Cherie Pridham (born May 22, 1971) is the sports director for the Lotto-Soudal (also known as Lotto Dstny) cycling team. She is the first woman, on the men's world cycling tour to hold that role, and the first woman to achieve a World Tour victory at Tirreno-Adriatico in March 2021.

Career

Pridham started bike racing in South Africa and rode her first

Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin The Tour de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin was the longest running UCI event on the women's elite cycle racing calendar. It had been held annually in the Aude Aude (; ) is a department in Southern France, located in the Occitanie region and named ...

when she was 19 years old. Her pro cycling career spanned eight Tours de l'Aude Cycliste Féminin and two Giri d'Italia Femminile (formerly known as the Giro Rosa), until her professional racing career was cut short due to injuries sustained from a hit and run accident in 2006. In 2006, Pridham began managing professional cycling teams by joining a junior development team called the Merlin Development Squad. This squad became a Senior squad in 2007, in 2008 the team became Pearl Izumi- Planet X-High 5. In 2009, Cherie took charge of the Plowman Craven Race Team. In September 2010, she was approached by Raleigh UK to take on managing that team. As owner of Cherie Pridham Racing, she is also the longest serving UCI Continental level team manager, and the only female manager, in the UK. In 2018, Team Raleigh changed its name to Vitus Pro Cycling Team. On November 19, 2020 the Vitus Pro Cycling p/b Brother UK team announced that they will be closing down their men's racing team due to uncertain economic climate and a difficult sponsorship environment. After a brief stoppage of world tour racing due to the global

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, professional cycling restarted and Pridham and her ISN team participated in the Tirreno-Adriatico UCI World Tour race that was held March 10–16, 2021 in Italy, with

Mads Würtz Schmidt Mads Würtz Schmidt (born 31 March 1994) is a Danish racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam . He rode at the 2013 UCI Road World Championships. In May 2018, he was named in the startlist for the 2018 Giro d'Italia. In July 2019, he ...

winning the 6th stage. On October 07, 2021, Pridham joined the Lotto-Soudal cycling team as sports director, beginning with the 2022 season. She acted as sports director for her first Grand Tour at the

2022 Giro d'Italia The 2022 Giro d'Italia was the 105th edition of the Giro d'Italia, a three-week Grand Tour cycling stage race. The race started on 6 May in Budapest, Hungary, and finished on 29 May in Verona, Italy. The race was won by Jai Hindley of , taking ...

Awards

2019: Women's Participation in Sport award, ''

Derby Telegraph The ''Derby Telegraph'', formerly the ''Derby Evening Telegraph'', is a daily tabloid newspaper distributed in the Derby area of England. Stories produced by the Derby Telegraph team are published online under the Derbyshire Live brand. Histor ...

'' Sports

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pridham, Cherie 1971 births Living people Directeur sportifs