Dear Sponsors and Supporters,
July has been another race packed month for the riders of LUX. It was also busy for our alumni–Brandon McNulty rode his first Tour de France, helping defend the yellow jersey and then going on to the Olympic Games to be the revelation of the Road Race, taking 6th place. Quinn Simmons also had great success winning stage 3 of Tour de Wallonie, going on to take the Overall.
Coming off of the success of the US Road National Championships our junior men went directly to Innsbruck Austria where they acclimatized and prepared for a number of International events. The riders opened their campaign with Tour Valromey, arguably the most challenging event on the calendar, a 5 day UCI 2.1 mountain stage race in France. Our National Champions Colby Simmons and Cole Kessler lead the team, both riding aggressively in breakaways with Colby in the top 15 every day, taking 4th on stage 1 and finishing 9th overall with Cole finish 17th overall. Day 3 feature Tour de France climb Col de Grand Colombier.
In Austria the remaining riders opened with Beidermeiertal-Rundfahrt, a single day Austrian calendar race. The boys rode an aggressive race with Blake Wray taking the win, Luke Feuerhelm 3rd and guest rider Chris Hardee 4th. That group packed up and headed to Slovakia for a 3 day 2.1 stage race that saw Viggo Moore win the opening time trial. The team also had strong rides by Blake Wray who was 7th in the time Trial, 4th on stage 3 and 8th overall. Guest rider Chris Hardee also had strong rides finish 12th overall. A highlight of the Slovakian trip was US Ambassador Bridgett Brink greeting the team and riding in the team car with Viggo as race leader.
The team went on to race the 46th International Junioren Rundfarht, a UCI 2.1 stage race in Austria where the riders rode aggressively in breakaways with the team gaining more experience and confidence heading into the August races.
Back in the US Kaia Schmid and Kayla Hankins were at US Track Nationals where Kaia won three Jr National Championship titles and two elite medals in the endurance events with Kayla winning two medals, a Silver medal in the Match Sprints and Bronze medal in the Keiren.
Kaia left Track Nationals to join the other junior and U-23 women at the 9 day Intelligentsia Cup being held in the greater Chicago area. The women continued to show they are one of the best teams in the Women’s Professional peloton, riding the front controlling the race and putting riders on the podium almost every day. Makayla MacPherson led the team’s efforts with three 2nd place finishes, three 3rd place finishes and two 5th place finishes with Kaia Schmid taking a 2nd twice, 3rd, 4th and 5th. Makayla’s great riding had her 2nd in the final overall points standings. Tremendous riding by the team to make this this happen.
The team is continuing on with the men having more events in Europe and the women preparing for a UCI stage race in the US before heading to Europe.
Thank you to all who follow and support our organization. With you it is not possible.
Kind regards and heartfelt thanks,
Roy and the riders & staff at LUX