If anyone doubted Rally Cycling's merits as the US Continental team makes plans to jump to the Pro Continental level next year, the team has put any scepticism to rest with its performances this year, most recently capping off the North American season with an overall victory at the Tour of Alberta this week.
Evan Huffman, who won the overall at the UCI 2.2 Tour of the Gila in April before winning two stages at the WorldTour Amgen Tour of California in May, seized the lead of the four-day race in Alberta during the stage 1 climb to Marmot Basin, and then the 27-year-old never looked back.
Huffman's stage win and overall victory in Alberta were only the latest results for the team, which also include two stages at the Joe Martin Stage Race, four stages and the overall at Gila, two stages in California, two stages at Tour de Beauce, the Canadian road championship, two stages at the Cascade Cycling Classic, a stage and the overall in Utah and now a stage and the overall in Alberta. That list doesn't include the miscellaneous criteriums and other national calendar events.
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"I think this is by far the best results the team has had in its history, and it's been around for a long time under different names," Huffman said. "I think especially a lot of people have been commenting on how we've been winning, and the way we're racing is fun to watch.
"We're either going for GC, and if not, we're riding aggressively for breakaways," he said. "We always bring a strong team to the biggest races, and we always race to win. Hopefully we can keep that going for next year and continue riding bigger races and maybe do more international events with the Pro Continental status, but we'll see."
In Alberta, Rally stacked the breakaway on the first day with both Huffman and Sepp Kuss, setting up Huffman's solo move at the bottom of the 14km Marmot Basin climb where he took the stage win as Kuss followed him in for second. Huffman and Rally were never really challenged for the overall after that, eventually taking first and second overall with Huffman and Kuss, while Cannodnale-Drapac had to settle for third and fourth with Alex Howes and Tom-Jelte Slagter, respectively, both 31 seconds back.
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