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ASPTT Dijon - Bourgogne announced that in 2013 they will be known as Bourgogne ProDialog, and will have a squad of nine riders, seven of whom are new arrivals and five of those are new to our FSA-DS database. Watch out for junior French champion Iris Sachet, Mexican Svein-Tuft-alike Rocky Islas Garcia (if that's too much for you, she's also done Box Hill. And she's fitted in a bit of rowing too along the way) and Melanie Pette star of this rather odd film:
Romy Kasper who rode much of the Giro Donne alone when the rest of her RusVelo teammates dropped out will be hoping that Dolman Ladies prove to have a bit more stamina next year.
With the passing of the closing date for registration of UCI women's teams, news of who will be back next year and who won't is slowly starting to trickle out from the various national authorities who deal with said registrations. It looks like the only British team, Ibis Cycles, is going, although no announcement seems to have been made. They were originally set up to give Scottish women a chance to get some experience riding in Europe in the run up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, so it seems an odd time to quit. If anyone can shed any light then let us all know.
In contrast the Netherlands will have a fourth UCI team, in addition to not-Rabobank, Argos Shimano and Dolmans-Boels. All we know so far is that they are provisionally called Team Polaris. By coincidence a company called Polaris last week launched a new bicycle. I suspect they won't be riding those.
Ruiter Dakkapellen also considered registering with the UCI this year, but decided not to. In 2013 they will be riding as Parkhotel Valkenburg powered by Math Salden. There is no truth to the rumours that they considered a partnership with Italian team Giocattoli Androni, not even to benefit from their jersey designing expertise. The Parkhotel is the one at the top of the Cauberg which has been the sponsor of the Parkhotel Classic, aka the women's Amstel, for the last couple of years, so it's good to see they believe they get value for their sponsorship Euros.
We're still waiting in news from the two Emmas, but Ms Pooley gave us a reminder of what the cycling world will be missing if no team can find a place for her in 2013. When Lance Armstrong hung up his bike for the first time and took to marathon running, he finished the New York Marathon in 2:59:36. Last week Emma Pooley came second in Lucerne in a time of 2:55.35. Not only that, but she did it in a blizzard. That's some ice-cold chicking.