At 19 years of age, Ezra Caudell landed his first skilled job to race as an expert bike owner, incomes a two-year take care of Fashionable Journey Professional Biking. He is one in every of 9 riders between the ages of 18 to 24 on the freshly minted crew in 2026, all of them in stable positions for improvement underneath the tutelage of former WorldTour professional and crew co-founder George Hincapie, and a trio of former USPro nationwide champions as crew administrators – Alex Howes, Ty Magner and Joey Rosskopf.
It is a daring entry into full-time highway racing for the youthful BMX and mountain bike swashbuckler. His early days rising up on the pink clay of Georgia have been spent on home made BMX observe in his yard and using on rocky, rooty mountain bike trails round Lake Altoona, north of Atlanta. By 2021 at age 15 he secured 14 MTB wins and 5 extra high 10s throughout 20 USA Biking sanctioned occasions, most of them within the southeastern US, and at his first US Professional Cup he completed fourth.
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Cyclingnews: Lots of people can be listening to about you for the primary time with Fashionable Journey Professional Biking within the 2026 highway season, however you have been biking because you have been very younger. Inform us about rising up in Acworth, Georgia and the way you bought concerned with biking.
Ezra Caudell: After I was little, I performed baseball and soccer, however round 7 years outdated, my mother and father realized I couldn’t keep centered and I hated the downtime. Simply earlier than my eighth birthday, my mother began on the lookout for a operating membership or any sport that will hold me shifting all the time. She got here throughout the USA BMX web site, and we discovered there was a BMX observe about 7 miles from my home. I began using a motorcycle and filth bike at 4 so that they thought this may be a very good match. My mother and father took me over to Noonday Creek Park one Sunday to observe a race and I used to be hooked!
For my eighth birthday they bought a inventory Redline BMX bike and I began racing that subsequent weekend. My sister, Emma, was 5 and needed to do no matter I used to be doing, so she began racing additionally. We travelled all around the US in our camper racing nationals for the following three years.
CN: Did you actually have a pump observe in your yard rising up?
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EC: I did have a pump observe in my yard rising up! After I began racing BMX, a couple of of the dads advised my mother and father it might be useful to do some pump observe observe. They advised us there was one in Roswell, Georgia at Huge Creek the place we may observe. My mother and father would take us over and we’d observe for hours.
Because it was an extended drive to Huge Creek, my dad got here up with the thought of constructing one in our yard. We sat down and designed it, my dad ordered a few dump vehicles of filth, and we used my uncle’s bobcat to construct it. To get velocity on the primary straight we’d begin within the nook of the again porch, and we constructed a ramp out of plywood to place over the porch steps.
We redesigned it a couple of occasions over time, however I by no means stopped taking part in on it. In actual fact, we solely bulldozed it down in 2024 simply earlier than we put our home up on the market to maneuver to Germany.
CN: You moved into mountain bike racing as a young person, so inform us about your improvement on filth and incomes spots with Workforce USA for worldwide competitions.
EC: Throughout 2023 and 2024, MTB was nonetheless my major self-discipline. I raced NICA from 2018 to 2022 underneath the Blankets Creek Homeschool Workforce (in Georgia), however it was laborious to slot in the right coaching, so I stepped away.
I raced for Gravity Academy in 2023, and that yr I used to be chosen to race the Pan-American MTB Championships in Brazil. This was my first race within the USA Biking Nationwide package. Later that yr, I did my first race block in Europe, and I knew then I needed to be racing in Europe.
I raced for Gravity Collective in 2024 and hit each UCI and US Professional Cup race within the US as attainable to earn UCI factors in hopes of constructing it to Mountain Bike Worlds. I made the USA Worlds crew in 2024 in Andorra and had a entrance row begin. This was an enormous second.
CN: In 2024 you had some main off-road achievements, together with your first nationwide championship with US Marathon MTB within the 17-18 division. What have been your three favourite biking highlights from that yr?
EC: Sure, 2024 was a very nice yr for me in mountain biking. I used to be chosen for Pan-Ams for the second yr in a row and positioned fourth, simply lacking the rostrum. I did win my first nationwide championship within the 17-18 class on the US Marathon MTB championships.
That yr I traveled fairly a bit and had plenty of alternatives, however for my high 3 highlights of 2024, first on the checklist could be successful my first UCI races in Puerto Rico. I gained two of the three XC races and the STXC race. Second could be taking second on the Mountain Bike cross-country US Nationals. That was a brutal race, and ending simply 10 seconds off Nico Konecky was an enormous accomplishment for me.
The third spotlight could be making it to Worlds in Andorra with a entrance row begin. My household had simply moved to Germany, so that they have been capable of come watch too. I snapped my chain at first and needed to run the bike to the primary tech zone to get a brand new chain. I used to be happy with myself for not giving up, although. I used to be lifeless final at that time, however I used to be capable of end on the chief’s lap. The end wasn’t what I had hoped for, however it was an unforgettable expertise.
CN: You started some highway racing as a junior. Inform us about that and using the primary time on the Athens Twilight Criterium.
EC: In 2022, mountain biking was my focus, with Cadence Devo. Throughout that point my mother and father purchased me a highway bike to coach on and among the coaches have been huge highway riders. They labored with the children that have been considering highway by taking us to group rides with Free Flite Bike store, Tuesday night time crits in Marietta, ‘Airport Experience’ for the primary time, WBL [Winter Bike League out of Athens – op ed].
As soon as I realized about Athens Twilight, I used to be tremendous excited to race it. I used to be stoked to win the 15-16, however the principle aim was to make it into the Cat. 1,2,3 race that night time and simply hold on so long as I may. I made it in, I didn’t final lengthy, however it was chaos and I liked it!
