Build a top U.S. cycling team by using your Canadian connections

Has Canada infiltrated U.S. pro cycling? Canadian riders are mostly indistinguishable from their U.S.-born teammates. Except for the pronunciation of some words, and the occasional use of “eh,” often there isn’t much to tip off those American riders that Canadians are in their midst. And really, our U.S. cousins have nothing to worry about. Feb. 16 marked 200 years since the Treaty of Ghent was ratified by the U.S. Senate, ending the War of 1812. That’s 200 years of peace. We are their largest trading partner and we share an 8,891-km border that is undefended. But make no mistake, when it comes to professional road cycling in the U.S., Canadians are there, at all levels. They ride, direct and manage. Yes, they’ve infiltrated, eh. Below is the first of three parts looking at just where the Canucks are lurking.

Jamie Bennett, the principal of the U.S. continental team SmartStop, was born in London, Ont. His mother was born in Donalda, Alta. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Florida, where he grew up. As a teenager, he raced bikes in the U.S. He stopped at age 22. In 2006, he and two partners started Time Factory Development Team, one of the U.S.’s first under–23 squads.

Now the team, SmartStop, is one of the top U.S. continental squads. Two of its riders, Eric Marcotte and Travis McCabe, finished first and second at the U.S. national championship road race. McCabe also finished first in the USA Cycling National Race Calendar (NRC) men’s individual standings. The 2013 Canadian road race champion, Zach Bell, won the last race of the NRC, the Thompson Bucks County Classic. The team also took the UCI America Tour team classification. A successful season such as SmartStop’s 2014 run needs top riders, good direction and, of course, some good luck. But the team’s rise this past year is also linked to Bennett’s Canadian roots.

At the start of 2013, SmartStop was a team built around criteriums. It did those circuit races well, but Bennett wanted to get the team into bigger, multi-stage races, such as the Tour of California, the Tour of Utah, the USA Pro Challenge and the Tour of Alberta. It’s difficult to get an invite to a stage race. It’s even more difficult if your outfit is known as a crit squad. Bennett had to get creative. He worked with the Tour of Alberta, which was about to launch, to ensure an Albertan would be in the new stage race. With a nod to his family connection to the western province, Bennett arranged to take on the highest placed under-23 rider from Alberta in that year’s Banff National Park Bike Fest Stage Race. The rider was Calgary’s Kris Dahl. He got a stagiaire contract starting in August 2013. He and SmartShop rode in the Tour of Alberta that September.

Before Bennett’s team got to the Prairie stage race, he had hired new riders who were suited for multi-day events, such as McCabe, Marcotte and Flavio De Luna, who had raced on SpiderTech. In 2014, the invites to stage races came in: one for the Redlands Bicycle Classic, another for Joe Martin Stage Race and one for Tour of the Gila. Later, SmartStop rode in the Tour of Utah, the USA Pro Challenge and, coming full circle, Alberta.

Midway through 2014, Bennett once again looked to Canada to grow his team. He openly considered moving the Winston-Salem, N.C.–based outfit to Toronto, where he saw better opportunities for sponsorship. “The reality is I feel I can find more corporate partners in Toronto than I can fishing in the pond that I’m in,” Bennett said. A statement issued by the team at the beginning of July spoke confidently about a northern migration. “Team SmartStop Pro Cycling Team has announced that it is moving its general operations to Canada in 2015,” it read. The team started an online crowd-funding initiative to raise money to help it upgrade to pro continental status. Roughly a month-and-a-half later, the campaign closed, having raised $6,069, well short of its $500,000 goal. Talk about a move became less emphatic.

Before that first Tour of Alberta, the recently retired American cyclist Michael Creed joined SmartStop as the directeur sportif. Later that year, his first hire for the team was Canadian Rob Britton. “I knew him from when he was on Bissell,” said Creed. “We were a very similar type of rider, so we’d often end up in the same part of the pack together. Because we were in the same part of the pack, we were also rubbing handlebars and trying to annoy each other as much as possible. So I actually didn’t like Rob for a long time.” Creed delivered that last line in deadpan. From his firsthand experience, the new director knew Britton was a good rider. Creed advocated strongly for the Canadian and the team signed him.

One of the last hires by Creed as he was setting up his 2014 powerhouse of a team was also a Canuck, Zach Bell. He was without a team after Champion Systems disbanded. With his Canadian road champion jersey, he was the calibre of rider that could help SmartStop with those stage-race invites. At the time, however, Creed didn’t know Bell as well as some of the other riders. As the director learned more about the Canadian, Creed was impressed. “I think he’s the most valuable rider on the team,” Creed said. “He’s now the team captain. He commands a lot of respect. He’s always very level-headed and always has quality tactics. Zach Bell just has a leadership quality about him.”

All three Canadians – Dahl, Britton and Bell – are back with SmartStop in 2015. They and their teammates will have the challenge of trying to match their successful 2014.