If Gavin Mannion's cycling career needed a theme song, Little Richard's 1957 classic “Keep on knocking (but you can't come in)” would be a good candidate.
The 23-year-old Jelly Belly-Maxxis rider has been knocking at the door of a big win since he was still in his teens, putting in some impressive rides along the way but never cracking the podium's top step in any UCI or major US domestic races.
This year, however, Mannion's knocking has grown more frequent and a lot louder. His most recent attempt came on Memorial Day at the US Professional Road Race in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he fought to the bitter end but dropped out of the final lead trio in the closing kilometres and eventually faded to sixth.
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The effort is just the latest in a string of early season results that have established Mannion as one of the top riders in the US Continental peloton.
Mannion has been plying his trade since he was a junior, signing with Bontrager-Livestrong in 2010 when he was just 18 and continuing with Axel Merckx's development program through 2013.
During his last season with Bontrager, Mannion finished second in a stage at the Tour de l'Avenir and was eighth overall there. He finished second in the young rider competition behind then-teammate Lawson Craddock at Tour of California and at the Tour of Utah behind Lachlan Morton, who was riding for Garmin-Sharp at the time. He wore the best young rider jersey at the USA Pro Challenge, and he was sixth overall at the Tour of the Gila after finishing fifth during the Gila Monster stage.
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