Lidcombe-Auburn Cycle Club (LACC) is launching its own women’s race team and development squad under the leadership of cycling coach and LACC member Donna Meehan.

Donna who has taken on the role of Directeur Sportif (or team director) describes it as a milestone event for the cycling club.

“LACC has been around for more than 90 years and this is the first time there’s been a women’s race team formed,” she said.

“By establishing a team we can race together and support each other. But we’re also keen to develop other female club riders and younger women both within the club and beyond. Our overall aim is to support, nurture and encourage female cyclists and to promote women’s cycling which often gets missed alongside the men’s.

“This is just a start for us. We know we will need to keep working on it for years to build up the team and development squad. We are really pleased to be supported by some great foundation sponsors including bike company Specialized, bike shop Ashfield Cycles, bike apparel specialist Champion System and my own coaching company Domestique,” added Donna.

Many of the eight team members have raced regularly at local, state and national level, and a few have even been to world events. The team members are Donna Meehan, Melanie Reiter, Kim Stokeld, Rebecca Frater, Shiona Will, Sharon Teran, Geraldine Blomfield-Brown and Belinda Diprose.

To officially launch the team, an event was held at The Quad Café at Sydney Olympic Park on Friday, 22 March 2013.

On hand was special guest Kate Bates, who is a former pro-cyclist, Olympian and now SBS commentator is passionate about advancing women’s cycling.

For further information contact: Nicola Rutzou at womenwhocycle.com