The next great USA Cycling Hope - 2016 Edition

[montel]

Now that another Tour is over and the USA riders have flamed out again (TJ), I wonder what anyone else sees on the horizon for USA talent - the quality of riders from the USA is certainly on the downswing in my opinion - yet there are 3 WT teams based in the USA.

Joe Dombrowski - Has massive potential at 25, but still needs to show it on the biger stage(s)
Talansky - Seems to be on the downward slope of his career already - still could surprise in Vuelta
Lawson Craddock - TBD - Still young at 24, does he have the pure climbing ability with TT to challenge for a grand tour
TJ - Done - Should focus on winning races that are on TV in USA - California, TOS, Romandie, LBL

So who are the future stars for the USA - Classics, Climbers, or GC Men?

Zeke Mostov
Adrian Costa
Neilson Powless
Logan Owen
Sepp Kuss


Life according to Tinkov says we need to wait out a few years for Frommey to retires!!! So who will be the USA men to step up in the next 6 years???

 

[Ruudz0r]

Brandon McNulty is another bright talent, still very young but he has been dominant in the international junior category last year and this year.

 

[BigMac]

Neither Joe Dombro or Lawson will become GT material. Joe hasn't yet lived up to what he promised in Italy in 2012 and I always thought Lawson to be the more complete of the two with better time trialing skills. However, they most differ in that Dombrowski is better suited to steeper climbs while Craddock is more of a diesel and relies more on muscle strenght to go uphill, which comes with him being a decent time trialist (somehow is best result in big stage races was in País Vasco, though). At the moment I see Lawson contending for one week races top tens. Dombro has been in crescendo of form, let's see how he fares in Utah. Both of them are good riders who I think lack the edge to become winners. I see them top ten many races from PV to Suisse but not actually coming victorious. Perhaps Poland if it doens't go away or Eneco or TDU are within their reach. But never say never and who knows, maybe they will win a CSS with some luck. I hope Dombrowski proves me wrong but guys who show so much so early and then don't keep up for years after they've turned pro don't suddenly achieve their potential at later stages.

Anyways, go Lawson!

 

[carton]

No love for the 21-year-old wearing the stars and stripes?

 

[DanielSong39]

Does USA even have decent GT domestiques these days? It wasn't too long ago when there were a lot.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

No love for the 21-year-old wearing the stars and stripes?

Greg is quality but the main problem is that the young American riders tend to leave for teams like Garmin or Giant or Trek where they always give the impression to stagnate. To make my point, I see Tao Hart continuing to develop once he goes to SKY, or Eddy Dunbar for that matter.

 

[SlickMongoose]

Powless was impressive in California.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re:

Does USA even have decent GT domestiques these days? It wasn't too long ago when there were a lot.

those were different times...

 

[jahn]

Re: Re:

No love for the 21-year-old wearing the stars and stripes?

Greg is quality but the main problem is that the young American riders tend to leave for teams like Garmin or Giant or Trek where they always give the impression to stagnate. To make my point, I see Tao Hart continuing to develop once he goes to SKY, or Eddy Dunbar for that matter.

There's a good reason for that and only Americans know the animosity they face on foreign teams. They're not welcome.

Also there are clinic reasons during youth development if you don't live near the Mexico border then you need a prescription and good luck with that. It's not a thing for young amateurs, mainly for masters.

 

[BigMac]

Re: Re:

No love for the 21-year-old wearing the stars and stripes?

Greg is quality but the main problem is that the young American riders tend to leave for teams like Garmin or Giant or Trek where they always give the impression to stagnate. To make my point, I see Tao Hart continuing to develop once he goes to SKY, or Eddy Dunbar for that matter.

There's a good reason for that and only Americans know the animosity they face on foreign teams. They're not welcome.

Also there are clinic reasons during youth development if you don't live near the Mexico border then you need a prescription and good luck with that. It's not a thing for young amateurs, mainly for masters.

This is very interesting. Can you or anyone expand on it?

Is it a thing mainly post-Armstrong? I can't see why they'd be hated because of that.

 

[yaco]

My take is tread warily with American cyclists. For some reason they seem to struggle living and racing in Europe. Of course there are exceptions but by and large it's a struggle for American cyclists.

 

[ciranda]

Re:

My take is tread warily with American cyclists. For some reason they seem to struggle living and racing in Europe. Of course there are exceptions but by and large it's a struggle for American cyclists.

Hmmm I don't know. I think the problem with adapting to fight for position and less wide roads is real but I don't think there are any particular mentality issues. One thing is that it's so much easier for anglo cyclists (not US ones particularly) to get contracts that they seem overvalued at times and for some it's true. Plus it possibly also makes them less committed and hungry because there's always another team or connection ready. How are Bobridge, Howard, Blythe, Tanner etc still around after years of blown chances with multiple teams? With the US cyclists surely Jones, Reijnen, Warbasse, Rosskopf (no offense to anyone) would not be on good teams if not for nationality.

About the subject matter it seems like there is a good structure in US cycling so talented cyclists can have competent support and the best compete in Europe from junior, good foundation that equates good cyclists.

 

[montel]

I see that Adrian Costa has signed as a Stagiaire with Etixx Quick-Step

 

[Moviefan1203]

I still have hope for Van Garderen and Talansky, but Dombrowski, Costa, and Powless should have bright futures assuming they are developed properly.

 

[jmdirt]

I think that Joe D. still has some bright days ahead, and has the potential to battle in the top 5 of GTs, and one week stage races. This is the year of putting his medical issue and surgery behind him. I'm excited to see what he can do next year in Europe. I hope that he repeats at ToU!

