DCBank Pro Cycling Team add Canadian and international talent to 2019 roster

DCBank Pro Cycling Team, formerly H&R Block Pro Cycling, have announced the signing of five new riders for the 2019 season over the holidays. Mexican brothers Eugenio and Emiliano Mirafuentes, and Canadians Josh Kropf, Jake Cullen and Thomas Schellenberg will ride for the team next season. The rides join the returning riders Jure Rupnik and Jean-Denis Thibault.

Jake Cullen. Photo: DCBank Pro Cycling

Thomas Schellenberg. Photo: DCBank Pro Cycling

Josh Kropf. Photo: DCBank Pro Cycling

Emiliano Mirafuentes. Photo: DCBank Pro Cycling

Emiliano Mirafuentes. Photo: DCBank Pro Cycling

Kropf, Cullen and Schellenberg come to DCBank Pro Cycling Team from the Applewood Garneau Cycling Team. Kropf is an all-rounder and is the current BC provincial road champion. Cullen was the 2017 Zwift Academy semi-finalist and won the Race the Ridge in Maple Ridge B.C. solo after a 100 km move. Schellenberg is an all-rounder and climber who represented Canada in the 2018 junior men’s road world championships in Innsbruck, was second at the junior Canadian crit championships and was the top junior rider at the 2018 Redlands Bicycle Classic.

“I’m extremely excited to be joining the team for the 2019 season. Since I began racing, I’ve always seen the M1 Project as sort of a ‘home team’, so getting the chance now to race on the team in 2019 is amazing,” explained Cullen.

The Mirafuentes brothers are both entering their first seasons as under-23 riders but bring with them international race experience. Emiliano is a sprinter who is U23 Mexican national road champion, Pan Ams points race champion and a stage winner at the Tour de l’Abitibi.

“My goal with the team is to start in a good way our pro career. I am very thankful with the team because they are not putting pressure on us at all, but the complete opposite, they are showing us the path to be successful as cyclists and human beings,” Emiliano said.

Eugenio is a climber who represented Mexico at the UCI Road World Champions in the junior road race in Innsbruck, won the 2017 KOM jersey in French junior UCI Nations Cup and finished in fourth place on Stage 2 of Swiss junior UCI Nations Cup.

Maxime Martin is the director of the DCBank Pro Cycling team and helped expand the team’s calendar to include races across North America, Asia and Europe. In 2019, the team intends to continue expanding their race calendar internationally. In 2018, the team competed in the Tour of China I, Tour of China II, Tour of Quanzhou Bay, Tour of Fuzhou, the Tour of Almaty in Kazakhstan, La Poly Normande in France along with UCI races in Canada and the United States.