🇺🇸 American misfit in the world of pro cycling 🐺 Previous editions of "Tuesday Howl" at https://xitter.gq/t.co/WeOGao7hmb
United States Of America
Joined March 2026
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Maybe I'm watching this era differently than a lot of cycling fans.
I didn't get to watch Stage 1 of the Tour de Suisse live and couldn't really keep up with the race because of work yesterday. But reading through the comments afterward got me thinking.
So many of the reactions weren't really about the ride itself. They were about what it supposedly means for the rest of the race, the Tour de France, and even the state of cycling as a whole.
As someone who came to the sport relatively recently, I've been surprised by how much frustration there is among some longtime fans about Pogačar's dominance. I understand the concern. Sports are often more exciting when the outcome feels uncertain. But what caught me off guard wasn't the criticism itself—it was just how strong some of it seemed.
Maybe I see it differently because Pogačar is the rider who pulled me deeper into cycling in the first place.
Following him through the spring classics, stage races, and one-day races opened up the entire cycling calendar for me. But it wasn't just more races. It was more riders. I then started paying attention to Americans trying to make their mark in Europe, learning the stories of domestiques, young prospects, classics specialists, sprinters, climbers, and all the personalities that make the sport what it is.
And honestly, it even led me to many of you.
Some of the best parts of following cycling over the last few months haven't just been the races themselves, but the conversations before, during, and after them. I've learned a ton from longtime fans, discovered races I otherwise never would have watched, and found a community that's made the sport far more enjoyable than simply tuning in for the biggest event each July.
That's why I sometimes struggle to see Pogačar's dominance as a negative in itself. Without it, I'm not sure I would have fallen down this rabbit hole in the first place.
It makes me wonder whether it's possible to appreciate a generational talent while also wanting competitive racing. Those things don't seem mutually exclusive to me. Maybe this is simply the natural cycle of sports, and the conversation changes once riders like Vingegaard, Evenepoel, or perhaps even Seixas start consistently taking some of the biggest wins back.
For now, though, I still find myself appreciating what we're watching. But maybe I'm just seeing it through the eyes of someone who's still relatively new to all of this.
And I'm always curious what the rest of you think...
🇺🇸🐺
For the record I didn’t say it exactly this way to him but Pogi got the general idea
“Your biggest opponent is yourself” - Tadej Pogacar's right-hand man offers advice to the next generation
cyclinguptodate.com/cycling/…
Brewers, Bike Races & the People We Cheer For🌎
The Milwaukee Brewers are WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS! 🍻⚾️And my favorite player on this team? William Contreras from 🇻🇪! World Series MVP or not (he was!), he's my guy.
One of the things I love about both baseball and pro cycling is getting to cheer for - and alongside - people from all over the world. Different countries, cultures and backgrounds, all coming together to work toward a common goal.
We saw it with the USA men's elite team at Worlds this year. Matteo Jorgenson, Quinn Simmons and the rest of the team worked together to put Brandon McNulty in position to become world champion.
And the more I've gotten into cycling, the more I've found myself cheering for riders from other countries, too. I've followed Ion Izagirre (Ion the Lion!) from Spain and "Laredo" Paul Magnier from France quite a bit this season. And since William Contreras is from Venezuela, maybe I'll adopt Orluis Aular of Movistar as a new one for me to watch!
That's part of what makes sports so great to me. You can be celebrating a championship with your hometown team in Milwaukee, cheering for a player from Venezuela, or rooting for your favorite cyclist on the other side of the world. The connections are real, even when the people you're cheering for come from places you've never been.
So here's to the Brewers, William Contreras, Brandon McNulty, Ion Izagirre, Paul Magnier Orluis Aular and all the people who make following sports around the world so much fun!🌎🚴♂️⚾️
#ThisIsMyCrew #MLB #ProCycling
Incredible to have an 🇺🇸 born cyclist 2nd on this list! 😉 #LaredoPaul
This set up works for cycling or baseball….lets finish it tonight @Brewers !
#ThisIsMyCrew
This is really cool! I had highlighted Sarkisov (and her sister) 🇺🇸🐺
#WatchTheFemmes
Lidl-Trek launch women's development team with talents from USA and Great Britain on 10-rider roster cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/…
🚴What Would an American (or Worldwide) Cycling Celebration Look Like? 🏆
Whoever wins the World Series, that city is going to throw one heck of a parade. (Obviously, I'm hoping it's the Brewers 🤞). That's what a big American sports moment can look like.
⚽️ has its own way of celebrating its stars. The recent Ballon d'Or ceremony recognized the best players of the 2025–26 season, with Harry Kane and Alexia Putellas taking home the men's and women's awards.
Cycling has those moments, too. When Jonas Vingegaard wins the Tour de France, tens of thousands turn out to celebrate in Denmark....I still can't believe those pictures!
