{"id":8242,"date":"2015-02-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-02-23T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.btc.si\/2015\/02\/reinforcements-in-the-btc-city-ljubljana-womens-professional-cycling-team-and-in-the-radenska-ljubljana-mens-cycling-team-plus-a-new-cycling-school-for-young-girls\/"},"modified":"2015-02-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-02-23T23:00:00","slug":"reinforcements-in-the-btc-city-ljubljana-womens-professional-cycling-team-and-in-the-radenska-ljubljana-mens-cycling-team-plus-a-new-cycling-school-for-young-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razvoj.btc.si\/en\/reinforcements-in-the-btc-city-ljubljana-womens-professional-cycling-team-and-in-the-radenska-ljubljana-mens-cycling-team-plus-a-new-cycling-school-for-young-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"Reinforcements in the BTC City Ljubljana women\u2019s professional cycling team and in the Radenska Ljubljana men\u2019s cycling team, plus a new cycling school for young girls"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the wings of the excellent results from the past season and full
\nof self-confidence, the members of the first Slovenian women’s
\nprofessional cycling team BTC City Ljubljana are ready to take on their
\n2nd racing season. This year, the Slovenian team will include Polona
\nBatagelj, Špela Kern, Alenka Novak, Anja Rugelj, and Urša Pintar from
\nSlovenia, Eugenia Bujak from Poland, Martina Ritter from Austria, Elena
\nValentini from Italy and Mia Radoti\u0107 from Croatia. The established
\ncycling team will be joined by experienced new members Jelena Eri\u0107 from
\nSerbia, Olena Pavlukhina from Azerbaijan, Eva Lechner from Italy and
\nUrška \u017digart, Anita \u017dnidarši\u010d and Tesa Vilar from Slovenia. <\/p>\n

The first race of the season for the BTC City Ljubljana women’s
\ncycling team will be in March, when the team will race in the legendary
\none-day race – Strade Bianchi – in Tuscany, Italy. A Slovenian highlight
\nof this year’s women’s cycling season will be one of the most demanding
\nand most prestigious races on the women’s UCI calendar – Giro Rosa. The
\n10-day multi-stage race has been on the calendar since 1988. This
\nyear’s Giro Rosa will start with a prologue on July 3rd in Ljubljana,
\nwith the second stage starting in Kamnik and finishing in BTC City
\nLjubljana. The organisation of such an important cycling event presents
\nan opportunity for a new approach in forming standards for the
\ncandidature, realisation and assessment of results with regard to big
\ninternational sports events in Slovenia. <\/p>\n

At the presentation of the cycling teams, Gorazd Penko, sports manager and coach of team BTC City Ljubljana<\/strong>,
\nreminded us all of the team’s excellent results in the previous year
\nand pointed out some highlights of the upcoming season: “In their first
\ncompetitive season, our cyclists achieved amazing results and surpassed
\nall expectations. The team reached an excellent 16th place in the UCI
\nrankings and 15th place in the UCI World Cup among 31 participating
\nteams. This year, our goal is to improve on these results. With some new
\nmembers added to the team, I am certain that we will succeed. The team
\nwill take part in most of the UCI World Cup races as well as in other
\nimportant stage and one-day races. One of the highlights of the season
\nwill certainly be the Giro Rosa race in Ljubljana, while we also put
\ngreat importance on the second part of the season, with some stage races
\nin France.” <\/p>\n

The men’s cycling team Radenska Ljubljana has also undergone some
\nchanges. Remaining in the team are Marko Pavli\u010d, Rok Korošec, Jure
\nMiškulin, \u017diga Ru\u010digaj, Martin Otoni\u010dar, and Matic Šafari\u010d Kolar, while
\nthe team will also be reinforced by cyclists from junior ranks. New
\nadditions to the team are Slovenian juniors Izidor Penko, who placed 6th
\nat last year’s Men’s Junior World Championship, Jure Stepišnik and \u017dan
\nKova\u010d, while joining us from other teams are \u017dan Jerki\u010d, Grega Krajnc
\nand Robi Jenko. The team is one of the youngest in the world. <\/p>\n

Marko Polanc, manager and coach of the men’s continental team Radenska<\/strong>,
\nputs the focus on the training of young cyclists by saying: “With our
\nyoung team we will continue striving towards the goals set last season.
\nWe will focus our efforts on the upbringing and education of young
\ncyclists as well as their athletic and personal growth. Our goal is to
\nhelp young talent grow and thereby show Slovenian fans and sponsors the
\nfighting spirit and the development of our team as a whole, which will
\nsurely bring great results after years of hard work. On the competitive
\nlevel, we will strive towards winning the Scott’s Golden Bicycle race
\nand towards putting in successful results in all categorized
\ninternational races in the U23 category, as well as towards qualifying
\ntwo cyclists for the European and World Championships.”<\/p>\n

The event was also attended by Aleš \u010cerin, Deputy Mayor of the City Municipality of Ljubljana<\/strong>, and Jo\u017ee Mermal, President of the BTC Management Board<\/strong>.
\nMr Mermal, the patron of the BTC City Ljubljana women’s cycling team,
\nmentioned all the efforts and investments of the BTC Company in the
\ndevelopment of cycling in Slovenia by saying: “Last year we wrote an
\nimportant chapter in the history of Slovenian cycling, as we added
\nanother milestone to our rich resume, which includes organisations of
\nthe 33rd Marathon Franja BTC City and the ARWC UWCT Finals 2014. The BTC
\nCompany is extremely proud of the first Slovene women’s professional
\ncycling team, BTC City Ljubljana, which has surpassed all expectations
\nwith its results in the first competitive season. Year by year, cycling
\nis maintaining and strengthening its prestigious position among
\nSlovenian sports disciplines, and I am certain that in this season the
\ncyclists will continue to enthral all of us who have been cheering for
\nthem on their path to success.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Zoran Jankovi\u0107, Mayor of the City Municipality of Ljubljana<\/strong>,
\nsaid: “The actions in the field of cycling over the past few years have
\nbrought a lot of positive results to the city of Ljubljana. Cycling
\nevents bring freshness and a lively throb to the city, which makes it
\neven more attractive for all the sports enthusiasts. Apart from that,
\ncycling, which is becoming more and more popular, also has a great
\nimpact on people’s habits. The City Municipality of Ljubljana is
\nstriving towards the people of Ljubljana employing the developmental
\nstrategy of Ljubljana in securing a more sustainable urban mobility.” <\/p>\n

Another novelty in Slovenian cycling this season is the cycling
\nschool for young girls, which will open its doors in March in the
\nvicinity of Ljubljana, under the mentorship of the KD Rog coaches. The
\nschool will open in response to last year’s establishment of the first
\nwomen’s professional cycling team BTC City Ljubljana, which resulted in
\nthe rise of the popularity of professional cycling among girls and
\nwomen. Two professional coaches will be in charge of the girls’
\ntraining. More information on the cycling school for girls and on the
\ntraining is available at www.kolesarke.si<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Additional information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maja Oven, Director of the Market Communications and Public Relations Sector<\/p>\n