These Are The American Pro Cyclists We’re Most Excited To Watch This Season

For the first time in a long time, there is a crop of young American cyclists making noise in both the men’s and women’s WorldTour pelotons.

And whether they’re seasoned veterans like Sepp Kuss or Krista Doebel-Hicock, or aggressive upstarts like Matteo Jorgenson and Veronica Ewers, it’s thrilling to tune in to a Grand Tour or a one-day-race and see the United States once again being represented amongst the world’s fastest bike racers.

As we head toward the season’s final spring Classics and its first Grand Tour, here are the men and women representing America in this year’s UCI WorldTour pelotons.

Nielson Powless

Throughout this entire spring, there has been a ton of excitement around EF Education-Easypost racer Nielson Powless. The 26-year-old already has two wins this season—GC victories in Etoile de Bessèges and the Grand Prix Marseille—along with third place at Tour des Alpes-Maritimes, third at Dwars door Vlaanderen, fifth at the Tour of Flanders, sixth overall in Paris-Nice, and seventh overall in Milan-San Remo.

Considering as much, many eyes are trained on Powless—who, as a member of the Oneida Indian Nation became the first Native American to compete in the Tour de France—hoping he’ll make some noise in the coming Grand Tours.

Matteo Jorgenson

There was a bunch of excitement last year around the 23-year-old Jorgeson, with several American pundits predicting he would win at least a stage in the Tour de France. Of course, that didn’t happen. However, Jorgenson—who grew up in Walnut Creek, California—did solidify himself as a breakaway specialist in the 2022 Tour, putting his team Movistar at the center of the broadcast for hours on end, and finishing ahead of the peloton on three separate stages.

He’s already notched a few wins this year, with a stage victory leading to an overall GC win in February’s Tour of Oman. He also took the points classification and the young rider jersey in that race. Jorgenson has continued his strong spring, finishing fourth in the E3 Saxo Classic thirty-three seconds behind only Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, and Tadej Pogačar. He also finished eighth at Paris-Nice and ninth at the Tour of Flanders.

Brandon McNulty

It can’t be easy being on a team with a rider many already consider to be one of the greatest ever. But for 24-year-old Phoenix native Brandon McNulty, there may be no greater learning curve than working as a domestique for Tadej Pogačar on UAE Team Emirates.

A talented time trialist, McNulty is finding his own time to shine as well, winning the young rider classification in this year’s Tour of the Basque Country, where he finished eighth overall.

Sepp Kuss

At 28-years-old, Sepp Kuss is the seasoned veteran amongst America’s elite cyclists. Known as one of the world’s most talented climbers, Kuss’s team Jumbo-Visma leaned on the Durango, Colorado product to help get their eventual GC winner Jonas Vingegaard up several grades in last year’s Tour.

And while Kuss finished fifth overall in February’s UAE Tour, his focus this spring has been more on training than it has on racing, prepping to work towards Jumbo’s hopeful defense of Vingegaard’s yellow jersey. We’ll get a look at his form in the coming weeks during the Giro.

Of course, American women are making their presence felt in the women’s peloton this season, too. And with some major races on the horizon, they’re poised to have perhaps their best season ever.

Veronica Ewers

Within one season of becoming a UCI Women’s WorldTour professional, 28-year-old Veronica Ewers has gone from a rookie to the highest-ranked American rider in the peloton.

Last season saw the Moscow, Idaho native notch a win at the Clasica Femenina Navarra, a second place in the Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs, a fifth in the Tour de Romandie, an eighth in the Women’s Tour, and a ninth in the Tour de France Femmes. And though she finished thirty-third in the Amstel Gold Race, the EF Education-Tibco-SVB rider is considered a threat in the Grand Tours to come.

Megan Jastrab

Just 21-years-old, Apple Valley, California’s Megan Jastrab is one of the biggest hopes for American women in the future of the WorldTour stage. After winning Junior World Championships in both the road race and a pair of track categories (Madison and Omnium), Jastrab signed with Dutch racing outfit Team DSM.

Jastrab spent the following two years learning the ins and outs of racing in the WorldTour peloton and her 2023 is off to a promising start. She finished Paris-Roubaix—a feat unto itself—the Tour of Flanders, and Omloop Het Nieuwsblad. But her best results were a second-place finish in Gent-Wevelgem and a fourth in Brugge-De Panne.

Ayesha McGowan

At 36-years-old, you might assume Atlanta’s Aeysha McGowan has more experience than any of her American counterparts. However, her route to professional racing was more circuitous than most. She didn’t start racing until her mid-twenties, when she entered the first women’s field of the fabled Red Hook Crit. She raced domestically for a few years after that, signing with Liv Racing.

In 2021, she made her WorldTour debut racing in the Tour Cycliste Féminin International de l’Ardèche. And while she hasn’t enjoyed many successes on the bike in regards to wins, podiums, or classifications, she does hold the most important distinction of anyone on this list: McGowan is the first Black American woman to race bikes professionally.

Coryn Labecki

Garden Grove, California’s Coryn Labecki is coming back from injury, hoping to rebound with a strong season for her Jumbo-Visma team this year.

Though her 2023 campaign has been off to a bit of a rocky start, with DNFs in Amstel Gold, Gent-Wevelgem, and Strade Bianche, the 30-year-old Labecki is always a threat anytime a sprint finish is part of the equation.

Krista Doebel-Hickok

Though she’s been a highly regarded professional since 2015, EF Education-Tibco-SVB racer Krista Doebel-Hicock burst onto the scene last season with an absolutely dominant performance in the Tour Fèmenin International des Pyrénées.

It was there that the 33-year-old native of Marina del Ray, California captured the general classification, the mountains classification, and the points classification, along with two individual stages and the team time trial. Her best result this season came with a fifth-place showing in the GC competition in January’s Santos Tour Down Under.

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