In the third of our series introducing UCI Women’s Teams, we focus on Bigla Pro Cycling Team. Read our previous articles featuring Team Liv-Plantur and BTC City Ljubljana.
“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up.”
Ask Bigla Pro Cycling Team’s owner Thomas Campana what his ambitions are for the team in 2015 and that is the reply you get. The quote, made famous by Nelson Mandela, demonstrates the optimism and very human approach within the Swiss-registered UCI Women’s Team. For although Bigla has been around for many years as a sponsor in women’s cycling, the 2015 team is essentially brand new, put together by Thomas Campana, who previously had management roles with the men and women’s squads at the Cervélo Test Team and more recently MTN Qhubeka: “It’s a return to my roots being a team owner of a women’s team,” he says. “The bond is stronger than in men’s cycling and I like the family atmosphere. This is why I have returned and it feels great.”
Among the 14-strong Bigla squad, he has signed well known names such as Dutch athletes Iris Slappendel and Annemiek Van Vleuten, American Shelley Olds and South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio.
The 2015 line-up got together for their first training camp in Playitas, on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura, in January: “It was not only a training camp. We wanted the riders to get the Bigla feeling, we wanted to encourage them to start thinking from all sides about what we want to achieve and how we can develop something outstanding together.”
The Playitas logo features on the team’s kit alongside their other partners, and the women will return regularly to this base in the Canary Islands to work on that “Bigla feeling.”
For it is that Bigla feeling that will be the key to the team’s success, according to Campana. “We can only be successful if we operate as a unit. There are incredibly strong riders out there who could beat our riders in a one to one situation. We are aware of this and it gives us a clear understanding of how we have to define our road to success.”
And the expectations of that success do not lie on the shoulders of two or three athletes, but the team as a whole.
“Let’s say we wish to have as many riders as possible on the same performance level in all different conditions. This is essential to our strategy. If we can achieve this, our options in any race situation will become greater. "
"We have no team leaders but we may have a leading team soon.”
“For the moment we are focussing on the 2015 season only. This season is an experimental one for us. We have no external pressure. We have the right to make mistakes.”
While Campana will not be drawn into making specific predictions, he implies that anything is possible. Despite a number of early-season crashes and injured riders, he is encouraged by the performances of his team which started the year already 6th in the UCI Rankings: “It is actually looking better than I expected,” he said. “The team is coming together and Manel (Lacambra – Sport Director, ed) is implementing the aggressive team race spirit which will also bring results sooner or later.”
The women have already been in the forefront of the action with several top-ten placings including 3rd for van Vleuten at the Molecaten Drentse 8 van Westerveld and fourth for Moolman-Pasio in the first women’s edition of the Strade Bianche. The former Lotto Belisol Ladies (2010-2013) and Hitec Products (2014) rider is won over by the spirit of her new team.
“The vibe in the team was great straight away and I feel very much at home,” she said. “We also have an incredibly motivated Director who has amazing energy and who is filling the team with that energy. All of us are really pumped.
“My fourth place in the Strade Bianche was very much a team effort,” she said. “Our objective was to go out and make racing hard and that is what we did. When I went, I had Shelley and Annemiek with me and they kept attacking. It was the first time I’ve had that sort of environment in a team. We manage to motivate each other without needing too many words.”
The South African rider greatly appreciates the continued involvement in the team of former Team Manager, Emil Zimmermann. A collaboration also warmly welcomed by Campana: “I have known Emil for 15 years. There are not many people I know who love our sport as much as him. This gentleman is 71 years young, speaks four languages and supports us with all the contacts and experience he has gained over the decades. He is a pioneer when it comes to women’s cycling and even more than a pioneer.”
Campana continues to fly the flag for women’s cycling and has witnessed progression when it comes to the level of racing, its professionalism and public perception: “There are new positive signs of improvement in women’s cycling and a lot of good people are involved in promoting our sport. It will not be a short journey but the train has left the station and this is good to see,” he concludes.