The Team

 Selecting and growing young talents is an essential part of any sports industry, where the information and training presented to young athletes directly impacts the future of the sport. Bear National Team thrives in this space, utilizing years of experience in the professional cycling industry and directing it at growing cycling talents.

 Athlete development in cycling is broad, with programs ranging from Under-14 to Under-23 programs such as Bear. However, they all operate in the same ecosystem, feeding off each other and developing the process as a collective organism.

Cycling development has not had a very deep history in the United States. Oftentimes, homegrown American talents would make their way across the US and Europe for the summer race season, hitchhiking and riding through the countryside. Riders would show up with their racing license and jump on the start line with whatever experience they had.

Today, however, American development cycling sees teams from across the US form rosters of promising young talent, sending them to races that best suit their potential and their brand. With athletes and events popping up across the United States once more, the development stage in professional cycling is gaining more speed than ever before.

The American cycling industry did not always look as it does today, with few teams and domestic events worth the attention of major broadcasters. When the American cycling scene was only beginning to take off in the 90s, it greatly resembled the European cycling scene that had been blossoming for years already. The United States was packed full of riding opportunities for young cyclists, both male and female. 

“Back in the day when I was racing, there was a plethora of teams. Every single, every single car manufacturer had a team.” Bear Director and former racer Julia Violich noted, “It was unbelievable.” 

Julia Violich has long been involved in the cycling community, with her roots stemming from her racing career in the early 2000s which saw her win multiple National Titles. 

“It was kind of a new, exciting sport and people didn't want to miss the opportunity and they were all over it,” Violich notes that that excitement over the sport seems to have dwindled out in the United States, with a new push for more mainstream sports such as Football being more present in today’s youth. At the start of the US cycling boom of the 90s, few athletes knew much about the cycling world. 

“Who knew bike racing even existed?” Julie Young, a sports physiologist and former member of the US National Cycling Team said. “I totally stumbled on it.” Young took an unusual route to the cycling scene, graduating college before getting her start in the racing scene. While working in the finance sector in California, Young met a couple of colleagues who moonlighted as bike racers for the 7-Eleven Cycling Team who regaled her with tales from the cycling world. 

“I ran to the bike shop the next day and got a license and just started racing,” Young said.

These were the heydays of American cycling, where anyone with a bike could purchase a license and show up to a race the next day and get fully enveloped in the sport. Young would go on to have an extremely successful racing career, spending 12 years as a member of the US National Team from 1991 through 2002.

While the cycling movement in the US has seen a decline, the opposite is the case in Europe, where development teams and professional opportunities are seemingly everywhere. Violich believes this to be partially due to federal funding and involvement in the sport. 

While Team USA has recently featured some incredible talents such as Kate Courtney (Scott-SRAM) and Riley Amos (Trek Factory), they are often outmatched in both performance and preparedness at the international level. Violich notes that since the sport of Mountain Biking has hit the Olympic stage, European countries have invested significant resources into national teams.

“We don't have that in the United States, which is very unfortunate,” Violich said.

Much of European cycling benefits from a different style of investment as well. While almost all teams working in the cycling industry require significant financial investment from corporate and private sponsors, the level of engagement from sponsors supporting European teams is at a whole other level when compared to American investment.

Rob Evans, a former professional cyclist who has worked with the Bear Development Team as an advisor, believes the difference in support stems from cultural attitudes toward the sport and the level of marketability a cycling team can be characterized by.

“If someone's going to spend money on a market, it's easier than ever to have a tangible, provable ROI (Return On Investment),” Evans said, “The rolling billboard model of cycling just doesn't cut it anymore … you're really at the mercy of, of the patrons of the sport.“

Evans also noted that the majority of those patrons seem to be located outside of the United States, leaving a few teams scrapping for a handful of willing investors to pick up the bill. This could be due to the change in attitude towards cycling in the American Market after Lance Armstrong’s doping scheme came to light. Armstrong’s admission to cheating took a costly toll on the American cycling industry, causing many US bases sponsors to separate themselves from teams and leaving a significant funding gap at all levels of the sport.

This is where the American development market steps up to the plate. The space left by the US National and big-name domestic teams has been picked up by development teams such as Bear.

 “I do think people are not going to be able to, you know, ignore what we're doing here,” Violich said.

This is where Bear has thrived in the 2010s, picking up the slack in the development chain that USA Cycling has left. A strong development chain exists in many European programs in a very similar process to American Baseball, with clear-cut leagues that funnel athletes from youth teams into the professional sector in a very structured manner. 

