Villumsen shows off her TT silver medal from the World Champs ©Graham Watson

Dec 7th, 11. NZ's Linda Villumsen, silver medallist at the UCI World Championships time trial event, was today named in the roster for new team women's cycling team GreenEdge AIS.

GreenEdge AIS is a joint venture initiative between GreenEdge, Cycling Australia (CA) and the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

While its aim is to develop and enhance Australian women's road cycling and to provide a high performance pathway for Australia's female cyclists to forge a professional career, their roster is not all Australian.

Along with Australians Tiffany Cromwell, Rowena Fry, Shara Gillow, Melissa Hoskins, Jessie Maclean and Amanda Spratt  are Villumsen (NZ), reigning World TT Champion Judith Arndt (Germany), former Giro Donne winner Claudia Häusler (Germany) and Dutch national team regular Loes Gunnewijk.

The Kiwi time trial specialist raced for Dutch team AA Drink - Leontien.nl this season after three years with HTC Highroad.

She finished 4th overall at Thüringen Rundfahrt and had a few podium finishes but the best result of the season was her medal at the World Championships time trial event.

After earning the bronze medal in 2009 and 2010, Villumsen took a step further up the podium for silver in 2011.

Team GreenEdge AIS

The three way partnership ensures GreenEdge-AIS will have access to the best skills, services and experience available within the CA/AIS High Performance Program structure.

Cycling Australia CEO, Graham Fredericks, said he's excited the project has come to fruition.

"Cycling Australia is proud to be involved in this joint venture that is part of our overall strategy to develop women's cycling," said Mr Fredericks. "The team will have access to the very best resources and support within a professional structure thanks to the cooperation of the three key partners.

"We want this team to set the standard for international women's cycling while we continue to develop the National Road Series as the breeding ground for talented female cyclists."

On the basis of the rider's current rankings the GreenEdge-AIS team will sit third in the UCI teams classification.

GreenEdge Cycling General Manager, Shayne Bannan, will co-manage the women's team alongside Cycling Australia's National Performance Director Kevin Tabotta.

"We consider this team an authentic Australian venture," said Bannan. "We have contracted some of the top international riders to ensure the team has sufficient points to guarantee starts in the world's major events.

"They will also act as mentors for the younger, developing riders. We will look to our international riders to provide the leadership and experience necessarily to create a culture of success. It's our hope this culture will flow down through the domestic women's development programs."

Bannan says he expects the make-up of the team to evolve over the next three years to include a stronger representation of top level Australian riders.

"While we will register only nine athletes with the UCI for the January 1 season start, there exists the potential to add neo-pros and other non-contracted Australians during the year," added Bannan.