Challenge Mallorca was definitely the highest level of competition this team has ever been part of. Certainly a number of guys on the team have competed individually at this level, but as a team this is the biggest race and toughest competition we’ve ever faced. It’s a unique event because it’s five one-day races in a row, so it’s neither a stage race or your typical one-day race. That creates different opportunities on the day, but it’s a huge challenge overall. Each day you’re either all-in to win it, or not going to finish.

What was interesting was that there was no pressure to get results. In the US, for us, there’s the expectation of a win. At Mallorca, people expected us to fight to finish. That created a huge opportunity because we were often underestimated, and walked away with some big rewards. The biggest was Matt Zimmer taking the King of the Mountains on the first day. He was first over the line for every KOM that day, and also won every sprint on course except the final. That stage was won by Rui Costa, and the most combative rider that day was Julian Alaphilippe. We were on the podium with those guys. We earned a lot of respect that day.

Our top overall result was the Queen’s Stage with Tyler Stites in 15th. Everyone in the front group that day was a World Champion or Tour stage winner, and the fact that he was among them was incredible. We went into the race saying a top-20 finish was a win considering who we were up against – so success on that front.

It wasn’t just in the competition itself that we were underdogs. INEOS and EF-Education were staying on the same street as us. Every rider on those teams had three bikes, they had about 20 staff and a fleet of cars. Meanwhile, I was washing bikes in a shower! That’s not to say we’re under-supported in every aspect of sporting; we have huge support from our fans and belief in our abilities from sponsors, but budget discrepancy and the scale is just different. This team is different because it’s fueled by passion and belief. That fuel can overcome some pretty huge discrepancies in other departments.

In Mallorca we faced some challenges from the environment as well: there was record cold, record snowfall, so much rain – one of the roads that we competed on was washed into the ocean the following week. It simply doesn’t exist anymore. The riders were resorting to newspapers in the jerseys to deal with the cold, and hot water in the gloves so that they could pull the brakes on descants.

There were so many things we’ve brought back that make the team stronger: riding together as a unit, claiming your space, demanding that respect in the group, maximising our positioning at different places in the course, and facing competition at this level. Being on that starting line there’s an air of confidence – you can tell that at that level, every single person thinks they can win. If they don’t think that, they have no business starting. Absorbing that kind of mentality sets us up for huge success for the rest of the year. It also brought a sense of validity to the program, and showed our level of professionalism to everyone back here in the US. We’re strongly committed to growing the culture of racing here in the US, and we want these international events and experiences to help build the fan base back home. We want fans to see that the quality of the races and racers is just as good here as in Europe.

That level of fan engagement is one of the biggest differences we see when racing in Europe. For example, on day two in Mallorca, the local school let out early so the students could come to the start of the race. Colby Lange was our rider dedicated to the break that day, so he lined up early to get near the front and took time to meet the school kids. He soon had them doing a USA chant! It was great to see the school system be part of the event - even GCN did a segment on it. The thing that really makes cycling unique as a sport is its accessibility to the public. That’s what we want to grow in the US.

Photo credits : @piarazzi @genia_tkacheva