Team Rio Grande Racing-Elite

The Rio Grande Elite Cycling Team is a men’s US Domestic Elite Team based out of Fort Collins Colorado racing road, cyclocross and gravel events.

Mission:

The Rio Grande Elite Cycling Team is a US Domestic Elite Team based out of Fort Collins Colorado. Our goal at Team Rio Grande is to cultivate the best emerging talent in Colorado through racing, community and philanthropy. Our program has developed and continues to develop elite and professional athletes who compete at all levels of competition nationally and regionally. We give our riders the platform to perform at the biggest stage races in the country by attending UCI stage races and racing in the US Pro Road Tour events. We also race the full Colorado Road Calendar.

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2024 Press Release:

The 2023 season was a great year for the Rio Grande Elite Cycling Team. Our mission statement is to provide a platform for our young riders to showcase their talents and hopefully sign a pro contract. We accomplish this by getting our riders experience racing the biggest races on the US Pro calendar and adding in international events. This led to the first overall U23 GC win at the Tour De Panama! The team just raced in its 24th season, and what a season it was:

We had top 10 stage results at each of the big three US stage races (Redlands Bicycle Classic, UCI 2.2 Tour of the Gila, and UCI 2.2 Joe Martin stage race).

• Tayne Andrade was 17th overall GC at Redlands Bicycle Classic.
• Tayne Andrade was 12th overall GC at UCI 2.2 Joe Martin Stage Race
• Taj Krieger was 5th overall U23 GC at UCI 2.2Tour of the Gila
• 1st Place Colorado State Road Race Championship
• 2nd Place Colorado State Criterium Championship
• 2nd Team Overall BRAC Cup
• Taj Krieger was 1st overall U23 Tour De Panama
• 5th/22 Team Time Trial Stage 1 Tour De Panama
• Kade Kriekemier was 1st overall U23 Tour De Panama
• Gabe Gutierrez 8th on Stage 8 of Tour De Panama
• Taj Krieger 10th Place UCI 2.1 Guatemala Grand Prix
• Kade Kriekemier 5th overall U23 GC UCI 2.2 Vuelta Al Ecuador

Each year this team gets better and better. We started with a great team camp in Fort Collins (supported by Bike Sports), where new riders got to meet Pat, the head of the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurants chain, and ride our wonderful home roads. That led into great US racing before heading internationally! All of our partners had new tools come out that also helped us in our season. Ari Bicycles (formally “Fezzari”) released their new Veyo aero road bike, which propelled us to each of these victories. Flow Formulas also came out with their own gel mix and reusable gel flasks, while Lazer came out with their kineticore system to help protect our riders. We also partnered with local clothing supplier Pine Printshop for the first time to open up a team store to the public for casual Rio apparel (be on the lookout, the new store is coming soon!).

Leading into 2024, team management made a conscious decision with the schedule to extend our racing season, creating two blocks of focused racing. In past years for the team, the riders raced a heavy US schedule in April/May, with no other US stage racing. We’d then switch to gravel, criterium, and sporadic international events. This year, the team will start with the similar April/May calendar, but add Green Mountain Stage Race Labor Day Weekend and Tour De Panama to cap off our year in August/September. This provides a full season for our riders, and two natural time periods for our riders to peak for the season. We will also have a renewed focus on the Colorado calendar and Rocky Mountain Road Cup now that Bicycle Colorado has solidified a new calendar after absorbing BRAC last year.

We also have two new riders to add to the team this year. The first is Cole Tamburri, who was on the CU Boulder Collegiate National Champion Time Trial Team. He’s a graduate student there who just started stage racing last year. We’re excited to see what he can do with a full season at the top level! Our other new rider is Orion Child, who comes from a cycling family who live in Tucson Arizona. He’s a consistent time trialist, and has been tearing it up on the junior circuit. Orion has been putting in the miles, so we can’t wait to see those pay off as the season progresses! We also have added Matthew Doyle and Andrew Morris to the cat 2/3 devo squad.

There are plenty more that could be said, but these are just some of the most important highlights of the great year our team has had, and what we are looking forward to. This past year has also resulted in Kade Kriekemier signing with Brocar – Rali – Alé to race in Spain for all of 2024 and we couldn’t be happier for him. The rest of the team is coming back to build on a fantastic season. For the coming year, be sure to sign up for our email newsletters via our website, and follow the team on our instagram and facebook pages for regular updates on the team.

Ride, Eat, Drink Margaritas,

Rees York
Rio Grande Elite Cycling Team, Director