Eric Brunner won his third elite men's US cyclocross title in mid-December, which was the main checkbox on his 2025 to-do list when the calendar year started. The months leading to his solo victory on the dirt in Fayetteville, Arkansas, were anything but choreographed, however. It turns out that the road to his success really was on the road.
"I raced a lot more on the road this summer than I have in a few years. And that wasn't my original plan going into 2025, to be right for Project Echelon Racing in 2026. It really kind of pulled me in this direction again," the 27-year-old said about his preparations for cyclocross season and then refocusing for the road in the new season.
"I think racing on the road is the best training possible, especially being able to stack a lot of hard days back-to-back like you do in stage races. I was planning to race a lot more mountain bike, but my road season went so well. I think that as short as 'cross is, you still have to train just as much as road. So road has been great for putting me in a good place for the 'cross season. Nationals is always a priority."
Now he's secured a spot back at the Continental level with Project Echelon Racing, and is deemed "a three-pronged danger man" and will be one of the team leaders for domestic and international races. It is a special year for the team, now in its 10th season, a fourth year at the pro level, and a film about the team's success on and off road race courses will be unveiled on December 25, 2025, with a cameo by Brunner from his first race with the team at Maryland Cycling Classic just before 'cross season started.
In 12 US cyclocross races this season, Brunner finished on the podium in 11 of them with seven victories. With his focus on 'cross the last four years, he had won the US cyclocross elite men's title in 2023 and 2021, and in five appearances in the elite men's division of Pan-Ams, he won four consecutive years.
Brunner started his road racing career in earnest in 2018 with four years on US Continental programmes, 303 Project and Aevolo, then started his own cyclocross team in 2021, and he only did a few road events for a few years. He returned to a heavy road schedule this season, continuing with his small Competitive Edge Racing setup where he had top 5s at national races like Tour de Murrieta, Redlands Bicycle Classic and then finished second on GC at the UCI-level Tour of the Gila.
"My objective was to get Eric here for 2026 after his performance at the Tour of the Gila. He single-handedly was taking everything we were throwing at him, and it took us until the very last metres of the final day to [unseat him] and clinch the overall win. He showed his depth and his character and his will to win. I knew I wanted him on our team," Project Echelon Racing team founder and director Eric Hill told Cyclingnews.
"He's a guy that can really do it all. He can time trial, he can handle a bike at a crit race as well as anybody, and he can climb. I think he brings an element back to the team that Tyler Stites gave us in 2024."
Stites was an all-rounder who gave Project Echelon big results at races in Greece, Portugal, Canada and the US. Brunner said he does see resemblances to Stites, and he does see himself as a strong time trialist, but still wants to take more time on the road to define his own style.
"I'm still figuring it out a little bit. Road stages that are just plain hard, not the longest climbs, but I don't mind a little bit of climbing. Road racing is not always clear cut on what rider it's going to favour. I like to train on everything, I put a lot of work into being a complete package.
"We're going over to Greece in March to do the Tour of Rhodes and Rhodes Grand Prix. I did some of those races several years ago with Aevolo, so it'll be cool to go back and do the same races, just kind of with more experience. I really like my chances for those races too, because hard, really kind of all-rounder sort of courses."
Brunner said that when he departed 303 Project for Aevolo, he talked with Hill a little about the Project Echelon team. It is a team he has continued to not just compete against, but follow their growth.
"It's cool to see the programme stick around for the right reasons. It's cool to see them make these opportunities for American riders, and to do some good things for veterans along the way. I think that's how you build a successful and sustainable programme. I'm just looking forward to getting the road season going here pretty soon with Project Echelon on the road."
There will be no World Cup cyclocross races later in December or January for Brunner, as he focuses on a road camp in January in Spain for his new road team. He will also stay in Spain for a few weeks, and said he may jump into one last 'cross race while he is there.
"I'm gonna do team camp, and a little training camp over in Spain, just by myself as well. And so you might see me in Benidorm. No reason not to," he said about a return to cyclocross for a UCI World Cup on January 18.
'Outride the Darkness'
On Christmas Day, Project Echelon Racing will release a 37-minute feature film called 'Outride the Darkness' that celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the US-based men's cycling team in 2026, as well as their mission to help US military veterans "outride their demons" of mental and physical struggles using physical activity and self-discovery.
"We've been working on the film for some time. It's going to be a wonderful story of resilience," Hill said just days before the release.
"Our team and organization have helped thousands of veterans to outride their demons, outride their darkness, whether that be loneliness, depression, suicide, addiction, post-traumatic stress, things of that nature. Also, our team has outridden the darkness and some of the struggles that our sport has faced and just continues to be resilient and find a way to compete at the top level in the US and abroad. The film tells those two parallel stories, which I'm excited about."
Project Echelon Racing began as a US domestic-elite club team in 2017 and moved to the Continental level in 2023. While the elite squad focused on results at the biggest races in the US, and then expanded their objectives to European events over the last three seasons, Hill said the non-profit organisation went from supporting a handful of veterans to now more than 500 veteran families in a single year.
"We knew as an elite team we could access sponsorships and other benefits that veterans on their own would never get. In our first year, we supported 12 veterans. We were a low-ranking team in the world of domestic elite cycling, and our goal was to be the best team in the Midwest," Hill said with a chuckle.
"A really big moment as a team was winning the American Criterium Cup in 2022. Two years ago, we swept the [USPro] Criterium National Championships podium and got wins back-to-back at UCI-level events, one in France and one in Portugal. We have developed and gained respect not only as a North American team, but as an international competitor as well."
Across nine years, so far, Project Echelon has provided opportunities for military veterans to stay active, from mentorship to amateur rides and virtual cycling, and Hill has seen incredible achievements, including veterans winning world titles and Paralympic medals.
Among the success stories include Dennis Connors, a nine-year US Marine, who won a Para-Cycling silver medal at the Paris Paralympics and also has two world titles in road men's trike. On the women's side, Shawn Morelli, a US Army veteran who fought in two wars, is a three-time Paralympic gold medallist in Para-Cycling, earning wins on the track and road at the Rio Games and repeating on the road at the Tokyo Games.
The film can be viewed on the YouTube channel for Project Echelon Racing.
