Floyd’s Pro Cycling to shutter at the end of 2019

Floyd’s Pro Cycling, the American UCI Continental team backed by Floyd Landis, will cease operations at the end of 2019.

The news was revealed on the team’s website in a letter written by Scott McFarlane, the team’s co-owner and general manager.

“Unfortunately CanAm Cycling, the management company running Floyd’s Pro Cycling, was unable to secure a title sponsor for 2020 and so the team will cease operations at the end of this year,” McFarlane wrote.

The squad was birthed at the end of the 2018 season as a new UCI Continental squad for the North American domestic racing scene. The team’s management was comprised of officials from the defunct Canadian team Silber Pro Cycling, which ceased operations at the end of the 2018 season. McFarlane stepped in as general manager, and retired sprinter Gord Fraser oversaw the team’s sporting efforts.

Landis, once the winner of the 2006 Tour de France, stepped in to back the team, and the squad’s jerseys displayed branding similar to that used by Landis’s cannabis company, Floyd’s of Leadville. Landis said his financial backing of the squad stemmed from the settlement cash paid to him by Lance Armstrong resulting from his whistleblower lawsuit with the U.S. Federal Government.

“Floyd Landis supported our team at a time when North American road racing needed it and when he could have easily used that money to support the growth of Floyd’s of Leadville,” McFarland wrote. “His decision to be the title sponsor of our team was in part an act of loyalty to Gord Fraser and a sincere wish to help young riders on our team.”

The squad stepped into a domestic U.S. racing scene rife with available talent, due to the dissolving of Team United Healthcare and Silber at the end of the 2018 season. The squad hired on sprinter Travis McCabe, as well as GC riders Serghei Tvetcov, Keegan Swirbul, Jonathan Clarke, and Nick Zukowski.

The squad enjoyed success throughout the season, collecting 34 victories—10 wins at UCI races—as well as three national titles. Clarke won a stage and the overall at the Tour of Taiwan; McCabe won sprint stages at the Tour of Langkawi and Tour of the Gila, as well as the U.S. Criterium national title; Tvetcov won the individual time trials at Gila and the Tour de Beauce, as well as the Chrono Kristin Armstrong race.

“I want to thank all the riders who made 2019 memorable on and off the bike,” McFarlane wrote. “This team was unique in that it had 4-5 different kinds of leaders who somehow all got along by deferring or stepping up at the right time.”