The National Cycling League will return in 2024 with 10 teams contesting its season-long series, the NCL Cup.
Ten co-ed teams will compete in gender-separated, points-based criterium races of 30 one-mile laps during which teams can swap out riders at any point until lap 25.
Teams that do not have both a men’s and women’s division will establish a collaboration with another team in order to contest the Cup.
In 2023, a prize purse of one million dollars was split equally among men and women across the three USA-sanctioned races that were held in Miami Beach, Florida, Denver, Colorado and Atlanta, Georgia.
The 2024 schedule of events has yet to be announced but here are the 10 teams vying for what will be another substantial prize purse.
Atlanta Rise
The NCL has added another team to its franchise with Atlanta Rise now joining the NCL's Denver Disruptors and Miami Nights teams.
Atlanta played host to the 2023 NCL Cup's final round of racing –won by the Miami Nights– and left the organizers impressed.
“Following a tremendously successful event at Porsche Experience Center Atlanta, we want to continue to invest in the Atlanta community, one of the country’s great cycling metropolitan areas,” League representatives announced.
Atlanta Rise Cycling Club was created to "represent the culture of Atlanta, full of diversity, activism and resiliency, both on and off the bike."
Last year, the Miami Nights men’s and women’s teams took the top spot at the end of the season with the Denver Disruptors men’s and women’s teams in second place, A collaboration of existing road cycling teams, Texas Roadhouse (men’s) and Goldman Sachs ETFS Racing (women’s), finished in third place.
“The competition and clubs involved this year speaks to the continued growth and success the NCL Cup has experienced in its second year. The clubs participating in the NCL Cup this year are some of the most exciting and well-known in U.S. cycling,” said NCL CEO Andrea Pagnanelli. “We are committed to putting the best product and teams on display.”
Other returning teams include Team Skyline - Cadence, Foundation Cycling New York City (men), CCB p/b Levine Law Group (women), Fount Cycling Guild, Kelly Benefits Cycling (men), Primeau Vélo (women), Team Mike’s Bikes (men), Monarch Bikes (women) and Voler Factor Racing (men).
"After a season of getting a feel for the unique new format in 2023, we're eager to compete in the 2024 NCL Cup series. We're excited to grow our relationship with the organization in 2024 as an NCL sponsored program," said Lauren LeClaire, sports director of the women’s team CCB p/b Levine Law Group, in a statement. "It's important to us to partner with events that put men and women's competition equally in the spotlight.”
A rocky debut season
Debuted in April 2023, the National Cycling League is the latest cycling series aiming to reignite American fandom and reinvent cycling altogether with its unique —and admittedly, entertaining— spectator-friendly format, a cohort of all-star investors and city-specific teams.
The 2023 season consisted of just three races but came with much fanfare. Upon its conclusion in August, the organization hailed its debut success as a “tremendous success,” which left them “excited about the future of the league.”
Yet troubles came early for the league. After its series opener made a big splash, things weren’t so steady behind the scenes. The NCL dropped one of its four races, changed race venues and dates, shuffled most of its C-suite and parted ways with its race management company.
“There were needed infrastructure changes to be prioritized to set NCL up for long-term success,” an NCL representative told Cycling Weekly at the time.
Weeks after the season's conclusion, dozens of riders were sent packing, while concurrently, the NCL proudly announced its plans and expansion in 2024.
When asked to comment on the reported layoffs, the NCL’s CEO, Andrea Pagnanelli, informed Cycling Weekly that these decisions were necessary for the league’s sustainability.
“Due to the need for offseason restructuring, we made decisions to build a sustainable path for the league moving forward, including how we organize our teams and the addition of our first-ever expansion team based in Atlanta, Georgia,” she said.
“The process of making cuts to an organization, especially athletes, is never easy. We view everyone in our organization as family and don’t take decisions around reductions lightly. We are thankful to all of our athletes who participated in the 2023 season and we look forward to seeing their success in the future."
The events and schedule of the 2024 NCL Cup will be announced soon. Stay tuned for new developments.
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