National development team announced for Tour of California

On Friday, USA Cycling announced the eight-member squad that will represent the USA Cycling National Development Team at the Tour of California, scheduled to take place from February 18-25. The opening event of the inaugural USA Cycling Professional Tour and a UCI 2.HC-ranked event, the Tour of California will feature some of the top European-based ProTour squads as well as other top domestic and international pro cycling teams.

The USA Cycling National Development Team will be comprised of some of the best young competitive cyclists in America under the age of 25:

Brent Bookwalter, 22 (Cedar Springs, Mich.)
Sheldon Deeny, 22 (Fort Collins, Colo.)
John Devine, 21 (Dixon, Ill.)
Caleb Fairly, 19 (Amarillo, Texas)
Zak Grabowski, 21 (Lafayette, Colo.)
Scott Stewart, 19 (Oxford, Mich.)
Chris Stockburger, 19 (Fort Collins, Colo.)
Tejay Van Garderen, 18 (Fort Collins, Colo.)

The U25 team will compete against nine ProTour Teams: Credit Agricole (Fra), Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team (USA), Gerolsteiner (Ger), Liquigas Pro Cycling Team (Ita), Predictor-Lotto (Bel), Quick Step-Innergetic (Bel), Rabobank (Ned), T-Mobile Team (Ger), and Team Csc (Den). They will also face three Professional Continental Teams: Team Slipstream powered by Chipotle (USA), Navigators Insurance Cycling Team (USA) and Health Net presented by Maxxis (USA). Five Continental Teams - BMC Racing Team (USA), Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light (USA), Jelly Belly Cycling Team (USA), Priority Health Cycling Team presented by Bissell (USA) and Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team - will also compete in California.