Stradalli Cycle Mountain Bikers Having A Blast At Trans-Sylvania Epic

Heading up to Pennsylvania for the Trans-Sylvania Epic, Cesar Grajales tried to prepare the rest of the Stradalli Cycle racers for what they can expect. Grajales is a veteran of the TSEpic and other stage races and wanted to make sure his team knew what to expect as they prepared to race every day for a week in some of the most beautiful but challenging trails in North America. After a couple of days of racing, it’s been a tough challenge but they guys have all loved the experience.

“Cesar really helped a lot getting us prepared. When you get done with a race you are ready to relax and take it easy, but not here. You have to get ready for the next day, clean your bike and your gear, make sure it is ready to go, watch what you eat and stay hydrated. It’s very humid and hot up here right now but thankfully racing in Florida all the time helps prepare us for that. The trails are really rocky with bigger hills than we see back home and you have to be focused the entire time you are riding because you don’t want to make a mistake.” Bob McCarty

Also racing in the Trans-Sylvania Epic this year is Stradalli Cycle CEO Tom Steinbacher who was very impressed with the course so far and said everyone was having a great time. “It’s a lot of great people and great racing. Everyone is having fun and the trails are very challenging but that’s also part of the fun. It’s great to interact with mountain bikers from different parts of the country who come here each year. People have been asking questions about our mountain bikes and checking them out because they see how well they are handling these trails. It should be an interesting week of racing.”

Last stage of An Post Rás – Holler defends climbers-jersey

Stage 8 of An Post Rás (UCI 2.2) in Ireland was the last stage of a wonderful and successful race during the last week. With his 13th place today, Nikodemus Holler seals the win of KOM – jersey on his Stradalli Cycle Bitonto full carbon road bike.

A week full of stress, fighting, suffering and much more has now been left behind. Such a stage race always keeps very special and unique challenges for the riders. And it is not only the pure racing that makes it hard, it is also the psychological part that is a real challenge to everyone.

Not only are the riders concerned it is also the staff that has to bear a lot of the stress and suffering too during such a tough race. Lot of tasks have to be done in a very accurate way but in a short amount of time as the whole pack is moving every day from A to B. Waking up early in the morning, preparing bottles (about 40 per day), food, equipment, tactical briefing and many more. Then race time, pure stress. After the mechanics take their space to clean and service all the bikes and wheels and the physios trying to let the riders relax. Lot to do before the last one turns the light off.

In such conditions and with that amount of stress, it is barely important that the people involved in such a tour have a good relationship and are able to maintain a good mood together during the whole time of the race. If you are inside of all this, you often do not realize the real meaning of what everybody brings in and sacrifices to make the whole thing working. But when you take a step outside of the box and look on all these details, you quickly realize that everybody in a team I a hero on his own way with his own experience and with all he or her does. Just awesome what all people have to bring together that it is possible to bring a team to the start line.

And when all these sacrifices, all this passion and suffer from everybody leads to success at the end, there can be not much more feelings that are better. And tonight the guys from Stradalli – BIKE AID surely deserved it to have a brilliant evening with a lot of fun, as the whole week can be seen as a success.

8 hard stages left behind, lot of stress and hectic, suffer and fight and today it was all about bringing the jersey home. And maybe to have a good sprint for Patrick Lechner again at the end of this 8th stage in Skerries. Unfortunately Patrick got involved into a bad crash in the final lap and his opportunity to do another good result was gone. So it was finally all about bringing Niko’s climbers jersey home. He finished 13th again and finally won the climbers classification and took 10th place in GC.

Congratulations also to Clemens Frankhauser form team Tirol who won the GC of this year’s Rás and who really deserves it! Well done to all of you guys! Now we wish you all a good way back and hope for another great adventures!   

A day in the break – superb ride brings Holler closer to the overall win in KOM classification

With his awesome ride today in the break, Nikodemus Holler gained more points for the KOM classification and just needs one more point on tomorrow’s last stage of An Post Rás (UCI 2.2)

Sometimes it is the best way to defend, when you attack. But in cycling you don’t want to throw out all your cards too early on the table and attacking the others also brings many risks. But sometimes you get forced to do it by the action of your competitors and you can forget all your plans that you made before.

On today’s penultimate stage of An Post Rás in Ireland, the plan was actually to stay together with the other favorites for the GC and to have a showdown at the last climb of the day – ranked in category 1. But before the first climb there was a break going with the biggest competitor for Niko in the KOM classification and he had to react immediately. So he made his way to the break before the first climb and from there on Niko showed an incredible performance. Winning all KOM’s until the last climb and when his fellows started to fatigue, he took his way alone. He literally put all his cards on the table and now forced the others to react.

