GROUNDBREAKERS/ New team offers challenge for American women

Picture the U.S. Postal cycling team, only with ponytails and painted fingernails. Instead of appearing in advertisements for Nike, the riders on this team, some with nearly as many accomplishments as Lance Armstrong himself, scrap and claw for notoriety.

The members of Team T-Mobile are anything but unknowns in the cycling world, though. And if they're half as good at predicting the future as they are pedaling up brutal climbs, the women on this unique team stand on the cusp of something really big.

Launched last year as part of a joint venture between the USA Cycling Development Foundation, the U.S. Olympic Committee and telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom, the eight-rider Team T- Mobile is breaking ground as a training home for up-and-coming cyclists. It is also an opportunity for the best riders in America to stay and train close to home.

Like Mari Holden, a Colorado Springs resident and 2000 Olympic silver medalist in the time-trial discipline.

"It's an awesome opportunity," Holden said. "It's very unique because it's a national team, and at the same time it's a trade team, which is different than anything we've done in the past."

According to Team T-Mobile director Jeff Pierce, the idea is to coordinate a women's national cycling program that allows the elite riders a chance to compete against Europe's best, while grooming young talent.

"When I joined up with USA Cycling last November, this was one of the projects they were working on," said Pierce, a longtime road racer and stage winner at the 1987 Tour de France. "This is about putting a program in place that will allow the U.S. women to get all of the support and training they need to become international competitors."

What separates a Team T-Mobile from U.S. Postal, or even women's cycling powerhouse Team Saturn, is money. While Armstrong's Postal squad has nearly unlimited financial resources, women's professional cycling programs have usually lacked this backing. But Pierce said with the USOC in its corner, T-Mobile's potential to succeed is limitless.

"We are the only governing body running a trade team," he said. "We have the Training Center. The amount of thought and planning that has gone into this is overwhelming."

The team was originally called Cannondale USA until T-Mobile (formerly Voicestream and a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) latched on in May.

"We wanted the team to have a primary sponsor; a name," Pierce said. "Even with the USOC involved, this is a serious financial undertaking."

Pierce's conservative estimate at the cost of running the team per year is "$500,000 on up."

Rather than add pressure on the riders, who are paid a salary allowing them to focus on cycling full time, the backing of a major corporate sponsor has instilled confidence.

"For such a big company to take an interest in women's cycling is great," Springs cyclist and team member Kim Anderson said. "It's a great opportunity for us."

The results have been impressive.

In early May, Amber Neben won the five-day, 263-mile Gracia Cez road race in the Czech Republic. In June, the team signed Boulder's Dede Demet-Barry, a seven-time national champion. Her first race with Team T-Mobile will be this weekend at the Elite National Championships in Nashville.

- Tim Spencer may be reached at 636-0250 or tspencer@gazette.com

UP NEXT

In August, Team T-Mobile will compete in the Tour de France Feminine, the top prize in women's cycling.

"Here, people see the Olympics as the most important race for women," said Mari Holden, Colorado Springs resident and Olympic medalist in 2002. "In Europe, just like the men, it's the Tour de France."

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