Celebrating its eighth season, the women’s team will contest broad range of events, including UCI stage races, one-day classics and the USA Crits Series
The DNA Pro Cycling Team has announced plans to return for the 2020 season registered as a UCI team for the first time since 2017. Celebrating its eighth racing season, the women’s team’s race calendar will include a broad range of events, including UCI stage races, one-day classics and the USA Crits Series. The team will also continue to compete on the dirt in epic gravel and mountain bike events. The DNA roster boasts riders with diverse backgrounds and disciplines, including multiple national champions and past Olympians.
Leading the team as road captain is all-arounder Heather Fischer, who will be contesting her seventh professional season. Fischer was the recent recipient of the Most Badass jersey at the Colorado Classic in August, and is past winner of the Downtown Silver City criterium at the Tour of the Gila and Division 1 Collegiate National Championship.
Working alongside her in a leadership position will be Michaela Drummond, a former Junior World Champion on the track and 2020 Olympic hopeful for New Zealand.
Celebrating her 18th birthday this past August, and graduating from junior gears, many-time U.S. National Champion Katie Clouse will be racing her fourth year with the DNA program. After proving her strengths in mountain biking, cyclocross, and road, Clouse will join the team early next spring following a full ’cross campaign this winter with the Cannondale p/b Cyclocrossworld.com team.
Meanwhile, American Mia Kilburg (née Manganello) is returning from a hiatus from professional cycling. She won a bronze medal in long track speed skating at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Prior to her return to the ice in 2017, Kilburg had scored a collection of points classification jerseys at the Cascade Cycling Classic, Redlands, and San Dimas road races.
Other new signings include collegiate national champion and climbing specialist Margot Clyne of Boulder, Colorado, and Liza Rachetto, who will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience earned after racing for the past 16 seasons in the top races of the world, including finishing the Giro Rosa three times. Earlier this season Rachetto spent several months racing in France and Belgium with the Hagens Berman-Supermint team.
“Women’s racing in 2020 will be exciting, challenging and rewarding. We’re eager for all of it,” DNA directeur sportif Cathy Fegan-Kim said. “Bringing in sponsors, supporting our athletes and succeeding in each race is increasingly competitive, but we believe nothing meaningful has ever been easy.”
Fegan-Kim is one of only a handful of women certified as a UCI sports director. She earned her certification in Switzerland in 2018 through a scholarship.
“The momentum in women’s racing is growing in North America with the Colorado Classic, AMGEN Tour of California, a robust criterium scene that includes USA CRITS, and Team USA’s success winning multiple rainbow jerseys at Worlds. We are ready to join once again in becoming a UCI team, racing hard, developing more women athletes and putting on a show for cycling fans.”
DNA Cycling has been the title sponsor of the team for seven years. The company designs and manufactures custom kits for individuals and teams. Here’s the current roster. Additional riders are expected to be signed before the start of next season.
- Heather Fischer (Boulder, CO)
- Hanna Muegge (Monterey, CA)
- Michaela Drummond (Cambridge, NZ)
- Kimberly Lucie (Tucson, AZ)
- Brenna Wrye-Simpson (Portland, OR)
- Margot Clyne (Boulder, CO)
- Katie Clouse (Park City, UT)
- Mia Kilburg (Cincinnati, OH)
- Liza Rachetto (Los Altos, CA)
- Sarah Kaufmann (Salt Lake City, UT)