While in the US some of these cycling leagues exist, the majority of them are supported by private investors and charitable organizations. The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) is one of these leagues. Created in Northern California in 2009, NICA was formed to provide an opportunity for students who never felt the call to more traditional sports. 

Through NICA, statewide high school cycling leagues were created, where high school teams could compete against each other in a professionally organized format. This program allows students to gain exposure to the outdoors while taking an active role in the sport they are partaking in.

Hauswald’s cycling program was the first program in the NICA leagues and has set an example for the rest of the leagues in the program.

As of the end of 2020, NICA had more than 25,000 students participating in leagues across the US in both High School and Middle School leagues. According to NICA’s 2020 Annual Report, the league was experiencing a 19% increase in student participation and had 21% of total athletes identify as female at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Hauswald has pushed NorCal even further, with a 30 / 70 split in gender participation. Hauswald attributes this to their efforts in hiring female coaches and maintaining a “No Cuts, No Bench” philosophy within the league. 

“I think that the no bench, no cuts thing is a really big deal,” Hauswald said, “the only requirement was that they tried their hardest and to show up.”

The NorCal League has also worked to push through socioeconomic barriers. Cycling has a notoriously high cost of entry across the board. However, thanks to strategic partnerships with brands such as Specialized, NICA, and NorCal have been able to provide bikes to kids who otherwise could not afford them. Additionally, NorCal is also working to create more races in urban areas. 

“Let's bring the opportunity to them where they can ride within a bus or drive from home the same day, Hauswald said. 

The league has noticed an increase in interest from many cities in California’s central valley and wants to create more opportunities for these students to get involved in the sport. 

Leagues such as NorCal also serve a crucial role in the development stage in professional cycling. With the expansion into middle school leagues, NICA has begun to offer opportunities to athletes who are interested in the sport. This provides a crucial opportunity for developing an interest in the sport for future generations, one that Hauswald compares to that of Baseball’s junior leagues.

 “I wish there were more of a continuum in cycling. Honestly, I've always felt like we need the little league baseball model.” Hauswald said. In many European countries, nationally funded junior programs and leagues exist to foster this interest in the sport. 

“You can go from a little league, all the way through to pros and baseball, and that's why it's such a complete part of American culture.”

While NorCal and NICA are filling this gap, Hauswald and Julia Violich agree that there is plenty of room for improvement from USA Cycling (USAC). Much of the slack being left by USAC programs is also being taken up by Violich’s Bear National Team. While NICA operates as a sort of T-Ball or Farm League, Bear operates as a AAA Baseball team; the last step required before hitting the professional levels of the sport.

Bear provides an array of products to its athletes, ranging from world-class coaching to industry-leading technology. However, Violich contends that the thing her athletes are experiencing is less about showcasing their skills and more about learning how to become professional athletes off of the track. 

“I think primarily they're learning to self-promote, be their own business managers, be their marketing manager, brand manager,” Violich said.

While it is incredibly important that the riders are getting the racing experience that will shape their careers and expose them to international competition, Violich affirms that it is paramount that they understand how to represent cycling culture as being humble, gracious, and kind. “They're also learning to hold their own,” Violich says. 

This is something that Hauswald says stands out about Bear’s athletes.

 “Every podium is stacked with Bear kids, but they also know how to shake people's hands,” Hauswald said. “They know how to look people in the eye. They know how to be genuine.”

This is something that Bear does very well, and very intentionally. Violich says that the team has two primary products that they offer to their riders. First and foremost, they want to ensure every rider on the team can enjoy the sport and doesn’t get burnt out by the rigors of training and competition. Second, and arguably the most important, is that athletes understand the professional world.

“Our most important final project product is producing an athlete that is well-rounded, understands dedication, understands commitment,” Violich said. “I provide them with seeds of inspiration that I depend on them to do their own negotiation and do their own self-advocacy.”

Violich and Bear are acting as that final stepping stone before the professional level of cycling. Offering an opportunity to young athletes, shaping them into conscientious human beings, and allowing their abilities to speak for themselves on an international playing field. Bear has continuously pushed for increased opportunities both on and off the bike for its riders. 

As it sits today, Bear has a strong field of 46 riders. Of those, 21 are female riders, meaning Bear is one of the most diverse teams racing in the US today. Despite this, Bear is still fighting an uphill battle against a growing reality. There are very few opportunities for talented young women, with a stacked competition fighting for a handful of professional spots on the international stage.

“Women see–kind of–the writing on the wall and think, oh, maybe I should focus really on college and getting a degree and going to work, which is in my opinion, sad,” Violich said, “I would just encourage people to continue to provide opportunities for women.”