multitude of high profile wheeling and dealing in the men’s side of the sport, the women are continuing to ride the transfer merry-go-round.
World champion Tatiana Guderzo will ride for newly created Team Valdarno Umbria in 2010, taking Michela Fanini teammate and Italian champion Monia Baccaille with her. They will be joined by Spanish champion Marta Vilajosana and Saneila Biagi from SAS Dila Kuota, Tatiana Antoshina, Tania Belvederesi, Chiara Bortolus and Martina Corazza from Gauss RDZ Ormu, Mexican Laura Morfin from Team Fenixs and Australian Oceania champion Bridie O’Donnell.
World points race champion Giorgia Bronzini will join Lithuanian Edita Pucinskaite at the Gauss-RDZ-Ormu-Colnago team, taking Safi-Pasta Zara teammate Alessandra Borchi with her. Also joining will be young Italian Giada Borgato and Dutchwoman Martine Bras from the Selle Italia-Ghezzi team. Luxembourg champion Nathalie Lamborelle moves from Uniqa-Elk to Selle Italia-Ghezzi and Elena Berlato continues the Safi exodus as she moves to Top Girls-Fassa Bortolo.
As was speculated, Het Nieuwsblad winner Suzanne De Goede has been confirmed as having signed for Marianne Vos’ DSB Bank-Nederland Bloeit team, although the team is searching for new sponsors after DSB Bank was a victim of the recent financial crisis. After a less than successful season at Columbia-HTC, Canadian Alex Wrubleski returns to Webcor Builders, where she rode in 2008.
Irish champion Siobhan Dervan leaves team Fenixs for French team ESGL93-GSD-Gestion and Briton Catherine Williamson joins two-time World champion Susanne Ljunskog at South African team MTN-Energade; Fenixs has gone some way to replacing them with Norwegian Lynn Torp. Michela Fanini-Record-Rox is replacing the World and Italian champions with French veteran Edwige Pitel and Czech Martina Ruzickova.
After riding the second half of this season in Italy with Team System Data, American Liz Hatch transfers to team Lotto-Belisol. Also heading to the Belgian team is Australian Josephine Tomic; Dutchwoman Vera Koedooder has confirmed that she is leaving but there is so far no word of where she is heading.