Upstart National Cycling League Halts 2024 Season, Leaves Riders and Staff in Limbo

On Monday, the upstart National Cycling League (NCL) announced they were suspending the 2024 season. Additionally, all current riders and staff contracts were terminated.

Started in 2022 as an effort to inject interest and money into American cycling, the NCL featured a unique approach to bike racing in that men and women comprised two sides of the same team. As the men and women were on the same team, the league notably offered equal pay and exposure for both genders and a $1 million prize purse, which often grabbed headlines as the league rolled out its plans.

It also prioritized the viewer, creating a format based on near-constant scoring with the hopes of fostering a more engaging television viewing experience. The league also billed itself as “the first majority-minority and female-owned professional sports league.”

Some of the names behind the NCL were basketball stars Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal, NFL players Derwin James, Kevin Byard, and Casey Hayward, and former pro football players Desmond Howard and Emmanuel Acho.

NCL racing kicked off last year, featuring two full-time teams—Miami Nights and Disruptors—along with a handful of league-affiliated teams racing over the course of three events last year: Miami Beach, Denver, and Atlanta. A fourth race that was originally slated for Washington, DC, was canceled. That cancelation, along with race courses being moved from high-visibility downtown areas, date changes, executive-level changes, and a break up with the race management company behind the actual races, led to rumblings of financial issues throughout the year.

The league’s two teams, Miami Nights and Denver Disruptors (a third, Atlanta Rise, was slated to debut this season), were en route home from last weekend’s Redlands Cycling Classic when they learned of the cancelation via a Zoom call that reportedly lasted less than five minutes. According to reports, the league didn’t field any questions from the nearly 50 riders or staff who were terminated.

Due to a non-disclosure agreement, which riders and staff were reminded of during the Zoom termination, was very much still in place, and little perspective has trickled out from them.

One rider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told me, “As the days and months went on where the wasn’t a lot of clear direction, it posed questions. I know there were a lot of changes made to the NCL organization toward the end of last year but as time went on and things weren’t happening, we had questions. We anticipated changes but I didn’t see the cancellation coming.”

However, several outside the bounds of the league haven’t been as quiet.

Former pro racer and U23 Aevolo sports director Michael Creed posted the NCL’s statement to his Instagram account with the scathing caption, “I want to personally thank @nclracing for adding to the scar tissue of the American cycling landscape. Without them, we wouldn’t have riders and staff from 6 different squads left with broken promises and uncomfortable conversations with family + partners, industry sponsors like @primalwear @ekoicycling with bad taste and lost investment in a failed 2024 season, memes for days and headlines that the cycling media is more interested in than reporting on the Redlands Classic.”

“Thanks to @nclracing’s constant ignorance, lying, backslapping, and lack of accountability, you proved that it’s just about being noticed and not about what you could provide. And to be fair, I should tip my hat to you for hitting that target,” continued the social media caption by Creed.

In addition to those uncomfortable conversations Creed references, NCL riders are staff, and they are now left to scramble to find a race team for the rest of the season. According to Jonathan Coulter, Aevolo’s assistant sports director, as the season is already well underway, their hopes for a season, and potentially a career, might be crippled going forward.

“When you pull the plug in April, no team has an extra budget to pay two or three more people,” Coulter said. “And you miss a season of results, a season of pay; now those people have to go find a job in the next two or three weeks.”

Asked about his reaction when he learned of the cancelation, Coulter said he simply felt sadness. “All these people, the men and women riders and the staff members, they’re all great people,” he said. “They’re just striving to do their best.”

Representatives from the NCL didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story.

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