IMO Talanski still has potential to do well in GTs. Craddock can likely do well in one week stage races, but I see him becoming a classics guy. As for Daniel, I'm not sure how he is going to develop, I don't think that GTs will be his forte, but we'll see (is he 20?).

Christopher Blevins is a USA Jr. to watch. He's had some great results in Europe both road and dirt.

RE: USA riders in Europe: I think that adapting to the culture certainly plays a role in the struggle, but I think that the 'style' of racing is a bigger issue (the difference between typical USA racing and typical Euro racing...yah I know 'typical' is tough to define in a big racing world).

DS39, yes, the USA has solid domesteques on many teams.

 

[May0maniac]

I think this season Joe Dombrowski has shown that he's already able to be a great climbing superdomestique like Szmyd in his prime, if he improves his descending and learn to avoid loosing time on the flat stages he could become a gc rider for the Giro, a fragile climber like Pozzovivo managed to do improve enough to target gc, so he could do it. If that fails he can always go stage hunting on the really hard mountain stages, but he really needs to work on his descending skills.
I think that Axel Merckx could be one of the problems, many of the guys who had great results while riding struggled a bit after turning pro, maybe there's lots of pressure to perform well, they already train really hard like the pros and don't improve too much after turning pro with a bigger team, a bit like the Rabo guys and many young Danish riders, but that's just a wild guess.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

With the US cyclists surely Jones, Reijnen, Warbasse, Rosskopf (no offense to anyone) would not be on good teams if not for nationality.

Carter Jones retired.

DS39, yes, the USA has solid domesteques on many teams.

Boswell springs to mind, although this year has been at best par with last year for him and this was his last year eligible for the white jersey.

 

[Anderis]

Re: Re:

With the US cyclists surely Jones, Reijnen, Warbasse, Rosskopf (no offense to anyone) would not be on good teams if not for nationality

I think you're unfair on Warbasse, he has been very solid in the last 2 years, highlighted by top10 finish in Tour de Pologne recently.

I can easily find riders of other nationalities in WT that have clearly worse career achievements than Reijnen or Rosskopf too.

 

[Alexandre B.]

Re:

Does USA even have decent GT domestiques these days? It wasn't too long ago when there were a lot.

Peter Stetina.

 

[ciranda]

Re: Re:

With the US cyclists surely Jones, Reijnen, Warbasse, Rosskopf (no offense to anyone) would not be on good teams if not for nationality

I think you're unfair on Warbasse, he has been very solid in the last 2 years, highlighted by top10 finish in Tour de Pologne recently.

I can easily find riders of other nationalities in WT that have clearly worse career achievements than Reijnen or Rosskopf too.

Yes, true, it was hard to find obvious examples for US riders for my argument like the others I mentioned. US riders have a good median level. Still I think a Belgian team could find a rider from Belgium on the same level as the names mentioned easily, French team find a rider from France etc, if they wanted to. Nationality is an advantage, it's so much harder for riders from nations with no big teams to get opportunities.

 

[This Charming Man]

Competitive cycling in the USA,as far as quality goes is sporadic. Once, it was great, during the MajorTaylor 6 days....all through Madison Square Garden six days, and then, in the 70s and 80s, in norcal....LeMond Hampasten, Neel, Boyer, Mount.... now, no money, and little interest in the sport...so marginal, here, a pity, the glory goes to other American sports....an athlete of TJs ability... in basketball, what would he make 5-10 million a year, what does TJ make? maybe 250,000?

 

[BigMac]

Competitive cycling in the USA,as far as quality goes is sporadic. Once, it was great, during the MajorTaylor 6 days....all through Madison Square Garden six days, and then, in the 70s and 80s, in norcal....LeMond Hampasten, Neel, Boyer, Mount.... now, no money, and little interest in the sport...so marginal, here, a pity, the glory goes to other American sports....an athlete of TJs ability... in basketball, what would he make 5-10 million a year, what does TJ make? maybe 250,000?

A year? Certainly much, much more. No way it's just 250.000.

 

[May0maniac]

Competitive cycling in the USA,as far as quality goes is sporadic. Once, it was great, during the MajorTaylor 6 days....all through Madison Square Garden six days, and then, in the 70s and 80s, in norcal....LeMond Hampasten, Neel, Boyer, Mount.... now, no money, and little interest in the sport...so marginal, here, a pity, the glory goes to other American sports....an athlete of TJs ability... in basketball, what would he make 5-10 million a year, what does TJ make? maybe 250,000?

A year? Certainly much, much more. No way it's just 250.000.

It's BMC and Tj got a top 5 in the Tour, he's probably on a 6 figure contract.
Edit: of course it's a 7 figure contract, I just had a brainfart.

 

[This Charming Man]

Competitive cycling in the USA,as far as quality goes is sporadic. Once, it was great, during the MajorTaylor 6 days....all through Madison Square Garden six days, and then, in the 70s and 80s, in norcal....LeMond Hampasten, Neel, Boyer, Mount.... now, no money, and little interest in the sport...so marginal, here, a pity, the glory goes to other American sports....an athlete of TJs ability... in basketball, what would he make 5-10 million a year, what does TJ make? maybe 250,000?

A year? Certainly much, much more. No way it's just 250.000.

It's BMC and Tj got a top 5 in the Tour, he's probably on a 6 figure contract.

Low pay, for a pro athlete, the best American cyclist out there, kinda sad.

 

[barmaher]

Seven figure salary. TJ earns over a million euro a year, or I am a Frenchman.