Ascendis Health officially launched its professional women’s mountain bike team in Johannesburg on Tuesday, giving women’s mountain biking in South Africa a significant boost.
Owned and managed by Lange Sports, Team Ascendis Health will start out with two top professional women’s mountain bikers, current South African marathon champion, Robyn de Groot and current Swedish marathon champion, Jennie Stenerhag.
Wearing their respective national champion jerseys, Team Ascendis Health’s Jennie Stenerhag (Sweden) and Robyn de Groot (South Africa). Photo credit: www.zooncronje.com
South Africa hosts many of the world’s premier international marathon and multi-day mountain bike events, which will be the primary focus for Team Ascendis Health for 2015.
De Groot and Stenerhag, will contest, among many other events, the Ashburton Investments National Marathon Series, the ABSA Cape Epic, and the Cape Pioneer Trek.
Both riders started their careers as road cyclists, with De Groot representing South Africa at the London Olympic Games and Stenerhag winning the Swedish national road title.
Ranked as the top South African marathon mountain bike racer in 2014, De Groot had a number of high profile race wins, including the defence of her national marathon title and a respectable sixth place at the marathon World Championships.
Stenerhag, seventh at the 2014 World Championships, partnered De Groot to victory in a number of stage races.
“The focus on women’s professional bicycle racing is growing globally and South Africa is a leading nation when it comes to mountain bike racing,” said Malcolm Lange of Lange Sports.
“We’re excited to have Jennie and Robyn, both great ambassadors and athletes, helping grow awareness of the Ascendis Health brands through high value mountain bike racing platform,” said Lange.
Team Ascendis Health got their 2015 racing campaign off to a positive start when De Groot and Stenerhag finished second and third respectively at the Fairview Attakwas Extreme Mountain Bike Challenge held in Oudtshoorn this past weekend.
Both riders showed good form, eight weeks from the ABSA Cape Epic, which will be one of the team’s biggest objectives for the year.
