HotChillee appoints Dean Downing as ‘team manager’

HotChillee has appointed pro cyclist Dean Downing to the role of Team Manager, placing him in charge of assisting teams competiting in Hotchillee events.

With Dean’s appointment, HotChillee is also adding Official Team briefings to the pre-event experience. During these briefings, all teams will be given information and advice on event logistics and kit. It will give them the chance to meet HotChillee partners and other teams.

Downing will also take on the role of ‘Ride Captain Partnership Manager’. All rides are split into seeded Speed Groups and each of those groups has two or three dedicated Ride Captains to look after them during the ride.

The Rapha Condor Sharp cyclist will provide racers with advice on training, nutrition, kit and even mental preparation for a staged cycling event. He will attend all HotChillee Training Rides where teams will be able to ride with and get to know the professional cyclist. Dean will act as the teams’ first point of contact, making sure they are equipped with everything needed to make their ride a pleasant one.

This year a record number of teams, 125, applied for the 35 team places on The London-Paris 2013 and there’s set to be 15 teams on the Alpine Challenge 2013 and 10 on HotChillee’s new addition to its Global Event Series, the Cape Rouleur 2013. With competition between teams getting fiercer, gaining valuable information from Downing could mean the difference between winning or losing the race towards The Best Team award.

Downing says: "I’m pretty excited to be working with the HotChillee teams. The teams are becoming more and more professional. They all have the best looking equipment, training programmes and they are getting faster. I look forward to meeting up with the teams and passing on my experiences and knowledge from being inside the Pro-peloton for the last few years."