‘This is a tough industry to keep a team running’ – Crit specialist Andrea Cyr makes bold move to launch women’s programme after third team collapse

In the last four seasons, Cyr has compiled three runner-up finishes in the American Criterium Cup series. However, top results have been darkened by three years of tumultuous times with teams, her last three folding or ‘pausing’ for the foreseeable future – Miami Nights, Goldman Sachs ETFs Racing and Fount Cycling Guild. The path she saw to stop the year-to-year mayhem was to just start a team herself, and one that would provide earning opportunities for other female athletes.

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“I would just race on my own if it were only for me. But I think it’s important, if you have resources and connections, to extend that to other people. A couple of women on our team, this is their livelihood, this is their job, and I admire that. I want to make sure they have a space and the support to do what they’re trying to do,” Cyr told Cyclingnews.

“You know, I’ve been on great programmes for the last three seasons, but they’ve all folded for their own reasons. This is a tough industry to keep a team running. I feel like I’m in a position in the sport to create or give back something. I don’t know how many more years I’m going to race at a top or high level. And this has been in the back of my mind of, how do I pivot into being something else for the sport?”

For a fresh start, HigherDOSE Cycling was built with “phenomenal sprint power”, and Cyr added riders to share the load at the front of races – Swiss rider Aline Seitz, Australian Odette Lynch and three fellow Americans Marjie Bemis, Elizabeth Dixon and Regina Doty.

Seitz was the star of this summer’s American Criterium Cup, winning the overall ahead of Cyr. It was her first dedicated season to US racing after several years with European teams, including WorldTour-level Roland in 2022.

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Lynch, just 23 years old, finshed second overall in the 11-race Kwik Trip Tour of America’s Dairyland in Wisconsin, earning six podiums, with only Marlies Mejías (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28) going better with seven podiums and the overall title.

Dixon was a silver medallist at USPro Criterium Nationals and stage winner at Tour of the Gila two years ago, and rode with Cyr at Fount last year. Bemis and Doty, both veterans with one-day races, moved from the now-folded LA Sweat Racing team.

The accomplished rider said she’s grateful to turn her attention to “help orchestrate results as a chessboard” in a captain’s role rather than lead out the sprints.

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“You know, I’m very excited about the roster we have. We gave it a good amount of thought, so I’m excited how it comes together. I’ll likely not have to be into so much of a sprinter role this year. I’m very grateful.

Growing up in Maine, the 37-year-old team captain began racing with a handful of east coast road races in 2013 and by 2019 competed on a full calendar of US one-day races at the pro level. Her powerful sprint and technical abilities saw her finish second overall three times at the American Criterium Cup series, including last year. She’s also had top 10s on stage at Tour de Bloom, Redlands Bicycle Classic as well as USA Crits and Speed Week one-day races. She makes her home in Carmel, Indiana, where she has worked most recently for IU Health.

“I’m actually transitioning to go into private practice with a group, so that’s been something I’m looking at for next year. It gives me a lot more autonomy, some ownership over how I want to practice going on my own a bit,” Cyr said about her medical job.

The team will hold a camp in or near her home in Indiana at the end of March, with some riders taking part in the Speed Week series in South Carolina and Georgia. The full squad would focus on racing together at the Armed Forces Cycling Classic in Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Virginia, May 30-31, 2026.

“We’re going to target mostly a criterium calendar, all the national races. We hope to earn invites to Maryland Cycling Classic and Philly; we would be ecstatic about that.”

The trio of team founders committed several months ago to creating the team and bringing it to life with a connection to a recovery and wellness product company new to cycling, HigherDOSE, which is based in New York City. Cyr said the timing was right, as the procession of shuttered teams continued this past summer with Fount, “that part got louder and things just developed in the right way”.

“I’m excited about HigherDOSE as a sponsor, because it’s something I can truly back and I love, and it’s directly related to what we’re doing.”

“HigherDOSE showed interest in being our title sponsor when this simply was an idea. And getting any team off the ground [is difficult]. They’re new to cycling, so to bring in money from outside the sport was huge. We had this opportunity, and I didn’t want to pass that because the sport doesn’t see this enough, especially domestic crit raising.”

DOSE refers to the four ‘happy hormones’ found in the body – Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins, which contribute to elevating and stabilizing moods such as calmness and happiness.

Cyr said team equipment and apparel partnerships would be announced in the coming weeks in conjunction with their publicity efforts.