NA Racing Scene: The RIDERS Talk

In our second installment looking at the health of the North American road racing scene, we hear from the racers themselves on how they have survived, struggled and even thrived racing at the top level on the continent.

In the first article in our Road Racing in North America series we spoke to the men and women who own and direct some of the most successful teams of the North American peloton. We heard innovative business and marketing strategies, passionate determination in the face of industry headwinds and overall, a refreshingly optimistic perspective on the future. Here in our second installment, we hear from the racers themselves on how they have survived, struggled and even thrived racing at the top level on the continent.

A lot has changed since I started racing at the professional level in North America a decade ago. In the first 3 or 4 seasons of my pro career I was on the road around 10-14 weeks a year between training camps and big blocks of back to back racing. In the fever pitch of the season, we would go from Tour of California in May to Nationals to Tour de Beauce to BC Superweek, on to Cascade Cycling Classic, up to altitude for the Tours of Utah and Colorado and then finally into the cold crosswinds of Tour of Alberta in September.

It really felt like a full time job and our motivation was always sharp, knowing that a result at any one of those races could radically improve our career trajectory. There was a living to be made too – I never made more from my team salary than I did from my coaching business, but there was plenty of prize money and I barely spent a dime of my own money on those trips. It wasn’t glamorous but it was a real professional ride with ample support and racing opportunities.

When road racing trickled back onto the calendar in 2021 and 2022, everything was different and it felt like I barely left home. A week racing at Redlands here, a weekend at the Armed Forces Cycling Classic there and yawning gaps of weeks and even months between targeted events. There was more pressure to perform at the select few races available and for me at least, it felt harder to justify life as a “pro racer” with only 15 or 20 race days a year. For racers like myself, it’s been less of an economic contraction and more of a contraction of our identities as full time athletes. The talent and passion is still there, pathways to success and a viable career still exist, but it is harder and harder to “live the dream” as a pro here in North America and many have been forced to wake up and reckon with reality.

Patrick Daly (@pdalyphoto)

Sara Poidevin is one athlete who managed to excel in North America and propel herself onto the world stage in Europe. With sparkling results in the junior ranks, she was able to turn pro in 2016 with the venerable Optum/Rally/UHC organization, a team with established North American roots but also an eye towards European expansion. Her ascension in the sport, though powered by a steady stream of top results, highlights the value of a well funded and well run professional team.  In Sara’s words, “It was a great balance and a positive environment to grow”, highlighting “mentorship from experienced riders and (manager and former national champion) Zach Bell”. Unfortunately, that experience based-value is now harder to find, as most North American pro teams churn through short life cycles and more focus is put on U23 programs.

Patrick Daly (@pdalyphoto)

Following six years of success at Rally, Sara made the jump to the Women’s World Tour in the midst of the pandemic and took on the world’s best for two seasons with EF Education Tibco/SVB. Now for the 2024 season, she returns to a team in the US to continue her career with DNA Pro Cycling, a top contender on the circuit. Sara sounds confident about her new squad and the season ahead, “It’s definitely fewer race days but that means more time to prepare for my goals and the team has set up a calendar that will play to my strengths..I already feel comfortable with DNA”.  DNA appears to be a bright light in the fog when it comes to professional teams in North America, putting full effort into competition in both stage races and criteriums as well as filling in calendar gaps with trips to Europe. It is a truly refreshing perspective, in a business where “Europe or bust” is common career advice. North American cycling has been and will be at its best when talents like Sara can race on teams like DNA.

Project Echelon

Ethan Craine is another rider who has found a successful, if unlikely path in North American racing as a member of the Project Echelon racing team. While many riders bemoan the state of racing in North America, Ethan actually came to the US to extend his young career coming out of his junior years. He recognized a potential dead end in his racing at home in the small pond of New Zealand and jumped into the American crit scene with New England Devo in 2021. He says he “came over mostly to have a good time racing for 6 months before I moved on with my life”. However, his talent brought results quickly and he earned a contract on the up and coming Project Echelon team for the following year where I had the good fortune to be his teammate.

Despite his easy going, devil-may-care demeanor, Ethan is a realist among aspiring professionals and when we talk he always has his eyes on the ball when it comes to his career prospects. He had doubts even in his early days at Echelon, when injuries and tough intra-team competition kept him racing mostly crits instead of the big stage races-a predicament many aspiring racers face in the US. He recognized that while crit results have their place on a rider’s resume, He recognized that while crit results have their place on a rider’s resume, “no one is going to look at you if you don’t have results in (harder) road races as well”.

Project Echelon

Fortunately, he weathered the uncertainty and the Project Echelon team grew along with his level as a racer. In 2023 he took on UCI racing at Joe Martin Stage Race, Tour de Beauce as well as the Tour de Guadaloupe and the Mallorca Trofeo one day races in Spain. With that experience and another season of hard training under him, he was able to return to Mallorca and scored the KOM jersey in the Trofeo Ses Salines-Felantix UCI 1.1 race this January.  Starting his season with a bang and many more high level race starts to come in 2024 puts Ethan in a great position in his first year out of the U23 ranks. Thanks to his hard work and his spot on Echelon’s roster, he enjoys a stable life in North America along with multiple chances to prove himself at the next level. For him at least, “the dream” of professional cycling based in North America is still very much alive.

Project Echelon

While racers like Sara and Ethan have found their way to those remaining bright lights on the horizon of North American racing, there are still many talented up and coming racers left grasping for the same chance.  Aidan Oliphant, a racer for British Columbia’s Red Truck Racing falls into that category and has braved an arduous road so far in his pursuit of success in road racing.

Martine Verfailles

Aidan found cycling during the pandemic and his success chasing highly competitive KOMs led him to the start line of his first road race in 2021. Despite ripping through the lower rankings and up to the Cat 1/2 fields in short order, he soon found himself staring into a void of racing prospects. At 22 he was already “too old” for most development teams and projects and had to make a giant leap from local racing into the fastest pelotons on the continent. His list of early race starts is almost comical in that sense. His first Cat 1/2 event: Canadian Nationals against a field of World Tour pros. His first crit: one of the fastest in the US at the Redlands Bicycle Classic – which also happened to be his first stage race.

Coming through the otherside of that baptism by fire, Aidan started to feature high on the results sheet at UCI races like the grueling Tour de Beauce last season featuring in breakaways and finishes among the races top 10 riders. He has pushed hard in every direction to further his career, including physically and financially demanding trips to Europe during the now barren late summer road racing scene in North America.

Martine Verfailles

Still, he acknowledges that he will need to achieve a truly elite level of results to push beyond amateur status and into a professional living in the sport. Thankfully, he has his education and a career path into the medical field awaiting when racing ends, pro or not.

My own path was similar to Aidan’s in some ways, I wasn’t a prodigy in my U23 years either. I turned pro at 25, the same age Aidan is now, after finishing my own education and scoring some promising top 3’s and 5’s at the major stage races. Now though, it seems for Aidan to make it at 25, he will have to win and win big – showing fully developed mastery and not just the potential I did.

Martine Verfailles

It is surely a daunting and disheartening shift but Aidan has adopted an admirable philosophy in his pursuit Aidan: “You have to enjoy each step in the process and get the most out of it, you can’t constantly think about what is next”.

Personally, I wish I could have adopted the same mature mindset earlier but I’m happy to share his outlook now. Whether you are getting regular pay cheques and climbing the career ladder or not, racing here is still one hell of a ride. After all, money and media attention aren’t the real reasons most of us pursue a life in this sport – we do it because life is rarely more exhilarating than when you have a number pinned to your back.

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