September 15, 2004 – Following yesterday’s announcement of the junior and U23 squads for the upcoming UCI Road World Championships in Verona, Italy, USA Cycling released today further information regarding the elite men’s and women’s teams.

An earlier announcement this month specified the automatic qualifiers based on USA Cycling selection procedures. Only two of the elite men have accepted their nominations, while all five women have confirmed their participation in Verona.

Current USPRO Champion Fred Rodriguez (Emeryville, Calif.) and 2004 Olympic Team member Jason McCartney (Coralville, Iowa) will compete at the World Championships while Lance Armstrong, Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Bobby Julich, and Levi Leipheimer have all declined to participate.

The final automatic nominee for the men’s squad, Chris Horner (Bend, Ore.) has not yet confirmed or declined his spot.

USA Cycling has compiled a long team of discretionary nominations from which the remaining members of the team will be chosen. Those athletes include Chris Baldwin (Boulder, Colo.), Michael Creed (Colorado Springs, Colo.), Floyd Landis (Lancaster, Pa.), John Lieswyn (Ames, Iowa), Patrick McCarty (Allen, Texas), Kirk O’Bee (Ada, Mich.), Guido Trenti, and David Zabriskie (Salt Lake City, Utah).

Women’s automatic qualifiers, Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho), Dede Barry (Boulder, Colo.), Kimberly Bruckner (Boulder, Colo.), Tina Pic (Dahlonega, Ga.) and Christine Thorburn (Davenport, Iowa) have all confirmed their participation.

Olympic silver medalist, Barry, and Thorburn will also ride the time trial based on their top-five performances in Athens.

The women’s contingent is completed by Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif.) through a discretionary nomination based on international results.