Cycle Aberdeenshire, as Live Life Aberdeenshire’s umbrella brand for cycling within Aberdeenshire Council, are delighted to confirm a new mutual partnership with the Aberdeenshire based elite Women’s cycling race team, Alba Development Road Team.
During the coming months we will see stories and updates from the team as they embark on their second year at elite level, competing across the United Kingdom and potentially further afield. Boasting a talented line up, the team has grown for 2023 with the addition of local rider Evie White from Alford, who joins her returning fellow North East rider Erin Murphy, and they will be targeting the televised Tour Series events and the National Road Series as they race out of the team’s home base near Oyne. The full 2023 team roster is:
Sophie Enever
Beth Maciver
Vicky Smith
Sophie Lankford
Erin Murphy
Evie White
Arianne Holland
Daisy Barnes
Eilidh Shaw
The partnership will see the team utilise the Press Reader application, available to all Aberdeenshire residents via Live Life Aberdeenshire library service https://www.livelifeaberdeenshire.org.uk/libraries/digital-landing-page/ , so that the riders can stay abreast of news and magazine articles whilst away from home at races. And with a broad calendar of races across this year, the riders will hopefully see many cycling reports of their own success as they target further growth and success, along with the overall objective of growing women’s and girls’ cycling across Aberdeenshire and Scotland.
Alba RT will also be assisting Cycle Aberdeenshire with several school visits and coaching clinics, with team owner and manager Bob Lyons saying “2023 will be a particularly important year for cycling with the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow and across Scotland, so it’s fantastic to be joining Cycle Aberdeenshire to help promote cycling, and specifically Women’s and Girls cycling. We had a remarkably successful first year as a team in 2022 and it was fantastic to work with Cycle Aberdeenshire on their production of “West to Glenshee” ahead of last year’s AJ Bell Tour of Britain. 2023 promises even more and we are delighted to now have the Cycle Aberdeenshire logo on our team car and our website to promote the development work taking place in our home area”.
Councillor Anne Stirling, Chair of the Communities Committee, said the addition of the Alba Development Road Team as a mutual partner was a further sign of Cycle Aberdeenshire embedding “legacy” following last year’s AJ Bell Tour of Britain, adding “What better way is there of evidencing the development of cycling by partnering with a proactive and positive elite cycling team such as Alba DRT. I am looking forward to hearing about their successes this season and I am delighted to hear they will join the many Aberdeenshire residents who already use out fantastic Press Reader service. It is just fantastic to have such a high level cycling team competing out of Aberdeenshire and creating opportunities and a pathway from participation to elite sport, as so well highlighted by our recently announced Women’s and Girls Cycling Ambassador Neah Evans.”