Swedish champion “is one of the top riders in the World” says manager Shane Bannan
Emma Johansson has signed for Orica-AIS, the sister team to the men’s WorldTour Orica-GreenEdge outfit, for 2013, according to Eurosport.se. The Swedish champion has long been linked with the Australian team, but has only now formally put pen to paper.
“She is one of the top riders in the World and she has the potential to be even better,” said the team’s general manager Shane Bannan, “and she can also help by lending her experience to our younger riders.”
Johansson has ridden the last two years with Hitec Products-Mistral Home, but it was announced that she was to leave the Norwegian team last month in order to sign for one of the sport’s bigger outfits. It was felt that the extra task of chasing personal sponsors was having a detrimental effect on her riding, which she will no longer have to do in 2013.
“Now, she is a dedicated cyclist,” Johansson’s husband and manager Martin Vestby told Europsport at the time. “The amount of work is less and she will not get involved with things around the team.
“She will be a leader figure, one of the top riders in this strong stable,” he explained. “She does not have the same responsibilities as a team leader, but will have more time for her own results. She will be working closely with the leadership, but without wasting energy on controlling teammates.”
Since taking the silver medal in the Beijing Olympic road race in 2008, Johansson has been one of the top one-day riders in the World and has recently been one of the few riders to challenge World and Olympic champion Marianne Vos. The 29-year-old fractured both collarbones in January however, after she was hit by a car while training on Gran Canaria, which seriously impacted her 2012 season.
Johansson’s arrival at Orica-AIS will go some way to replacing World time trial champion Judith Arndt, and Alex Rhodes, who both retired at the end of the season, and Claudia Häusler, who departed for Team Tibco-To The Top.