Olympic silver medallist joined by teammate Jessie Daams and Adrie Visser as Danny Stam joins as directeur
Lizzie Armitstead will join Dolmans-Boels team in 2013, the Dutch team has announced. The Olympic silver medallist’s current team, AA Drink-Leontien.nl, is folding at the end of the season – which is the second straight year, after the Garmin-Cervélo women’s team was shut down at the end of 2011 – and current teammate Emma Pooley is considering a break from the sport; Armitstead however, has moved over to the expanding Dolmans-Boels team.
In addition to her Olympic medal, where she was narrowly outsprinted by the Netherlands Marianne Vos in the pouring rain in London, Armitstead took two victories this season as she soloed to the Omloop van het Hageland – also in the rain – and the inaugural edition of Gent-Wevelgem for women. She was to be the leader of the Great Britain team in the recent World championships, before illness forced her late withdrawal.
Armitstead will be joined in her new team by current Belgian teammate Jessie Daams, who was also part of the Garmin-Cervélo team, along with powerful Dutch rouleur Adrie Visser, from Skil-Argos, and 21-year-old Dutch rider Kim de Baat, who steps up from non-UCI team Specialized DPD SRAM.
22-year-old Daams took a stage of this year’s Thüringen Rundfahrt, and a bronze medal in the World team time trial championships as part of the AA Drink-Leontien.nl team; Visser won the women’s version of Belgian semi-Classic Le Samyn, the Erpe-Mere race, and was part of the Netherlands team that carried Vos to her World title last weekend.
Also coming across from AA Drink-Leontien.nl is directeur sportif Danny Stam. Former Six Day track star Stam has been a directeur at the Dutch team for two years, and will now take up his place behind the wheel of the Dolmans-Boels team car.
“We are delighted with the arrival of Danny, Elizabeth, Adrie, Jessie and Kim, said Yvo Hoppers, the Dolmans-Boels press and PR manager. “With the experience of the team management and the sporting ambitions of the team we think we will make a serious progress in the classifications.
“We have attracted a number of excellent women cyclists; we have ambitious team,” Hoppers added. “Everyone looks forward to the upcoming cycling year!”