Rally Cycling heading back to Europe for Tour de Bretagne

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Riding a wave of momentum created with last weekend’s sweep of the men’s and women’s USA Cycling Team Time Trial Championships and Brad Huff’s win in the criterium title race, Rally Cycling will take a six-rider roster into the Tour de Bretagne next week in France.

Huff will join Jesse Anthony, Pierrick Naud, Tom Soladay, Eric Young and Curtis White in the seven-day UCI 2.2 race that starts in Quiberon on April 25 and finishes in Dinan on May 1.

The race features several tough, rolling stages through the Brittany region of Northern France, and since becoming professional 2005 it has become a showcase for up-and-coming riders as well as sprinters and rouleurs looking to fine-tune their form before the Grand Tours.

“We are thrilled to return to Tour de Bretagne Cycliste this year,” said Rally Performance Manager Jonas Carney. “It is an amazing race in one of the most beautiful parts of Europe. The guys are on great form and these seven days of tough racing will be the final push before the Amgen Tour of California and the US pro road championships. We are fielding a very strong group of sprinters and leadout guys with a focus on stage wins.”

Huff and Young will handle the team’s sprinting duties, led out in the bunch finishes by Soladay and Naud. Huff spent an extended period of time training in Europe before winning the national title in Greenville, South Carolina, and he’s hoping another block of European racing will further sharpen his form for the US road championships.

"Returning to the Tour of Bretagne Cycliste is amazing,” Huff said. “In 2006 I won the most aggressive riders jersey and I'm hoping to help the team win stages and possibly the overall. We have a lot of momentum after TTT and criterium nationals and hopefully we are able to build on it and get some more results."

Jesse Anthony, who was on the attack most of the day in Greenville to set up Huff’s win in the finale, will play the role of wildcard, while Curtis White will make his 2016 European debut for Rally.

Rally found success earlier this year in Europe when Eric Young won the prologue time trial at the Istarsko Proljece in Croatia and Will Routley won the final stage at Liberty Seguros in Portugal.