Eider Merino will enhance the revamped 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Laboral Kutxa women's team as their leader at some of the biggest races on the calendar in 2023. The addition of Merino is the Spanish-based team's first step in its aim to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:expand with a €1.8 🔥million budg🌳et and to acquꦬire a Women's WorldTeam licence in 2024. ꦆ;
"After two years in which things haven't worked out well sportswise, I need to feel like myself, to be more confident, to be happy and to find myself again, to have a calendar, motivation...And what better place than at home, even more, if possible, in a project such as the one the Fundación Euskadi has developed?" Merino said of her new programme.
"I like cycling so much I cannot be without it. I had different options, and I have chosen the Laboral Kutxa to feel like a family, to have everything close, and to be well supported. I want to share all my experiences with young riders wi🐈th great potential. I want to encourage and support them in the race, in particular moments and situations. And I like a good atmosphere, and I feel I can also contribute to the group.
"We must begin to be seen and get results at the international level becꦑause we are not known and to gain respect little by little. I hope to achieve great feats with the team, all together."
Team manager Aitor Galdos confirmed to Cyclingnews that it plans to follow in the footsteps of the men's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Euskaltel-Euskadi team and continue to develop riders from the Basque Country, thanks to the long-term commitments from sponsors Laboral Kutxa, Or💖bea and Etxeondo. Laboral Kutxa has extended its partners♓hip with the team through to 2029.
Merino joins the team from Le Col Wahoo this year, an꧒d she has previously raced for A.R. Monex, Movistar Team, and Liontek. She is a pure climber who has finished in the top 10 at the Giro d'Italia Donne and twice at Emakumeen Bira, and has won the Spanish road race title.
Her decade of professional bike racing will bring vaꦚluable experience to the team.
"Eider is an important asset for the growth of the structure; she's been cycli🧸ng for many years, in the world road elite races, at the highest level. Here we trust to recover her best version," said the team's director Ion Lazkano.
"We believe our general project matches her personality and ways of working and that she can reach top performance in a friendly environment of trust like ours. Besides, she is aꦜ great reference for the other home riders, who will no doubt learn and grow beside her."
