Stephen Bassett led a Project Echelon podium sweep in the elite men's criterium at the USA Cycling Pro Road Championships on a rainy night in Charleston, West Virginia.
The team led the peloton for nearly the entire 90-minute race until the penultimate lap when two of the riders behind Bassett and teammate Brendan Rhim crashed in a rain-slicked corner.
Bassett and Rhim kept riding and held off the chasing field, with their teammate Scott McGill bringing home the final podium spot from the bunch sprint behind.
For Bassett, who was second at the US Pro road race in 2019, it's his first elite national title and came as quite a surprise in his first race with Project Echelon.
"It's pretty incredible, pretty unexpected," he told Cyclingnews. "I'm definitely more of a road racer, but in the meeting before they're like, Steve, do you want to save it for the road race? And I said, Absolutely not. I'm here to here to race my bike, so we did that."
"We wanted to go for a sprint with Scott [McGill] and Cade [Bickmore] and then there was a crash with two to go. I saw the gap, and it was me and Brendan, who are probably the two of the bigger roleurs on this team. So we just went full."
The victory also came as a thank you to the team for picking him up after first Human Powered Health ended suddenly after the 2023 season and then, just months into this year, his National Cycling League squad, the Denver Disruptors, also went under.
"I feel like I've been through the roller coaster these last few months, but, you know, probably within six hours of the team folding, I got a phone call from Eric [Hill] at the airport. By Tuesday afternoon, we had the contract signed.
"I kept saying, I just feel like I need half a chance, and this team has given me a chance and a half already in the first race. I'm so stoked to be here, really proud of the team, proud of his mission, and proud to be racing bikes today."
