USA Cycling announces elite women's team for 2009 UCI Road World Championships

USA Cycling announced today the elite women that will represent the United States at the 2009 UCI Road World Championships, Sept. 23-27 in Mendriso, Switzerland.

Leading the women's team for 2009 will be defending time trial world champion, Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif.), and Olympic gold medalist and three-time time trial world champion (2005-2007), Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho). Both women received automatic nominations to race the time trial and the road race based on their top-25 UCI rankings.

The pair will be joined in the time trial by Jessica Phillips (Aspen, Colo./Team Lip Smackers), who received an automatic nomination to race the clock with her win in the USA Cycling Elite Time Trial National Championship earlier this summer.

Neben and Armstrong will be complemented on the road race squad by four additional teammates. Kimberly Anderson (Santa Barbara, Calif./Columbia-High Road) received an automatic nomination by means of her overall win this summer in the UCI 2.1 La Route de France while Meredith Miller (Fort Collins, Colo./Team TIBCO) automatically qualified with her win in the elite women's road race at the USA Cycling Road National Championships. The six-woman road race squad will be rounded out by two discretionary nominees - Evelyn Stevens (New York, N.Y.) and Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./Columbia HTC). Stevens won a stage of La Route de France this summer and finished right behind Anderson in second overall while Abbott rode to second-place overall in the UCI 2.1 Giro Donne.

USA Cycling will announce the elite and U23 men's teams for the world championships on September 14.

2009 UCI Road World Championships
Mendriso, Switzerland
September 23-27, 2009

Elite Women
Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho/Cervelo-Lifeforce) - Time Trial and Road Race *
Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif./ Equipe Nürnberger) - Time Trial and Road Race *
Kimberly Anderson (Santa Barbara, Calif./Columbia-High Road) - Road Race *
Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo./Columbia HTC) - Road Race
Meredith Miller (Fort Collins, Colo./Team TIBCO) - Road Race *
Evelyn Stevens (New York, N.Y.) - Road Race
Jessica Phillips (Aspen, Colo./Team Lip Smackers) - Time Trial *

 

*denotes automatic qualifiers.