Odette Lynch and Aline Seitz are just two of many international riders living out of suitcases on a constant roadtrip around the United States
Photo: Mitchell Vincent
The scale and size of the United States can be deceptive when viewed through the lens of many professional sports. After all, fans see big-league franchise teams crisscross the country with ease. However, the nation’s true size hits home when you start paying for plane tickets and gas and arranging for meals, hotels, and laundry. When you factor in the size of this country alongside the complexities of travelling to race bicycles, it becomes even more daunting.
Racing criteriums, even local ones, can be an advanced logistics effort involving a heap of bikes and wheels, clothing, helmets, and nutrition. It is not as simple as rocking up to the local field with cleats in hand and dropping into a pickup soccer match. You have to want to make criterium racing a part of your life, and few demonstrate that commitment like the international riders who have crossed oceans, the equator, and the international-date line to then crisscross the US on the criterium circuit.
We can set aside the question of whether American criterium racing is superior to that of Australia, Britain, Germany, or wherever else this style of racing is treated as competition rather than exhibition. The fact is that riders from across the globe come to the US to race short laps on the road. This year, at the Tour of America’s Dairyland (TOAD), we were treated to dominating performances by Kiwis, Canadians, Australians, Swiss, Chileans, Colombians, and riders from a host of other nations. Those riders hit the circuit beyond TOAD to Chicago, Tulsa, Somerville, Easton, and other hamlets throughout the country. They did this while living out of suitcases and sleeping in host housing on vast road trips, all without returning home.
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Embracing the nomadic life
Swiss-born Aline Seitz and the Australian Odette Lynch are two such athletes. This is the second year for both on the American circuit, and the first on their new HigherDOSE-Renova team, run by directors Justin Kirk, Dr. Andrea Cyr, and Marco Aledia. To many who fit bike racing into a 9-5 job, moving across the world to race in the US for months on end might seem like a huge disruption. Seitz, an international road and track rider, sees it differently.
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