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 Classic Fuego XL.
However, subsequent week on the Unbound Gravel 200, the second cease of the Grand Prix, Vermeulen will miss the primary occasion, as responsibility calls along with his brother’s marriage 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 sequence.
“At the start of the yr, I used to be actually pressured about Unbound, however given how Sea Otter went, I’ve develop into rather less pressured about it,” Vermeulen advised Cyclingnews after coming fifth within the elite males’s street race on the USA Cycling Pro Road National Championships.
“I feel the ball is in Keegan’s courtroom to proceed dominating how he has at Unbound, the race that you simply want probably the most luck. So I’m 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 received his begin in professional biking on the street, racing with the BMC Development staff and the nationwide staff in Europe, and signed with Lotto-Jumbo in 2016. But 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 doesn’t suggest Vermeulen has no aspirations on the street, removed from it. He introduced coming into US Pro that he was gunning to make Team USA for the Olympic 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 Team Emirates).
In the street race, Vermeulen was energetic all through the race chasing an elite breakaway and finally ending fifth behind Sean Quinn (EF Education-EasyPost), McNulty, Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Scott McGill (Project Echelon).
“It’s been a weekend of remembering bike racing,” Vermeulen mentioned after the trouble. “It’s exhausting, however I’m fairly proud. I imply, quite a lot of these races are much more tactical than a number of 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. And then I simply did not have the pop to observe 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 Pro moved to May 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 purpose to skip Unbound. I’d 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 really like gravel racing, but it surely’s the identical stuff again and again. I’m wanting ahead to 2028 but in addition I’m simply pleased with how this yr’s gone up to now. Hopefully, I’ll be leaping again in a pair extra street races this yr.”
Along with a runner-up spot at Fuego XL, he has stacked up high outcomes this gravel season with a second at Belgian Waffle Ride California, third at Old 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, nevertheless.
“I miss the street, and I miss the historical past that street has, however I’m additionally actually pleased with what’s been created in gravel, and I simply would like to discover a solution to steadiness each, which is less complicated to say than do.”
