Special Leadville Trail 100 MTB entries available with 'From the Ground Up' and Athens Twilight Crit leads off seven-race crit series - North American round-up
Tinker Juarez on course at Rock Cobbler in 2022(Image credit: @PureGravel)
Logan Owen and Kyle Trudeau have joined Floyd’s of Leadville Racing to amp up the team’s six-rider roster as a “PrivaTeam” programme for 2023. Returning as the leader of the US-based squad is 61-year-old David ‘Tinker’ Juarez, one of the country’s best-ever BMX and MTB riders.
The Floyd’s of Leadville Racing team completed their first season in 2022 with riders competing across a diverse schedule of off-road events. Juarez earned a silver medal at the 2022 UCI Masters Mountain Bike World Championships in Argentina in cross-country, in which he has won three masters world titles.
On the US gravel scene, Owen and Trudeau are both part of this season’s Life Time Grand Prix series for pro men. Owen, a former WorldTour pro with EF Education-EasyPost, finished 17th overall in the series last year, his top results a top 10 at Chequamegon MTB Festival. Trudeau will compete in the seven-race off-road circuit for the first time but has already excelled at the mountain bike opener at Sea Otter Classic with a seventh-place finish at Fuego XC last year.
Cody Cupp is an experienced rider who returns, taking fourth in cross-country at the US Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals and on gravel finishing 10th at both Gravel Worlds in Nebraska and Belgian Waffle Ride Utah. Andrew Blackstock and Ryan Johnson complete the roster.
Ryan Jastrab and Andrew Giniant among new riders with ButcherBox Cycling
New look for ButcherBox Cycling in 2023 (Image credit: Patrick Daily)
ButcherBox Cycling powered by LOOK return in 2023 with 17 new riders on the domestic elite teams for men and women.
“We’re focused on continued success competing against other top teams at the biggest criteriums in the country” said Dino Piskopanis, director of ButcherBox Cycling. He noted that the programme is one of the few US programmes to support men’s and women’s teams.
The team was largely revamped on the men’s side with six new riders. Ryan Jastrab, 23, joins from Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling, where last year he earned the bronze medal in the U23 criterium championship at the US Amateur Road Nationals. Veteran talent was added with Andrew Giniat, who raced four seasons with CS Velo.
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Four other new riders are Cesar Serna, Doug Frenchak, Dusan Kalaba and Evan McQuirk. Returning to the men’s road team is Sam Rosenholtz, Eddy Huntsman, Eduardo Cruz and Cameron Beard.
Last year the women’s squad secured second overall in the team competition of the American Criterium Cup series, with the top individual sprinter, Andrea Cyr, scoring second in the individual and sprint standings. Cyr has departed the team, but four new riders have been added to join Paige Kostanecki, Rachel Plessing and Gillian Bennett. The new riders are Paola Panzeri, Kaitlyn Agnew, Melanie Wong and Bethany Matsick.
Applications open for ‘From the Ground Up’ and Leadville Trail 100
Alexey Vermeulen (Image credit: Belgian Waffle Ride)
Mountain biking is where Alexey Vermeulen and Ryan Petry have no problem excelling, both finishing in the top 15 at Leadville Trail 100 MTB in 2021. That same year they launched a project to introduce the love of MTB with new riders and help them “step outside of their comfort zones” and “From the Ground Up” was launched.
A third season for “From the Ground Up” was officially launched February 1 when the online application process opened for amateurs to give the epic 104-mile mountain bike race a try. To date, five amateurs have taken part in the project, and three more will be selected for 2023.
“In 2021 [Ryan] and I started this project aimed at supporting the new group of riders coming into the sport during the pandemic. Our goal was to take three entry-level riders to the Leadville Trail 100 and document that process in an attempt to help make the sport less intimidating and more accessible. We never could have imagined what it has become and are focused on growing this community in 2023,” said Vermeulen, who finished fourth in the pro men’s division last year.
The pair of friends said they chose the Leadville Trail 100 MTB mainly because it was later in the year, giving the new riders time to prepare, and the course is out-and-back, so it helps with constant motivation to see other riders on the route. This year’s Leadville Trail mountain bike race will be August 12.
Athens Twilight Crit launches seven races for 2023 Speed Week
Pro women's field at 2022 Athens Twilight Criterium (Image credit: Jackie Tyson)
Speed Week returns in the south-eastern US for another round of seven criterium races over 9 days in late April. The series opens April 22 in Athens, Georgia with the Athens Twilight Criterium, which has been a staple on the US calendar since 1980. The finale will return to College Park, Georgia, this year on April 30. Last year those two races were back-to-back on the final weekend.
New to the lineup is a one-day race in Peachtree Corners, Georgia, located just north of Atlanta. Spartanburg returns as a host city, this time moving to a Friday night, April 28, and is the only race in South Carolina.
Last year the combined prize purse totalled $80,000 for individual races, divided equally for pro men and pro women. There was also a $15,000 bonus purse to be shared by overall Speed Week winners, awarded to the top five men and top five women as well as top five men’s and women’s teams. More details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Jackie has been involved in professional sports for more than 30 years in news reporting, sports marketing and public relations. She founded Peloton Sports in 1998, a sports marketing and public relations agency, which managed projects for Tour de Georgia, Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and USA Cycling. She also founded Bike Alpharetta Inc, a Georgia non-profit to promote safe cycling. She is proud to have worked in professional baseball for six years - from selling advertising to pulling the tarp for several minor league teams. On the bike, she has climbed l'Alpe d'Huez three times (not fast), and spends time on gravel around horse farms in north Georgia.
