by Joe Lindsey
Fans of American racing have had a lot to cheer about the past decade. Even setting aside Lance Armstrong, the sport is enjoying a wave of talented racers ranging from experienced pros like Levi Leipheimer and Christian Vande Velde to up-and-coming phenoms like Tyler Farrar. But to keep that pipeline of talent full, someone has to develop it.
Some of that talent – Farrar, for one – resulted in part from the new decade-old USA Cycling National Development Team, which offers young American racers the chance to live, train and race in Europe for extended periods of time. (Read Bill Gifford’s feature about the program for Bicycling.) That exposure is crucial to continued success in racing, which is dominated by Europe both geographically and culturally. But the program got a crucial boost this week with the news that both American-registered ProTour teams, Columbia-High Road and Garmin-Slipstream, have signed on to support the program.
USA Cycling’s U23 director Noel Dejonckheere tries out some new wheels.
Slipstream and High Road will offer monetary, technical and personnel support to the program, which former Motorola director Noel Dejonckheere runs from a base in Izegem, Belgium. “It’s an endorsement of this program in particular as the focal point for growing top young American talent in a European environment,” said Bob Stapleton, General Manager of the Columbia-High Road team.
Crucially, Stapleton pointed out, the sponsorship agreement is with the management agencies of both teams – High Road and Slipstream, which allows USA Cycling to continue to seek other sponsors. “We can support them with materials, share lodging or training and work directly with some of the pro riders,” says Stapleton of the options. Riders in the U23 program could benefit from attending pro team training camps or developing mentor relationships with established pros on Garmin-Slipstream or Columbia-High Road.
Both teams are acutely aware of the importance of developing young talent. Garmin-Slipstream features 11 riders who are 25 or younger and several of its star riders, like Farrar and Zabriskie, spent considerable time in Dejonckheere’s program, as well as rising talents like Steve Cozza and Lucas Euser. Columbia-High Road also features a young roster, built around emerging talents like Edvald Boassen-Hagen, who won Gent-Wevelgem last week. Its primary American project, Craig Lewis, is also a graduate of Dejonckheere’s Izegem program.
But while both organizations are committed to developing talent, that wish is sometimes at odds with the financial realities of fielding a ProTour team. Garmin-Slipstream has a trade U23 team (Felt-Holowesko Partners) but this year does not have the juniors program it supported for several seasons prior to this. Columbia-High Road fields a top-level women’s team, but Stapleton said it’s “unlikely” that High Road would ever be able to run a development program on top of its men’s and women’s teams.
That’s what makes the USA Cycling agreement so promising for both teams – riders like Peter Stetina, of the Felt-Holowesko team, will get a chance to race extensively in Europe with Dejonckheere’s program – to an extent not possible on the trade U23 program. (The junior and U23 programs have already enjoyed some solid success, with Colin House winning the Grand Prix Waregem for the U23 team and Adam Leibovitz scoring a win in the prologue at Ster Van Zuid-Limburg for the juniors, among other results.)
Stapleton is unaware of a precedent in other countries, but says that the partnership is a good model that should ultimately produce more American racing talent, which he’d like to see. Despite being American-registered, managed and sponsored, Columbia-High Road features just two American pros in George Hincapie and Lewis.
“Some of the guys who are out there right now need more European experience,” he says, adding that life experience is just as crucial. “Noel and his team teach them how to live in Europe – they fill a big role in racing, training and life experience. I’d like to have more American riders on the team, but right now we’ve got more spots than candidates.” Perhaps the new agreement will change that.
