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 Traditional 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 marriage ceremony happening for a similar June weekend. He nonetheless has hopes of lastly touchdown atop the ultimate standings of the seven-race, off-road collection.
“In the beginning of the yr, I used to be actually confused about Unbound, however given how Sea Otter went, I’ve develop into rather less confused about it,” Vermeulen informed Cyclingnews after coming fifth within the elite males’s street race on the USA Biking Professional Street Nationwide Championships.
“I feel the ball is in Keegan’s court docket to proceed dominating how he has at Unbound, the race that you simply want essentially 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 workforce and the nationwide workforce in Europe, and signed with Lotto-Jumbo in 2016. However after two seasons within the WorldTour and a yr within the Continental ranks, he determined to forge his personal pathway as one of many authentic 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 Workforce USA for the Olympic Video games – successful the person time trial would have been an computerized ticket to Paris – however he got here a distant seventh behind Brandon McNulty (UAE Workforce Emirates).
Within the street race, Vermeulen was lively all through the race chasing an elite breakaway and ultimately 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 trouble. “It is laborious, however I am fairly proud. I imply, lots of these races are much more tactical than among the gravel races, and so it is a reminder.
“I actually miss these things. 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 after they went and hoped I might journey 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 Might and served as an Olympic qualifier, and partly due to his brother’s marriage ceremony. The mixture served to stoke his Olympic dream.
“I feel it was the celebrities aligning this yr, my brother getting married, and it was a motive to skip Unbound. I would like to ultimately 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 wanting ahead to 2028 but additionally I am simply proud of how this yr’s gone to date. Hopefully, I will be leaping again in a pair extra street races this yr.”
Together with a runner-up spot at Fuego XL, he has stacked up high outcomes this gravel season with a second at Belgian Waffle Trip California, third at Previous 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 solution to stability each, which is less complicated to say than do.”
