Ireland's Olivia Dillon (second from right) in her new team shot taken in Bermuda
Former national road race and TT champion, Olivia Dillon is to ride in 2012 for leading US women’s team ‘NOW and Novartis for MS’.
The team is relatively new to the US circuit, having started up only mid season last year. However, it enjoyed immediate success by winning the US National Road Race Championship, Tulsa Tough, stages of Aspen Women's Stage Race and the Cascade Cycling Classic.
Dillon has just completed two assignments with the new team in the shape of training camps in South Carolina and Bermuda.
The camps doubled as valuable ‘get to know you’ sessions for the Irish rider who has just switched from her old US team ‘Peanut Butter & Co. Twenty12’ after two years.
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“At the South Carolina camp there really was some spectacular riding and lots of fun bonding time off the bike,” she told stickybottle from her USbase.
“Bermuda is a very small island but it was a perfect location for a training camp; constant rolling roads and beautiful ocean views.”
Dillon describes her new set-up as being very professional, with a mix of youth and experience in the riders that will feature in the upcoming season.
She has also moved address in the US as she gears up for the coming season.
“I moved to Fairfax , California, in Marin County just north of San Francisco. Marin County has some of the most amazing riding in the USand the sunny winter was great for off season training.”
With her winter miles in her legs, she says she’s very much looking forward to getting her season underway next month and is targeting a ride in the World Championships in September and possibly the London Olympics before that.
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“I’m super motivated to race well in the US this year,” she said.
“But I’m also focussed on regaining the Irish National Championship titles; that’s a big goal. And after that there’s selection for the World Championships. Ireland still has a shot at qualifying an Olympic spot so the UCI races I can ride with the team will be key.”
Her season starts with the Merco Cycling Classic in early March; a four-day stage race in California featuring three road stages and a TT.
Also in March she takes in San Dimas three-day in California followed by the Redlands Bicycle Classic stage race, also in California.
“This year May is a big month on the racing calendar starting with SRAM Tour of the Gila and then two North American UCI races; Gatineau in Canada and the new Exergy Tour in Idaho. The National Racing Calendar in the US has split this year into stage races and criteriums but the team will be targeting races from both calendars along with the UCI races. It looks like Ireland is hosting a UCI time trial in May too so hopefully that will be an option for me.”
Her ‘NOW and Novartis for MS’ team is backed by a combination of two main sponsors; NOW and ‘Novartis for MS’.
NOW stands for the ‘No Opportunity Wasted’ lifestyle brand created by Phil Keoghan, host of the seven-time Emmy Award winning CBS reality series “The Amazing Race”. His wife Louise Keoghan is also a key figure in the project.
Novartis is a pharmaceuticals corporation specialising in meeting the medical needs of people with multiple sclerosis.
The team’s director sportif, Kurt Stockton won the 1990 US Professional Championship.
Dillon won the national road race and TT championships in Ireland in 2010 and has been national TT champion three times. She has also won the An Post Ras na mBan for the past two years; taking three of the four stages in 2010 and three of six stages in last year’s extended event.
Before taking to full time racing in the US five years ago with the Touchstone Climbing team, she enjoyed a successful 12-year career in financial services. She also previously competed in triathlon for four years and is a former Irish volleyball international.
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