But with how passionate people are about cycling in so many European countries, why doesn't there seem to be a bigger, shared end-of-season celebration of the sport and its riders?
I can't imagine it ever becoming a thing in the U.S., but after the season American cycling has just had imagine an end-of-season American cycling showcase:
🏆 American Cyclist of the Year
🔄 Comeback Rider of the Year
🌟 Young Rider of the Year
💪 Most Combative Rider
Bike displays, rider meet-and-greets, photos, autographs. A chance to recognize the Americans who've had great seasons and bring fans together to celebrate the sport.
Sponsored by Trek and hosted by @MFollowill ? 😂
Not a parade for Brandon McNulty (yet!), but something that gives American cycling its own moment in the spotlight. And for now, who would you pick for the awards I listed?
#BallonDor #WorldSeries #TDF2027
Ok so I know cycle cross has a big following….but they are literally carrying their bikes lol. This would be like race car drivers pushing the their cars 😂
Course maps have been posted for Cyclocross Nationals p/b The Meteor! 🇺🇸
Check out the routes, stay updated on event info, and register today: cxnats.usacycling.org/
‼️ Ready to race? Be sure to sign up by November 8. Late registration goes into effect on November 9.
He’s waiting to see if @maprocycling will be in the 2028 @LeTour
El próximo año se termina el contrato de Seixas con el Decathlon, pero ya empieza a deambular la duda sobre su futuro. 👀🧐
🗨️ "Cuando firmé mi contrato actual hace dos años, me prometí a mí mismo que no me apresuraría a firmar el siguiente. Porque, sinceramente, es un fastidio. Aunque pronto tendré que tomar una decisión, todavía no me he decidido. No sé cuándo lo haré".
🐺Tuesday Howl #29: Where Does 2026 Rank in American Cycling History? 🇺🇸🚴
I've been trying to figure out how this season compares to other great years for American men's road cycling.
Brandon McNulty wins the elite men's road world title. Quinn Simmons finishes 4th. Matteo Jorgenson finishes 8th. Ashlin Barry wins the U23 world title. And we've had Americans winning races across the calendar. My own count has us at 24 wins across 12 different riders, not including team time trials.
So where does this season rank? Could it be one of the five best American men's road cycling seasons ever?
To be clear, I'm talking about men's road cycling here, not trying to rank all of American cycling. The women's side deserves its own conversation, and I don't want to pretend one season or one set of results tells the whole story.
Of course, once you start doing research and comparing seasons, you run into some pretty big historical benchmarks. Greg LeMond won the Tour de France in 1986, then pulled off the Tour and Worlds double in 1989, before winning the Tour again in 1990. Sepp Kuss won the Vuelta in 2023, and 2024 brought major wins for Matteo Jorgenson and Brandon McNulty.
When I started this account, my goal wasn't necessarily to focus on American cycling. I wanted to follow and engage with pro cycling around the world from an American point of view. But this season's American success has definitely pulled me further into following the Americans, and happily so.
Being relatively new to the sport, I've looked at 2026 and thought this must be a season American cycling fans haven't experienced in quite a while. Then I started looking back at 2023 and 2024 and realizing there have been some pretty significant results in recent years, too.
Of course, the minute you start comparing seasons, you run into the Lance Armstrong era. McNulty's world title ended a 33-year wait for an American man to win the elite road race at Worlds. The last one was Armstrong in 1993. I've mostly avoided the Armstrong conversation on here. I've wanted to focus on the sport as it is NOW: the riders, the races, and the stories happening around the world. But you can't really talk about American cycling history without eventually running into it. It's a complicated, uncomfortable part of the sport's history, and I'm not sure there's a clean way to resolve it. Maybe that's a Lance Armstrong post for another day.
For now, I'm more interested in figuring out where this current generation fits into the story.
So where would you rank 2026 among American men's road cycling seasons? And which seasons do you think belong in that conversation?
PS. credit to @CyclingYazz for the graphic idea!
The more I look at it, the more I think 2026 has a legitimate case as the best overall American men's road cycling season ever.
Maybe not the best individual season (LeMond's 1989 is a pretty tough one to beat), but the depth of American results this year feels different.
A world champion, three Americans in the Worlds top 8, 24 wins by 12 different riders, and success across the calendar.
I'm leaning toward 2026 at No. 1 for American men's road cycling as a whole. Tell me I'm wrong! 🇺🇸🐺
I've been a little quiet around here lately, but tonight feels like a good time to bring two of my favorite sports worlds together.
The Milwaukee Brewers, my hometown team and favorite baseball team, are up 2-0 in the World Series. Game 3 tonight!👀⚾️For those not versed in baseball it's first team to 4 wins in the World Series.
Add in 🇺🇸Brandon McNulty winning the World Championships 🌈, and I'm not sure I could ask for a better year as a sports fan. But they say good things come in threes...
