Launceston Olympian Georgia Baker has been named as the TIS Racing Team’s captain for 2018, replacing the departing Macey Stewart.
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Her first task will be to lead a very different looking squad in this week’s women’s Tour Down Under in South Australia.
Devonport’s Anya Louw, who last week won a silver medal in the under 19 women’s time trial at the Road National Championships in Ballarat, is one that the TIS could not call upon due to the age restrictions of the tour.
The Tasmanian squad has called upon a quartet of guest-riders with illness and age-restrictions impacting the home-grown talent that helped the team qualify for the tour during the National Road Series last year.
The same criteria also ruled out Hobart’s Madeleine Fasnacht, who last year was named Cycling Australia’s junior cyclist of the year.
Burnie's Renee Dykstra is another who won’t be there, focusing her attention on March’s Oceania Road Championships, while Lauren Perry and Belamie Flint are recovering from illness.
Rather than pull the pin on entering a team in the tour, TIS coaches have “searched the country” for talent to ensure the team could be competitive in the event.
Included in this group is South Australia’s Maeve Plouffe, who last week won the Burnie Wheel. Chloe Moran, Breanna Hargrave and Jessica Mundy, also from South Australia, are the others that have been drafted in.
Queensland’s Kristina Clonan will be a full-time member in 2018.