Robin Morton (cycling)

Robin Morton is an American former cycling team manager and was the first and only female manager in men's professional cycling. She also created the first Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) registered American professional road racing team in 1984. Cycling in Europe is a traditionally male sport and includes rules prohibiting women from the race caravans. At managers' meetings prior to races in Europe, the race organization would vote on whether Morton would be allowed to ride in the team car.

Career

1980-82

Morton's first involvement with cycling was with the amateur racing team of the Pennsylvania Bicycle Club (PBC) of Germantown, Pennsylvania assisting with team management and race organization.

1983

Morton managed a US pro cycling team sponsored by GIOS bicycles for the Tour of America with Roger De Vlaeminck and John Eustice, two time USPRO National Criterium Champion and USA Cycling Championships in 1982 and '83 and Jeff Rutter.

Later that year she managed the 7-UP team with John, Jeff Rutter, Dag Selander and Ian Jackson that participated at Superweek and other races on the domestic calendar.

Team Photo at the Gianni Motta Factory in Italy - 1984


1984

Morton registered the first American professional road race team thus becoming the first woman in the history of cycling to own and manage a men’s professional team.

That year the team, sponsored by Gianni Motta, became the first U.S. team to enter the 1984 Giro d'Italia, Giro di Puglia, Giro di Toscana, Giro del Trentino and Tour de Suisse and other European races.

Xerox Team Presentation

1985

Morton put together another U.S. based team, the Philadelphia Lasers, sponsored by Rank Xerox and Benotto. This was the first U.S. professional team to compete in the 1985 Vuelta a España and other races on the European calendar including Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré, Midi Libre, Tour de Luxembourg and the Vuelta a Colombia.

In 1985-86 Morton had a very successful Junior Team winning many races, numerous state championships and several national championships. The team included Steve Scuron from Philadelphia, the first Junior ever to win the amateur men's elite national championship(80K) in 1985. The team also included Jonas Carney, winner of many amateur and professional national championships.

1986

This year Robin managed the domestic U.S. program for the Murella-Fanini team that included Gregor Braun

Roberto winning the CoreStates Championship in Philadelphia

1987-89

In 1987 through 1988 the team was sponsored by Pepsi-Fanini and in 1989 by EuroCar. The team with Roberto Gaggioli won 80 races in the U.S. during these three years. The team raced in the 1987 edition of the Coors Classic from Hawaii to Colorado winning the Reno criterium stage.

In 1988 Roberto won the CoreStates Championships in Philadelphia and the team won the team prize.

The EuroCar team participated in the inaugural Tour de Trump in 1989.

1990-91

The team was sponsored by Poland Spring, Subaru and Tommasini.

Event promotion (1989 to present)

In 1989 Morton started working for a company promoting the professional races in the U.S. that included the USPRO National Road Championships.

Robin eventually became the Technical Director for the championship, as well as other events through 2005 that included the West Virginia K-Mart Classic stage race, Tour de Georgia, the San Francisco Grand Prix, the Thrift Drug Classic in Pittsburgh, and numerous other major events in the U.S. that include:

Morton is now a partner in g4 Productions, a company that promotes fundraising, cycling and running events. Fundraising events include the Tour De Pink a 4 Day Breast Cancer Ride benefiting the Young Survival Coalition 2006-2015, The Ride for Autism 2008-2015, Bike for the Heart benefiting the Sister to Sister Foundation 2009, Walk/Ride to Benefit the Brain Injury Association of NJ - 2010, Alex's Lemonade Stand to benefit Childhood Cancer - 2012.

Notable riders

Riders that have been on teams managed by Morton include two-time Olympic gold medalist Gregor Braun, Six Day winner and wearer of the Tour de France Yellow Jersey - Dietrich Thurau, Roger De Vlaeminck - multi-time winner of Paris–Roubaix, Olympic gold medalist in the team time trial at the 1984 Olympics - Marcello Bartolini and Matt Eaton, winner of the 1983 Tour of Britain known as the Milk Race.

Other experience

Morton also served as the cycling assistant competition manager for 1996 Summer Olympics and 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

In 2006 Morton started her own event promotion company to focus on road racing, cyclo-cross and fund-raising events.

Media appearances

News Papers

Books

Magazines

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 02, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.