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Scott McGill (Human Powered Well being) and Sam Boardman (L39ION of Los Angeles) are amongst an inflow of 5 new North American riders on the 2024 roster for Undertaking Echelon Racing.
The US-based Continental squad will embrace a roster of 13 and alter up racing targets to incorporate occasions like Unbound Gravel and SBT GRVL amongst their rising calendar of European highway races to develop health and attain new audiences.
Final season Undertaking Echelon Racing notched 14 podiums on the highway, with all six stage victories coming from Cade Bickmore and Tyler Stites. Each riders reprise roles as GC leaders for 2024 and proceed alongside Trofeo Calvia KOM winner Matt Zimmer and 5 different returning teammates.
“I feel on paper, it is one of the best highway workforce {that a} US continental program has put forth for the reason that Hincapie-Holowesko days. That is the calibre that I see on the roster,” stated Eric Hill, director for Undertaking Echelon Racing.
A novel method for 2024 would be the inclusion of gravel races on the calendar together with choose criteriums and levels races in North America and roughly 40 days of highway racing in Europe, which he stated was greater than double final yr. For gravel races, he stated they’d method them as “North America’s Classics”.
“You must go the place individuals are and gravel is a good house for us to have a shared expertise with individuals and nonetheless get to compete at a extremely excessive stage that prepares us for our key focus of racing, which is on the highway and in our rising calendar in Europe. We view these occasions as North America’s Classics,” he advised Cyclingnews, including they may very well be the first UCI highway workforce dedicated to sending squads of 4 to 5 riders to gravel races.
“It is an thrilling new problem, and retains guys, you already know, motivated and sharp after they’re dwelling, and hone in on some racing dynamics that can assist us to attain success in Europe.
“We’re stepping again slightly bit from the criterium scene. We’ll be on the large 4 stage races in North America. Our hope is that we go and race these races in Europe and we convey that pleasure and expertise again to the US and assist to develop that scene once more.”
Undertaking Echelon Racing will once more open their highway season in Spain at Problem Mallorca, the place final yr Matt Zimmer gained the KOM classification on the opening cease at Trofeo Calvia. They’re scheduled to race Tour de la Provence and are hoping to verify one other European cease in February earlier than turning to the US for the Tucson Bicycle Traditional and a workforce camp in Arizona.
Different European stage races on the spring calendar embrace Vuelta ao Antelejo, Tour of Rhodes, with Vuelta a Portugal in the summertime. True to Hill’s phrase, solely a handful of US criteriums have been famous, and as a substitute the off-road listing included Unbound Gravel 100, Belgian Waffle Experience California and North Carolina, SBT GRVL, Chequamegon MTB 40 and Large Sugar Gravel.
“We consider that gravel is one of the best place for us to construct neighborhood and join with individuals via a shared expertise to activate upon and develop our mission to teach, equip and empower veterans via bodily exercise.”
The workforce introduced earlier this fall that Torbjørn Røed, winner of Belgian Waffle Experience Kansas and Large Sugar Gravel, could be on the roster, however Hill stated the workforce has launched him from the contract to pursue different alternatives.
Street races will proceed as the primary focus, with McGill taking a lead function. He had high 10s in 2023 at Maryland Biking Traditional and Paris-Chauny for Human Powered Well being, and held the factors classification lead within the early half of the four-day Tour Poitou-Charentes. The yr earlier than on the Continental stage, he gained two levels and the factors classification at Volta a Portugal.
Boardman strikes from three seasons at L39ION of Los Angeles, the place he competed throughout stage racing, criteriums and gravel. He was fifth within the highway race at US Professional Street Nationals and gained the Sunday crit at Saint Francis Tulsa Powerful. Caleb Classen, a 22-year-old from Staff California, was fifth in GC Tour of the Gila, sixth in GC Joe Martin Stage Race and gained the younger rider classification at each stage races.
Brendan Rhim joins from American Biking, who not too long ago gained the elite males’s US Madison Monitor Nationwide Championship with Danny Summerhill (American Biking). The ultimate new rider is Canadian Laurent Gervais from Cannondale Echelon p/b 4iiii. He gained the boys’s elite title on the 2023 Canadian Street Championships in Québec and was fifth on GC at Tour de Beauce.
As a non-profit, Undertaking Echelon helps veterans and their households, eradicating the obstacles to therapeutic by fostering relationships between veterans, their communities, and the professional athletes. The workforce served greater than 530 veterans this yr and offered greater than $70,000 in veteran scholarships and programming.
Undertaking Echelon Racing 2024 roster
- Ricky Arnopol (USA)
- Cade Bickmore (USA)
- Sam Boardman (USA)
- Caleb Classen (USA)
- Ethan Craine (New Zealand)
- Laurent Gervais (Canada)
- Zach Gregg (USA)
- Colby Lange (USA)
- Scott McGill (USA)
- Brendan Rhim (USA)
- Hugo Scala Jr (USA)
- Tyler Stites (USA)
- Matt Zimmer (USA)
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