Scottish Cycling is pleased to announce a new partnership between the Performance Programme and Elite team Metaltek-Kuota for the 2017 season.
The team management of Metaltek –Kuota are no strangers to working with some of Scotland’s best riders over the past three years and during 2016 signed former Scottish Road Race Champion Steven Lawley.
More recently, and following the formation of the partnership, Tom Chandler and Andy Brown – both Under 23’s - have been added to the team roster and boost the number of Scots to three.
Attending the team presentation, Scottish Cycling’s Head of Performance Gary Coltman commented on the newly formed alliance:
“In conversation with team owner Andy Swain and DS Colin Sturgess towards the end of last year, it was apparent that we have very similar aims and objectives related to developing bike riders to the next level. The team has played a strong part over the past few years in moving the riders on to the next step of the ladder. With the addition of Colin on board it became clear that the team was an excellent fit - he’s a respected coach and is an astute tactician – and importantly knows exactly what it takes to reach the very top. With the underpinning supportive approach that is taken by the team, we believe the partnership will add a lot of value to all three Scots as well as other Scottish riders in the future."
Looking forward to the season ahead, team owner Andy Swain, told us:
“It’s nice to be recognised as an erstwhile environment for a body such as Scottish Cycling to be interested in working with us. As we’ve expanded our racing calendar this year, to include the highly competitive Tour Series, it was obvious we needed to not only increase our numbers but also strengthen across the different types of racing. Last year we only had six riders and we were strong in long hard hilly events but the thought of criteriums were well out of the picture.
Obviously, we are more than aware of Steven’s talent – he came on board part way through the season in 2016 for us and had solid top 15 rides in both the UCI Beaumont Trophy and the Ryedale GP. The two youngsters Andy and Tom have both been working with Scottish Cycling for some time and have had a lot of hours in the velodrome under the guidance of endurance coach Mark McKay, with Andy being victorious in the U21 London 6 Day. We hope this leg speed will be transferable to the road and between us develop these lads into all round bike riders and race winners."
You can keep up to date with the Metaltek-Kuota team by following them on Twitter here @Metaltek_KUOTA and find out more about the Scottish Cycling Performance Programmes by clicking here.
