A brand new women’s pro team has joined the peloton for 2016 allowing more talented female racers to take on the UCI Women’s World Tour and peruse Olympic dreams.

Cylance Pro Cycling is made up of nine team members, including American racer Shelley Olds and Kathryn Bertine – one of the riders behind the petition that saw the introduction of La Course.

The team will begin their attack on the season in February 2016 and they have the support of cyber-security company Cylance and Inspire Sports.

Cyclance and Inspire aim to enable the riders to focus on the 2016 Olympics by providing them the training, competition opportunities and a range of additional resources needed to pursue their dreams of representing their countries on the world stage.

The team will have the support of more bike and corporate sponsors, who will be announced as the season gets closer.

The nine members of the team are Shelley Olds, Krista Doebel-Hickok, Alison Tetrick and Erica Zaveta of the United States; Valentina Scandolara and Rosella Ratto of Italy; Sheyla Gutierrez of Spain; Doris Schweizer of Switzerland; and Kathryn Bertine of St. Kitts & Nevis.

The riders will be led by sports director is Manel Lacambra. Omer Kem, founder of Inspire Sports has said: “We believe that sports can be a critical component to a happy and healthy life and we want to empower everyone to get active and achieve their goals”.

Stuart McClure, CEO of Cylance added: “Cylance Pro Cycling Team members will be role models to athletes of all sports, male and female, not only for their accomplishments on the Cylance team, but also as they strive to represent their nations in the Olympics. Our partnership with Cylance will help these talented riders reach that goal.”

The creation of the UCI World Tour Calendar for women has seen a shake up of the pro ranks, with a number of teams registering for UCI Pro status, including Dame Sarah Storey’s team, Podium Ambition.