The full lineup of 10 invited teams have been confirmed by organisers of the National Cycling League, now in the home stretch before the opening round of the NCL Cup criterium series on April 8 at the Miami Beach Invitational. Across four competitions this summer in the US, the new series requires women’s and men’s teams to partner together in a points-based format using combined scoring for a $1 million prize purse.
A total of five squads support both men and women with a unified, or ‘co-ed’ affiliation, including Team Skyline, on the US Continental level on the men’s side, and established US domestic elite programmes Fount Cycling Guild and Team SupraBars.com. The other two teams, Denver Disruptors and Miami Nights begin their first season on the domestic elite level and were created by the league itself.
The balance of roster spots in the invitation-only racing series has been filled by partnerships between existing men’s-only and women’s-only DE or club teams. Two of those pairings, Foundation Cycling (men) with CCB-Alpine Carbon p/b LLG (women) and Texas Roadhouse Cycling (men) with Goldman Sachs ETFs (women), are all DE teams.
Kelly Benefits Strategies Cycling, a men’s DE team, will partner with the women’s club team Primeau Velo Racing. Team Mike’s Bikes p/b Equator Coffees (men) with Monarch Racing (women) and Voler Factory Racing (men) with Roxo Racing (women) complete the lineup, and all four are club teams.
Women and men compete separately in 30-lap races, with the points scored on laps in each respective race being combined to determine overall scores. The team scores determine winners at each event and series standings, so athletes are rewarded equally.
“That was one of our founding principles, it’s everybody’s equal. So it’s not a women’s team and a men’s team. We have ‘a’ team. So just little things like that make a big difference in the happiness and general buy-in for all the athletes,” said Reed McCalvin, vice president of teams for the NCL.
“One of our key things is we’re trying to build up American bike racing. We wanted to support teams that actually support our actual mission statement. So we have Texas Roadhouse and CCB that represent regions and clubs that have been around for decades and decades and constantly have given back to the sport through local rides through having teams supporting these races. And Supra Bars has something like a 150-person club attached to their team.”
SupraBars.com…
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