Update! A little more information has now come my way. According to the team, Garmin-Cervélo will announce the women's roster "very shortly, within a week." Yay! Garmin-Cervélo will hold two training camps with the women's team in January. First, they will spend two weeks in Calpe, Spain. Then, they will travel to Girona for one week. There is also a formal presentation for the team on 28 January in Girona. Presumably, that's a joint presentation of the full men's and women's teams.
Last week, the Garmin-Cervélo boys went to the Cayman Islands to get acquainted and have some bike play. Every team does these trips this time of year. The Merry Shacksters are off to Spain soon, and Liquigas-Cannondale went snow dancing, or whatever one does in the snow (not like I would know).
The mainstream media, meanwhile, sent their correspondents off to the Caymans to get the Big Stories that come out of training camp. Low-hanging fruit alert! Neal Rogers of VeloNews, after the first day, told us over Twitter that the team, who changed bike sponsors, because you know, like, they changed names, was... wait for it... riding New Bikes. Amidst the hoopla over the shiny new toys and the lovely Cayman beaches, it seems that a significant part of the Garmin-Cervélo merger has dropped out of sight. What has happened to the Garmin-Cervélo women's team?
Last season, the Cervélo TestTeam women battled HTC-Columbia for top team status. When the news of the team merger came, it wasn't immediately clear that the women's team would continue. Soon, Vaughters confirmed that in fact, Slipstream would run a women's team. But since then, it's been mostly silence. Head to the Slipstream webby, and there's no mention of a women's team, not even a roster. Though Cervélo TestTeam ran joint traning camps with their men's and women's teams (HTC-Columbia does the same thing), the women did not attend the Holiday in Cayman.
Is Slipstream still running a women's team? The only news we've had since the initial announcement has been a series of headlines reporting the exodus of the team's top riders. Kirsten Wild moves to AA Drinks, Claudia Häusler to Diadora. The team's sports director has also reportedly exited the building. Does anyone know if they've hired a replacement? *crickets*
A query to the Slipstream's media representative asking for information about the women's team received no response. Like, could you send out a press release? Maybe just a short one? (On the subject of press releases, Lux sent me a love letter today. Apparently, Craft is their clothing sponsor. I know you're jealous.) You could just list the riders, maybe, and write a sentence or two about their team goals. You know, the kind of thing. I could even write it for you, if you'd like.
Hopefully, the Slipstreamers will get it together and give us a some information soon. Because we like information. And it would be sad news indeed, if the Garmin-Cervélo women's team was not only out of sight, but also out of mind at Slipstream.