The Great S&M Road Experiment of 2025: A Joyful Review
In 2025, we officially got involved in the US road scene. The timing felt right, and necessary. The calendar of road events in North America is high quality, but also smaller than ever, and the opportunities to join teams with varying experience levels where race-craft is learned are hard to come by. It’s a turbulent, resource-intensive sport with a steep learning curve. We were ready to chip in. Our reach would be modest but quality and structured, so our immediate goals had to be focused: 1) keep good riders with experience racing in the US peloton, 2) commit to racing two key national level races together and quickly figure out how to click, and 3) bring it full circle and bring these experienced riders home to our flagship crit weekends here in OBRA, helping to raise our regional level of racing.
Hopefully the “team first” culture would be impactful at the chosen events, and a supported environment combined with this culture would help our hungry riders net successful results as the outcome.
We assembled a roster of unattached or underutilized riders who were either new to the scene and full of promise, or experienced and had raced with success in respected North American programs but found themselves without a contract after 2024—yet still with talent to give, and invaluable experience learned within those teams to share with newer riders. A core group emerged, all with the right grounded personalities to boot. I (being Brenna) wasn’t looking for roster exclusivity this season, just commitment to this specific vibe for a few shared events, to see what we could do.
If all went well with the national stage races, I really hoped to bring our crew to the Bend Cascade Cycling Classic Crit weekend (June) and the Portland Criterium double-header (August), to balance the stage racing efforts with some good ol' American crit racing, have some fun, and—most importantly—to showcase at the local level what cohesive “team first” dynamics can look like up close, simultaneously supporting these two relatively new, incredibly meaningful crit weekends on our regional calendar. Our mission with our CX team has always been to help talent seek its best level on a national or international stage, but also to bring it back home to our local racing and invigorate our home scene with the best possible energy.
It may sound surprising to some, but I've really enjoyed my many seasons of existing "in the middle" between working human and ambitious rider. It may not have always been this way, but time has taught me appreciation for my experience and perspective. Having never “made it” to the full-time rider position (and I’m unsure I would have thrived in that position anyway), I've tried to make the most of being a high-performer in the North American peloton who can be part of the glue within a team, support others who are on their way up, and audibly, publicly celebrate all the aspects that make up great a team structure—the riders yes, but the staff, the material, the logistics, careful planning and preparation, the shared culture, intention, and commitment.
Women’s sports, including women’s cycling, have broadly accelerated in acclaim and performance levels in these last ten years (AKA my time in the sport), and the turbo boost of growth has been overwhelmingly positive, though not without some losses in this acceleration. Road cycling has contracted with a change in popularity on our continent, with off-road and participation-style events demonstrating growth strategies that road could take some notes from. That said, there is no team format truer than well-executed road cycling, and it’s worth fighting to preserve and share this part of the sport. Even with progressive, long fought-for growth in women’s cycling with better support and requirements at the top, my suspicion is that the North American scene will still be better if those who can, try to maintain riders with experience and invest in the stability of the “middle tier” of the sport. For the sake of stability, for the sake of development, for pathways, and simply put, because very few will be able to do this sport full-time, yet the sport requires fields with numbers and variable skill levels for it to function well. And the sport can continue to benefit from riders with passion and skill and, well, day jobs, staying in the game, as full-time professionalism is an elusive pathway, and desire coupled with experience and purposeful execution is still worth something.
When I looked around the remaining North American peloton and event calendar at the end of the 2024 road season, I saw more than ever a need for more quality team structures that can meet that rider "in the middle" while the sport continues to professionalize—especially for riders who have had some opportunities but their story didn’t conform to a quick rise over a couple of seasons, maybe got sick or injured at the wrong time, needed to prioritize school and the stability of a non-cycling life, and have also been taught the skillset to be an asset as a team player, and are therefore an asset to the constantly changing North American peloton—but can't fit the mold of a European development pathway. Who want to be a benefit to the standard of the sport. Who perhaps have already seen some of their own ceiling but are still inspired, not beaten down by it, and will make most of what they have to give within a team whole that’s greater than the individual. And I think what we have held dear at Team S&M for culture and practice is well set up to help assist with that need.
So, long overdue, here’s a season-long, scrapbook style collection of how the 2025 road team experiment went. Spoiler: it went well. The season had some mega peaks, and it also had valleys, and through it all, we bought in, accepted and amplified each other, and had fun. And the best testament to how it went? You bet we’re going to do it all again here in 2026.
April - First Stop for 2025: Redlands Bicycle Classic p/b the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians - CA
(Images courtesy of Blake Dahlin)
We were all-in for stage results for Cara, who came into Redlands swinging and ready, with early season momentum, fitness, and some reborn confidence.
Stage 2, Onyx Summit Road Race, the mountainous stage - Cara 9th
Stage 4, Arrowhead Orthopaedics Downtown Criterium - much team animation, moves off the front, a near miss on the crowd prime, and Cara 7th
Stage 5, the iconic Sunset Loop Road Race - Cara 2nd!!!!!!!!!
Final GC - Cara 10th.
Mission accomplished, and what a sweet feeling.
Roster: Cara, Kim, Jenna, Gabrielle, Brenna
Staff: Douglas the great
Hosts & helpers: Lauren, Mervyn, Tamra, Roger, Alex, and Jared.