CN: In 2025, you had a lot of high 10s with Workforce California in Belgium and Spain, together with a victory at Campeonato de Navarra highway race. Inform us about being a part of that programme, because you didn’t undergo a typical highway improvement crew for racing.
EC: I used to be nonetheless dedicated to MTB in 2025, however I had hoped to get a chance to race on the highway with USA Biking after they came visiting to Europe and I used to be now residing in Germany. That chance got here in March of this yr after Alex Pasqualina (USA Biking Mountain Bike Director) put me involved with Tanner Putt (USA Biking Street Director). I used to be capable of do a race block in Belgium with the USA Workforce and made some nice connections. I continued to race MTB and did three World Cup races with USA Biking.
I bought linked with Workforce California and was invited to race in Spain over the summer season. I had been feeling like I needed to maneuver to highway, and the race block with Workforce California solidified that for me.
CN: What did you want about racing in Europe, and what was most difficult?
I’ve all the time most popular to problem myself. So, a better race that I place properly in doesn’t really feel as rewarding if I can’t see the way it made me higher or pushed me. What I’ve discovered racing in Europe for the previous yr and a half is the depth of expertise is insane. There are not any ‘simpler’ races. At each race there are heavy hitters from completely different nations. It actually provides you respect for the tradition and the way significantly they take the game of biking.
I really feel prefer it’s the equal of how American soccer is within the US the place it’s such a mainstream sport that the pool of expertise is simply large. The opposite facet I like however it’s also a problem is the truth that they race laborious all the time, and there’s by no means a uninteresting second. There’s motion the entire time and it’s a must to be able to react shortly.
After I referred to as my mother and father after my first European race in 2024, they requested the way it was. I mentioned ‘it was loopy’! It was a brilliant aggressive race and it felt like mass chaos, however I couldn’t wait to do it once more!
CN: Fashionable Journey Professional Biking has three crew administrators, and every was requested to search out US expertise. Did you’ve got a reference to Magner or Rosskopf specifically, since they’re each from Georgia? How did you get an invite to hitch the crew?
EC: I didn’t have an in depth reference to Ty or Joey, however as soon as I bought into highway, I knew who they have been. They most likely wouldn’t bear in mind it, however I met them a couple of occasions at group rides in Georgia. I even have an image of me with Joey in his nationwide championship jersey the primary time I met him. I feel I used to be like 15, so it appears like a full circle second.
Joey was the primary one to succeed in out to me again in Could to inform me about this new crew the Hincapies have been beginning. It was one thing that basically me as properly. They have been on the lookout for younger American riders with a very good character and potential within the sport.
We saved chatting for a few months and sooner or later I bought a textual content saying George could be giving me a name with a proposal as a rider for the following two years. It was a loopy expertise going from a devoted mountain biker originally of the yr who educated on the highway primarily, having some good outcomes on the highway, after which getting a name from George Hincapie for this new American ProTeam. I’m tremendous grateful for the chance and searching ahead to rising over the following two years.
CN: What are your targets for the primary yr with the crew?
EC: My primary aim for 2026 is getting expertise within the professional peloton, studying my position within the crew, and retaining myself wholesome and match all year long. I actually need to concentrate on the highway, after which there may be some gravel alternatives. I feel perhaps sooner or later, it might be cool to attempt to do some mountain bike stuff as properly.
CN: How would you describe your model of highway using, and what’s the greatest constructive you deliver to the crew proper now, properly forward of any races?
EC: I’d say I’m extra of a breakaway rider, to be trustworthy. And Traditional model is what I may see myself doing very well.
I suppose you can say confidence. I’ve all the time liked the highway as a result of I really feel like there’s such little stress. I’ve all the time felt a lot stress with mountain biking, I suppose simply because I’ve simply been doing it for thus lengthy, and I really feel like I nearly have one thing to stay as much as. With highway, I really feel like I’ve nothing to show, however I can simply, you understand, go on the market and do actually good and no one is aware of me. So, I can actually not fear about being confused for getting a selected consequence. And I really feel like that is an enormous benefit.
CN: Should you may choose two ‘must-do’ races to your calendar within the subsequent two years, what would they be?
I’d like to do Paris-Roubaix; that will be an enormous one. I feel that will be insane, a bucket checklist merchandise for positive. And Strade Bianche. These two are the massive ones in my thoughts.
CN: What would you want to perform as a U23 rider?
EC: My high three targets as a U23 rider would begin with simply studying as a lot as I can from the older riders and the employees who’ve the expertise and data to assist train me to be one of the best rider I will be.
One other huge aim for me could be getting a while on a TT bike and seeing if I may do properly there. I feel my physiology is admittedly suited in the direction of a TT effort being an even bigger rider. I’m to see how I’d do since I’ve by no means touched a TT bike earlier than.
And lastly, I feel an enormous aim for me could be to point out there’s multiple path to changing into a professional bike owner. I wasn’t on one of many huge highway improvement groups, however in the event you work laborious and don’t surrender, you may cross over and nonetheless have success.
CN: Whenever you aren’t on a motorcycle, what do you get pleasure from in your free time?
EC: Again in Georgia, constructing trails with my associates was what I loved most in my free time. We might spend hours within the woods simply making brief little loam trails or jumps and using them. Since we moved to Germany, travelling is one thing I like to do in my spare time. We’re all the time on the lookout for a very good fort, one of the best café, and this time of yr the Christmas markets.
I additionally prefer to hike and see locations from a special perspective than I’d get whereas using. My sister and I like baking too, though I don’t assume it counts to say that I’m the one baking, I’m simply her helper.
