Last year, Colin Strickland left team Specialized Allez-Allez to start his own team, Intelligentsia Racing. Today, he announced his team for 2018. The team name will be meteor X giordana. His team mates for the upcoming season will be Michael Sheehan, a former UCI continental rider for team Jelly Belly/Maxxis, and Amity Gregg. The focus of the team in the US changed a bit, next to the fixed gear crits with Red Hook Criterium as the main goal, Gravel Endurance races will get priority over road races. The co-title sponsors are Meteor, a bike cafe founded by the co-founder of Intelligentsia Coffee, and Giordana Cycling. We briefly talked with Colin about the team plans for the upcoming season and how he experienced the 2017 season.
Text: Brian Megens
Photography: Tornanti.cc
“I really enjoyed starting my own team and I learned a lot from it. For example, that I shouldn’t make the team too big. So for this year I decided to keep the team smaller so I have fewer logistics and administration to do and actually can focus on my main goal, riding my bike and having fun while doing so. Don’t get me wrong, with Marius Petrache and Kevin Girkins I had amazing teammates, and unfortunately, the cooperation with Cesar Valenzuela didn’t turn out the way I hoped. The team could always count on Marius making a show and being in the front, and Kevin Girkins did so much better than I expected a complete monster. I actually wanted Kevin on the team for 2018 but he decided to sign with the UCI Continental Team Elevate – KHS Pro Cycling. With Marius, I couldn’t continue because I wanted a rider that was closer based to my home to race more here in the US.”
“Racing-wise, we rolled in every race to make an impact, we didn’t wait for the race to happen but made the race exciting ourselves. This is always the goal for me and my team. I mean, professional sports is an entertainment business and we need to entertain the crowds, have fun, f*ck shit up. I knew it was going to be impossible to recreate 2016 with Aldo, that season was just magical. However, we didn’t do bad at all if you ask me, we started with almost winning Brooklyn, we made that race, London was solid enough, I was in the leaders’ jersey after, then there was a crash in RHC Barcelona and in RHC Milano I was sick which sucked big time.”
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“For the upcoming season, I will ride together with Michael Sheehan and Amity Gregg. Michael is someone who is from my area, a very talented dude with insane bike handling skills. With him, I will race fixed gear crits, with the main focus on the Red Hook Criterium Series of course, while Amity will mainly focus on the Endurance Gravel discipline. She might do some fixed gear crits, and she is more than welcome, but I am not sure if she has ambitions of doing so actually. With Michael, who is a great bike handler I like our chances of winning in any given fixed gear race! I am stoked to go back to our simple 2 man dynamic.”
Besides the co-title sponsors Meteor and Giordana Cycling, the team will be supported by Pinarello, Poc, Rotor, Enve, and Phil Wood.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BavYZbxjP6C/?taken-by=amityvil
