South African champion joining increasingly international Norwegian team
Ashleigh Moolman will ride for Hitec Products in 2014, the team has announced. The 27-year-old South African champion has spent the last four years with the Lotto-Belisol team, since she first joined the professional ranks, but will join what is becoming an increasingly international roster at the Norwegian team.
Moolman, who is a qualified chemical engineer, is road race and time trial champion of both South Africa, and the African Continent. This season’s results include victory in the Boels Holland Hills Classic, eighth overall in the Giro Rosa, and third place in la Flèche Wallonne – behind World champion Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv/Giant) and future Hitec Products teammate Elisa Longo Borghini – becoming the first African rider ever to appear on a World Cup podium.
As a climber, Moolman has also shown a strong sprint on occasion; she finished second in the second stage of the Route de France, behind Giorgia Bronzini, before unfortunately being forced to abandon after breaking a finger on her left hand in a crash.
Team manager Karl Lima has confirmed to VeloNation that Longo Borghini, who is still recovering from an horrific crash in the Italian national championships, will remain part of the team in 2014 – having hinted on Twitter that two of the three riders in a podium picture from Flèche Wallonne would be Hitec Products riders.
While Lima was also able to confirm that “a majority” of the 2013 line up would be with the team next year, he was unable to state which exact riders would make up the 2014 roster. He also hinted that “another overseas rider” would be joining the team.