For the previous two years, Alexey Vermeulen has been second within the Life Time Grand Prix to Keegan Swenson twice – by 13 factors in 2022 and simply six in 2023. This season he is come second to Swenson once more within the opening race on the Sea Otter Basic Fuego XL.
Nonetheless, subsequent week on the Unbound Gravel 200, the second cease of the Grand Prix, Vermeulen will miss the primary occasion, as obligation calls along with his brother’s wedding ceremony going down for a similar June weekend. He nonetheless has hopes of lastly touchdown atop the ultimate standings of the seven-race, off-road collection.
“Initially of the 12 months, I used to be actually careworn about Unbound, however given how Sea Otter went, I’ve develop into rather less careworn about it,” Vermeulen advised Cyclingnews after coming fifth within the elite males’s street race on the USA Biking Professional Highway Nationwide Championships.
“I feel the ball is in Keegan’s courtroom to proceed dominating how he has at Unbound, the race that you just want probably the most luck. So I am simply gonna attempt to come again as match as I can for [Crusher in the] Tushar and hopefully give him a run for his cash.”
Vermeulen acquired his begin in professional biking on the street, racing with the BMC Growth crew and the nationwide crew in Europe, and signed with Lotto-Jumbo in 2016. However after two seasons within the WorldTour and a 12 months within the Continental ranks, he determined to forge his personal pathway as one of many unique gravel privateers.
That does not imply Vermeulen has no aspirations on the street, removed from it. He introduced coming into US Professional that he was gunning to make Staff USA for the Olympic Video games – successful the person time trial would have been an automated ticket to Paris – however he got here a distant seventh behind Brandon McNulty (UAE Staff Emirates).
Within the street race, Vermeulen was lively all through the race chasing an elite breakaway and finally ending fifth behind Sean Quinn (EF Training-EasyPost), McNulty, Neilson Powless (EF Training-EasyPost) and Scott McGill (Venture Echelon).
“It has been a weekend of remembering bike racing,” Vermeulen stated after the hassle. “It is onerous, however I am fairly proud. I imply, a whole lot of these races are much more tactical than among the gravel races, and so it is a reminder.
“I actually miss these items. I hoped to have received the TT, however that is the way it goes. After which I simply did not have the pop to comply with these guys once they went and hoped I might trip myself again into the race, however missed it by about 30 to 40 seconds.”
Vermeulen was on the beginning line partly as a result of US Professional moved to Could and served as an Olympic qualifier, and partly due to his brother’s wedding ceremony. The mix served to stoke his Olympic dream.
“I feel it was the celebs aligning this 12 months, my brother getting married, and it was a motive to skip Unbound. I would like to finally go for [Olympic qualifying] once more, but it surely’s additionally as much as individuals I work with, sponsors that pay me now as a result of gravel is what I do.
“Since I left the street, I’ve struggled typically to actually discover races that excite me. I like gravel racing, but it surely’s the identical stuff again and again. I am trying ahead to 2028 but additionally I am simply proud of how this 12 months’s gone to this point. Hopefully, I will be leaping again in a pair extra street races this 12 months.”
Together with a runner-up spot at Fuego XL, he has stacked up high outcomes this gravel season with a second at Belgian Waffle Journey California, third at Outdated Man Winter Rally and tenth at BWR Arizona. After weeks of coaching for USPro, Vermeulen has no temptation to return to full-time street racing, nonetheless.
“I miss the street, and I miss the historical past that street has, however I am additionally actually happy with what’s been created in gravel, and I simply would like to discover a technique to stability each, which is simpler to say than do.”