However, I wouldn't mind saving my third for another big American cycling victory in 2027! 🇺🇸🐺
#CyclingTwitter #ThisIsMyCrew
Instead of reinventing the wheel I thought I'd try some "American" versions of things I see. Credit to @gzlz11
Revelation: Andrew August
Disappointment: Magnus Sheffield
You?
I am reposting this just as a way to say I support you and thank you for sharing your excitement and insight @tarmacycling 🫶🇺🇸🐺
Simmons in this article: "The biggest objective every year will be the Tour. For an American rider, that's where the sport matters the most."
1) Is this true of all American riders?
Would Brandon McNulty trade his rainbows for a stage win at the Tour? I would think not. Is a stage win at the Tour bigger than winning a race like Lombardia? I don't know. Where does a Tour stage win truly slot in?
2) Is this the same for a NON-American rider?
It seems so based on say a reaction from Del Toro winning a stage this year vs some of his other race wins. And while Sepp's Giro stage win was awesome the Tour stage that slipped (or fell) away was almost more painful than the joy of that win.
Would love to hear your thoughts!
Quinn Simmons: Maybe I never reach that top level, but at least I'm still trying cyclingnews.com/pro-cycling/…
🌮Taco Tuesday: Tim Torn Teutenberg & the All-Name Team
We need to start a campaign to make sure we don't lose Taco van der Hoorn from the peloton. Seeing this post about his future got me thinking: what if we put together an All-Name Team? Eight riders, Grand Tour squad size, selected purely on the strength of their names. Here's my provisional roster:
🌮 Taco van der Hoorn
🎙️ Tim Torn Teutenberg
🚲 Toon Aerts
Lars Craps (sorry, had to...)
And yes, this includes the ladies. Puck Pieterse is actually one of my favorite riders, so she was always going to make the squad. Amber Kraak deserves a spot, too - gotta love the Dutch names!
🇳🇱Amber Kraak
🇳🇱Puck Pieterse
And of course we need an American. Sepp Kuss is now a familiar and much-loved name in the peloton, but let's not pretend his name isn't unique!
🇺🇸 Sepp Kuss
Bonus mention: 🇳🇴Tobias Halland Johannessen, whose name might need its own team car.
Who have I missed? We've got eight spots, but I'm willing to hear arguments for expanding the roster.
Save Taco. Save the names. Save the peloton! Also I really do hope Taco finds a team!
タコ・ファンデルホールン（32）
「来年もワールドツアーで走る可能性は十分にありますが、全くチームを見つけられない可能性もあります。来季もプロとして走れるかは本当に五分五分だと思う」
厳しいなぁ
#jspocycle
wielerflits.nl/nieuws/taco-v…
🐺🐺Tuesday Howl🐺🐺
Tuesday Howl #28: The Road Season Is in the Books
It's been a pretty interesting six months for this little "An American Werewolf In Cycling" experiment, and with the road calendar winding down, I've been thinking about what comes next as I go into an initial offseason.
First, a thank you to everyone who's followed along, replied to a post, shared some knowledge, or taken the time to engage with me here. Big accounts, small accounts, and everyone in between.
I've probably been annoying at times as I've tried to work my way into this sport, but so many people have been incredibly gracious about answering questions, sharing their knowledge and entertaining my thoughts along the way.
I won't pretend that gaining followers isn't fun, but I've probably lost as many as I've gained. But I started this because I wanted to engage people in a sport I'm only just getting into myself, and I know my...whatever this is...isn't for everyone.
Cycling is a global sport, but it's not exactly the biggest spectator sport in the US. I'm an American trying to find my place in a world where so much of the conversation revolves around European races, teams and riders. But obviously, I'm most invested in the American side of things. Following the men and women racing overseas, getting to know the next generation, paying more attention to American races, and hoping we can build something around events like the Philadelphia Cycling Classic. There's a lot more to this sport than the names I first started following, and I'm enjoying discovering that.
So what's next?
I don't really know, but probably some posts looking back at the season we just had. Rider reviews, favorite races, thoughts on American cycling, who's on the rise, and what 2027 might bring. I'll probably continue the Tuesday Howl if there's a topic or thoughts I feel worthy of sharing. And of course try to somehow get an professional American cyclists to connect with me although @FaulknerKristen did like a post once!
I also know there's cyclocross season and the World Cup, US Nationals and Worlds are on the horizon. Some of you have mentioned there's a solid American following, so I'll probably dip my toes in.
Either way, there's plenty left to talk about. Thanks for letting this American misfit work his way into the conversation and whether you engage or not, it's at least nice having an outlet to share a passion with other people from across the world. 🌎🇺🇸🐺
Interesting clip from Matteo and just to hear an American riders perspective about this issue. His angle being the speed of the peloton has an impact on all of this issue more than just organizers being lax. It feels like it would be helpful to have some sort of larger conversation about this with top riders and event organizers.
