Many observers were surprised when reigning junior men's time trial world champion Brandon McNulty decided to stray from the typical path of signing with a U23 development team and chose instead to ride with Rally Cycling next year. Most highly sought-after young US riders have opted for Axel Merckx's Axeon Hagens Berman program and its long list of WorldTour alumni.
But Jonas Carney, performance director for Rally Cycling, one of the longest-running Continental teams in the US, told Cyclingnews his team can offer McNulty one thing that the development teams cannot – teammates with decades of experience to learn from.
"While our team is not a 'devo' team, we have developed many riders who went on the race in the WorldTour, and we can offer things that traditional development teams cannot," Carney said. “Brandon will have more racing options and more flexibility with Rally than with any other team. We offer European racing without having to rely on the national team. Our program is incredibly stable. And most importantly, Brandon can learn from experienced riders like Danny Pate. How much can you learn from your teammates when they are all development riders?"
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Although not a development team, per se, Rally has launched several riders into cycling's top level, most recently with Chad Haga and Mike Woods making the jump. Unlike McNulty, who has been racing bikes since he was eight years old, both Haga and Woods came to cycling relatively late. Rally has had riders McNulty's age in the past, however. David Veilleux, who rode with Team Europcar for three years, signed with Rally predecessor Kelly Benefits when he was 19. And the team signed Ben King, who will transfer from Cannondale-Drapac to Dimension Data next year, when he was just 18.
As veteran riders like Tom Zirbel and Will Routely reach retirement age, Rally has been adding more and more younger riders. The team signed Colin Joyce, 22, from Axeon for next year, and it has Sepp Kuss, 22, Adam de Vos, 22, and Curtis White, 21, returning. The new recruits are part of Rally's conscious effort to get younger as it looks to expand its footprint in the future.
"For the last several years we have focused on riders in the 23-25 range or riders who had a late start like Mike Woods. We are now looking to recruit the best U23 riders in North America," Carney said. "We have an incredibly strong group of young guys with Brandon, Curtis White, Sepp Kuss, and Colin Joyce. We want to build a really strong group of young guys who will be ready to race in Europe when our team makes that step. We are thinking long term."
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