2024 was an outstanding year for road racers that I coach. They won 8 medals at the Canadian Championships, 3 represented Canada at Worlds, and others got on podiums at various levels of racing in Ireland, France and the US. Many are now situated on teams whose race calendars provide the opportunity to advance in the sport.

A highlight of the National Road Championships was watching Quentin Cowan win the U23 title. I have a distinct memory, however, of watching other young riders that I coach cross the finish line a few minutes down having missed the break. It struck me that these riders were not part of development programs or teams that would make them visible to any Continental or Professional team in the world. Worse, there is no clear pathway for these riders to develop. They have two choices: figure out a way to race in Europe on their own or repeat the year on the same club team, hoping to do better. Both options are long shots and this is creating a crisis: when 2nd and 3rd year U23’s feel the odds are stacked against them and that all the training/racing they do is invisible, they leave the sport.

I want to contribute to a discussion of “development” in Canadian cycling by listing some observations. I’m happy to be corrected and have my current opinion changed. The goal is to be part of the conversation. Here are some recent thoughts on the challenges for young riders that want to be pros:

The emergence of development teams (U23 and Junior) explicitly or closely affiliated with World Tour teams has created a concentration of capital, knowledge and professional networks. Riders outside of this growing concentration of haves and have nots are notably less visible to professional cycling teams than those within these silos of development.

• These silos of development are located in Europe. Clubs and races in North America are less visible and (often rightly) devalued as the level of competition is not the same as in Europe. For example, one of my riders was told to do the Tour du Beaujolais with his team instead of the Tour de Beauce in Canada—even though Beauce is technically a higher ranked race—because Beaujolais would have scouts watching and a result there would be valued more.

• These silos of development form concentrated knowledge networks by aligning themselves with universities through hiring, consultation and sharing data from world class athletes with researchers. UAE’s Director of Performance, Jeroen Swart, is a Professor of Sports and Exercise Medicine at Cape Town University. Jumbo Visma’s Head of Performance, Mathieu Heiboer, regularly collaborates with Dajo Sanders, of Maastricht U and Arie-Willem de Leeuw at the Hague University of Applied Sciences’ Center of Expertise Health Innovation. There are collaborations regarding physiology, nutrition, aerodynamics and so forth. So World Tour teams are accessing university research and funding structures, as well as academic credibility, which allows for collaboration with manufacturers and other industry people. James Morton, for example, is a well-known Professor of Exercise Metabolism who helped Team Sky in its glory years establish contemporary nutrition protocols while collaborating with Science in Sport on their product line.

• Junior and Conti teams affiliated with World Tour Teams concentrate talent by attracting the best riders. Twenty-three of the top thirty riders at the World Junior Championships were or are now affiliated with development programs steered to different degrees (often loosely) by World Tour or Pro teams. Roughly the same percentage of top finishers amongst the U23s at Worlds were in these streams that have access to coaching, equipment and the promise of long-term contracts. This will change next year as U23 worlds will exclude current members of World Tour teams, but the concentration of quality riders in these streams will most likely persist.

This concentration of good riders within a smaller number of teams impacts racing, as riders outside the silos fight for position in the peloton, often as individuals or in groups of 2 or 3 against full teams. The possibility of top 10 results gets diminished when individuals are surfing leadouts or covering multiple riders working together. A lack of top 10s then reads as if a physiologically talented rider “lacks racecraft” or is “not a competitor”.

• So what is Canada doing to better engage with some of the challenges inherent in road racing on the world stage? Cycling Canada provides race days for riders that meet their selection criteria. This “here are the races… it’s up to you to sink or swim” approach has been the approach of our National Federation for many years.

There are many good things going on at Cycling Canada, including efforts by key people to develop a “hub structure” of communication organized in relation to velodromes. There are, however, no immediate signs that that I’m aware of that the Federation plans to move beyond the “race days” approach to road.

Race days are not, however, a development program that identifies and works with cohorts of riders to develop them over a designated period of time. Without a visible Development Program, Cycling Canada lacks a vehicle to effectively raise funds, amass assets, infrastructure and skilled human resources, it lacks access to a vibrant knowledge network, and it has not consciously developed professional relations with Canadian club teams and professional teams. (It is worth noting that to race for Canada, you must pay to supplement budget shortfalls.)

I think it is time for many of us to work with and without Cycling Canada to expand the way we collectively think about development to better support our incredibly talented athletes.

On my part, I’m radically reducing the number of riders I coach directly–by over 65%–so I can initiate ways to support them beyond training programs. I’m also working with other coaches within Toguri and others working with teams or Provincial Federations, to improve our coaching collectively, including inviting key people in nutrition, aerodynamics and physiology to speak with our riders and coaches.

We’re trying to build both our knowledge network and our professional contacts as a means to make riders more visible and to create pathways to teams with good calendars. I’m hoping this will help racing in North America regain some cred and for the Canadian National Road Championships to be valued more. Riders such as Michael Woods, Hugo Houle and Guillaume Boivin have carried the torch for a long time. Some of us need to create a mass of riders and culture of informed, durable success that can contribute to the work of so many who care about what I’m loosely calling “development”. Let’s keep the conversation going.