Congratulations Alex Howes - 2019 US Men's Elite Road Race Champion

One of the unique and fun things about pro cycling is that if you win your national championship in a specific discipline you get to wear the national jersey for the entire next year whenever you ride that discipline. (After your year is up you get to wear stripes on your sleeve, which is good and cool but very confusing if you are trying to determine if a rider is Belgian or German, never mind all the countries with red/white/blue as their flag colors). Wearing the jersey is a big honor, and at the beginning of all the races you start at the front to show off the colors, and you ride alongside the other jersey-wearers. And the stripes are forever, which is legit.

This year the US National Champion is Alex Howes, who won a very exciting race on a circuit course in Knoxville. Howes is a beast of a rider, and he deserved the win after riding in a breakaway, getting caught by the peloton, and then riding in another breakaway before getting separation at the end to clinch the victory. A worthy champion, and a nice story after several years of near misses for him in the race.

Howes also rode in the Dirty Kanza last month, a race which is weird and popular with a subset of people that like the feel of dirt in their mouth and sand in their shoes. To each their own, I guess. His team made a very good video about it, which you can enjoy above. Howes' team sent three pros to Kanza, and I don't think it is a coincidence that they sent three likable, telegenic riders. That's just good marketing, but it helps that they are phenomenal on the bike.