Cervélo-Bigla heads to South Africa
Cervélo Bigla Pro Cycling Team will be closing its season in South Africa for the second year in a row. In addition to returning to the UCI 1.1 ranked Telkom 947 Cycle Challenge, the team will be adding the new Queen Nandi Challenge and Queen Sibiya Classic to its calendar.

The two one-day races form part of the inaugural KZN Summer Series and take place on Wednesday 16 and Thursday 17 November, respectively.

Following these events, the team will travel to Johannesburg to defend its title in the Telkom 947 Cycle Challenge (20 November), a race Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio won last year.

Clara Koppenburg, Gabrielle Pilote-Fortin and Nicole Hanselmann will line up in the KZN race series and will be joined by Lotta Lepistö for Telkom 947 Cycle Challenge as Moolman-Pasio recovers from injury.

“For us it’s important to help develop women’s cycling in Africa. There is a lot of talent and there’s great racing which keeps growing. There’s a week of UCI racing and this is great. We love to come over and get great support from the organisers,” Team Manager, Thomas Campana said.

“Of course Ashleigh is South African and it's important that we honour the event and support the development of the sport. This is Ashleigh’s vision so in her absence we’re bringing Lotta Lepistö, one of the best riders in the world so you can see we take it seriously,” he concluded.

The event will be Lepistö's first road race since winning the bronze medal at the recent World Championships in Doha.