May - Stop 2: Tour de Bloom, UCI 2.2 - Wenatchee, WA
For the 2025 season, Tour de Bloom, a staple on the PNW racing calendar, changed its women’s Elite event status to a UCI 2.2. One of just two women’s events in North America with that ranking. We brought the team to the race by way of a proper visit in our hometown of Portland, visiting our incredible sponsors at Sellwood Cycle Repair, Steeplejack Brewery, Puff Coffee, and Castelli Cycling. We then made the gorgeous 4-hours drive to and from Wenatchee. We came away from the race week without a proper event result to write home about. Yet the team experience together was exceptional, with young cyclocrosser Kaya Musgrave starting her second national-level road race, and east coast resident Grace Nottingham making the huge journey cross country to be a gem and asset all week.
The final race day was the queen stage, beginning with some tough and windy sprint circuits along the banks of the Columbia, two exposed circuits up and down the gorge’s huge cliff faces, then finishing with a massive traverse up and over to the next drainage and a HC climb and a finish line at the top at the Mission Ridge Ski Resort. Kaya summarized it: “After 9k of climbing in just 3 racing hours on the final day, the whole team was cracked and tired. We sat around at the top of a ski resort and reminisced on the day’s drama. Before heading down the mountain and the ensuing long drive back to Portland, we walked across the gravel parking lot to a small snow bank. Even though all of us were tired and had no energy left, we had an epic snow ball fight. I’ve never experienced a team quite like this one—full of energy and plenty of things to laugh about. Thank you to Kim, Cara, Grace, Doug, Brenna, and Team S&M for making one hell of a week!”
Grace, a field scientist by day, shared her environmental reflections: “The drive east out of fir-dominated Portland to the stark contrast of the sagebrush steppe along the Columbia River gives small insights into how terrain will play into a bike race. With no protection and sheer rock faces to shoot past, you're at the mercy of the wind that you know will come barreling through the river valley and along the plateaus at some point. Maybe not on Day One, but Day Two allows the invisible powerhouse to play face card force through the five story brick buildings of downtown Wenachee. I'm used to trees everywhere—temperate forests where you can really tell what's coming directly at you, but not much farther beyond that—I realize that I take comfort in the mystery of what lies ahead of me. Luckily, Day Three of racing gives a green hint of home in the eastern Cascades: real live trees and rolling foothills almost reminiscent of the Piedmont but with vast arid undertones. This, finally (!!) allows for a little comfort in an environment that feels very far. The remainder is a blur of sparse landscapes lining the river, farms necessitating intensive watering practices to battle a soil that's putting up a fierce fight. Time trialling (Day Four) doesn't make for much of a spectator sport but you know that the goats and cows are going wild with internal shouts of "allez! allez! allez!" as you float by on an undeniably humorous vehicle of relative speed. I can't tell you much of the Fifth Day due to an untimely puncture less than ten miles into the endeavor, but it did allow for a journey back west into the foothills, up and up and down and up almost to where the air may start to feel a little more scant. These inevitably lonely finishes seem as fitting an ending to a bike race as any.”
Roster: Cara, Kim, Kaya, Grace, Brenna
Staff: Douglas the great, with the force of five humans
June - Stop 3: The Cascade Cycling Classic Criterium, OR
The Team S&M CX road project hit Redlands, Tour de Bloom, and then hit the crits and a lil gravel—because multimedia is how you build a calendar these days, and crits are the purest form of speed, fun, and tenacity in bike racin! Skills & craft are honed here.
The @cascade_cycling_classic_crit in Bend, OR was a sure stop for us. As a regionally rooted team supporting that bridge from local to pro level racing, of course we were going! Over the last two seasons, this event has ponied up a TON of community support and a generous purse in a move to bring professional-level crit racing to Bend. Of course we were gonna be there and put on a mega good show. Incredible downtown course, amazing primes and vibes. The break went, we were there, podium achieved. Get it on your 2026 calendar, crit critters!
Huge thanks to @mollycogswell_kelley for making this event a reality! Extra special shoutout to @streetdoghero for the puppy cuddles, for the rescue work you do, and for letting us hype you up publicly!
Brenna - 3rd, Jenna - 4th
August - Stop 4: The Portland Criterium Weekend
The gran finale for our 2025 #cxteamdoesroadszn experiment DELIVERED. The Portland Criterium presented by Steeplejack Brewing is hugely important for our PNW community, where the calendar of road and criterium events has condensed immensely over the last decade. The downtown Portland Crit has existed in many ways since the ‘90s, disappearing from production for 8 years in the twenty-tens, then reemerging in 2022 thanks to the hard efforts of past multi-time champion turned promoter Steven Beardsley in collaboration with the city. In 2025, the weekend took another huge leap beyond revitalization, adding a second day to its calendar of events, now highlighting both its original NW Park Blocks downtown tech twilight venue as well as a new sunny Sunday afternoon Lloyd Center Mall venue, complete with a trip through its parking garage as part of the course.
With shared presenting sponsors on the line and previous titles to defend and impress, you know we were going to show up with some hometown heroics—because crit racing is bike tech meets show business, babyyyy. It was thrilling to bring some #critdawg panache to both days, a honed team executing two separate victories in two distinct fashions and with two different champs.
Portland Crit, we can’t wait to be back in 2026. Thank you for producing a huge gift for our community, we freaking love you.
Cheers to 2026. We’re gonna keep protecting the fun and amplifying the best sides of the sport.