The story behind the RealCyclist.com Pro Cycling Team and its rapid ascent into the upper echelon of professional cycling features luck, timing and a desire to be among the best.
Just ask Jonny Atencio, self-described “athlete wrangler” who oversees athlete sponsorship with the RealCyclist.com pro team and Backcountry.com, which owns RealCyclist.com. Both are located in Park City.
Atencio said the team started up last year after RealCyclist.com – an online cycling shopping mall which builds custom bikes and sells everything from bike parts to bike apparel – came in contact with a cycling team-management company called On the Rivet, based out of Georgia. The On the Rivet management team had picked up the pieces of a cycling team called the Bahati Foundation after it had fallen apart, Atencio said.
When the On the Rivet squad was at the Tour of Utah last summer, members of the team became familiar with Park City and folks from RealCyclist.com.
“We had a lot of time with the team, management, and really got along well with them,” Atencio said. “They pitched us on the idea of being the title sponsor of the team.
“We thought it’d be a great thing for our site to step in and brand RealCyclist.com.”
That’s where things took off for RealCyclist.com and its pro cycling team.
Since then, the team has dominated the Redlands Bicycle Classic, earned three wins at the Sea Otter Classic and won the overall title in the Tour of Gila race this year.
And after the 2011 Tour of Utah race announced its field of the final 16 teams set to participate this August on Wednesday, RealCyclist.com, a newbie to the tour and in the No. 2 overall spot in the U.S. race circuit, will show off its newfound look and high-profile squad.
The team has former Tour of Utah champion and Tour de France veteran Francisco “Paco” Mancebo of Spain. Other members of the team are: Colombian Cesar Grajales, who won the King of the Mountain (KOM) classification at the TD Bank Philadelphia International Cycling Classic in 2010 and Thomas Rabou of the Netherlands. Rabou won the KOM crown at the 2010 Amgen Tour of California.
Cole House and Parkite Evan Hyde, 26, are among the other notables who round out the 13-man team that will be riding in the Tour of Utah this year.
“Of the team from last year, there’s really only two or three riders from that squad that’s currently on the team now,” Atencio said. “Pretty much, we revamped the whole team. We brought on a bunch of well-known riders.
“The team really is a hand-picked team.”
Hyde, who has lived in Park City on a full-time basis for the last two years, said this is easily most recognizable and prominent team he has ever ridden for.
“This is a really professional team,” he said. “We’re the best team in the country, I think.”
This will be Hyde’s third consecutive Tour of Utah race, and racing with a figure such as Mancebo has Hyde counting down the days until he starts pedaling.
“I saw Paco at Tour of Utah last year and the year before that,” he said. “He’s always up there at the front of the pack, and now I know I’m going to have to be in his service. It’s really motivating and exciting.
“The race is really about the riders and who makes it hard. The field that’s coming is way stronger than it’s ever been. My objective for the race is going to be working for Paco.”
How a first-year team like RealCyclist.com was able to grab so many high-profile riders is simple, according to Atencio and Marit Fischer, communications manager for RealCyclist.com.
Atencio said once RealCyclist.com came to terms with its involvement as a retailer, it was able to leverage its relationship with certain vendors and other retailers, including riders.
Said Fischer: “That leverage that Jonny mentioned is really unique in the industry and bike racing as a whole. It definitely helped form the team.”
Fischer said being a local team and being able to race in Park City twice this year will be an advantage and something she’s excited about.
“It’s a great opportunity for us,” she said. “We are local. We’re based in Park City. This is a team that’s going to do really well in the Tour of Utah, and people will come out and cheer for the home guys.”
Hyde said he is eager to race in his hometown once again after a letdown last year in which he failed to qualify for criterium stage of the Tour of Utah.
“That’s really special for me,” he said. “Last year, I felt humiliated. I was pretty embarrassed. Now, I really want to come back this year and show Park City that I’m better than that.”