Unfortunately the Australian National team had different plans and put all effort to chase Niko down and fight for the GC themselves. In the middle of the cat 1 climb, the Aussies closed the gap with only 5 guys together and an incredible speed. Of course it is the most difficult moment when you get caught in the middle of a climb having already many kilometers of break in the legs.

Despite all efforts and incredible fight, Nikodemus Holler could not follow the Aussies anymore and took his own rhythm. After the decent he fought with another group to come back but when they arrived to the finish they missed by only 56 seconds. Niko finished on 13th place, but made again his way to the podium to receive “his” mountains jersey. 

On tomorrow’s last stage he needs just one more point to take this beautiful jersey home and also to finalize a superb week of great racing in Ireland!

Fingers crossed, and never forget the GC 

Stradalli Cycle Memorial Day Deals

Holler increases lead in KOM classification – 2 days to go to Dublin

With his 14th place and even more points in the KOM classification on today’s 6th stage of An Post Rás (UCI 2.2) in Ireland, Nikodemus Holler could successfully defend his mountains jersey and still ranks promising in GC.

Actually it should be a day without lot of trouble and a little bit more calm as the previous days. That’s what the riders were thinking. But in reality the stage was again very hectic, nervous and fast in the beginning due to lots of attacks. With 158 kilometers and “only” 3 KOM climbs of category 3 it was not a very hard stage, but at the end it’s the riders who make the race hard. And in the Rás there is no real day to rest or to let you hang around in the pack, as you always have to keep the tension and concentration.

Luckily the “joint-venture” of TeamTirol and Stradalli – BIKE AID succeeded after a while to control the race to make it a little more comfortable for their captains as there is a real day of fight waiting for the guys tomorrow.

At the end of the stage Nikodemus Holler could manage to reach the finish again with the other favorites and keep his promising position in the GC with only 10 seconds back of yellow. In the KOM classification he could increase his gap to 18 points to the second position.

“I still feel very good in the climbs and just didn’t want to invest too much today, as tomorrow will be another hard and probably the decisive day for the GC. But it was also important to me, to win another points for the KOM classification, as this jersey is so beautiful and I want to keep that until Dublin”, Nikodemus Holler described his day.

In the morning before the stage there was some bad news the team received: Joschka Beck couldn’t start the stage as he fell sick and got a fever during the night. We wish him all the best!

Niko Holler extended his lead in the King of the Mountains classification at UCI 2.2 An Post Ras today during Stage 6 through Eastern Ireland.

Stage 6 was not as mountainous as the previous several stages, but it still provided opportunities for the climbers of the race to compete for points on several categorized climbs. The race was hard enough to split the field down to only 50 riders, but the fast flat finish meant Stradalli – Bike Aid team chose to focus on protecting the general classification and king of the mountain classification position held by Holler instead of contesting for the win.

This week at An Post Ras has been about riding as strong as possible as a team to prepare for Qinghai Lake, the most prestigious race on the UCI calendar in Asia. Holler has confirmed all season is ability to lead the team in top level UCI races.

Stradalli – Bike Aid riders Joschka Beck, Patrick Lechner, Damien Garcia and Janvier Hadi have been riding solely to protect Holler and give him the opportunity to chase big wins at An Post Ras. It has been a full team effort to shield Holler from the wind and ensure he makes the front group during every stage of racing. It is very difficult to win a leader’s jersey at a race like An Post Ras, but the goal is very achievable.


Holler still remains 10 seconds away from the leader’s jersey and with several hard stages left the team is going to try everything in the book to gain the lead in the general classification and build on the lead in the King of the Mountains classification.


An Post Ras continues tomorrow with Stage 7, 155 kilometers from Dungarvan to Baltinglass. There will be 4 opportunities for King of the Mountain points. 3 category 3 climbs come early in the race, but the big ascent of the day comes at 110 kilometers. Mount Leinster will give the general classification riders the last opportunity to sort out the overall and the Stradalli – Bike Aid team is looking forward to their defense of the King of the Mountains jersey.  

Holler and the points – on stage 5 back in KOM jersey

Stage 5 of An Post Ras UCI 2.2 race finished with a small breakaway arriving 27 seconds ahead of the main group. Today Stradalli – Bike Aid missed the breakaway, but the real race for leader’s jerseys was still on in a hard way.

The 166.8 kilometer route saw the riders tackle several categorized climbs which meant many King of the Mountain points were on offer. Stradalli – Bike Aid rider, who was previously placed second in the mountains classification, put his climbing skills to work and reclaimed the King of the Mountains jersey with only three days of racing left

The mountainous route meant the race would be very hard to control and a break of 6 would eventually go up the road. None of the riders were a huge threat to the general classification, so there wasn’t much motivation from the group to chase late in the race. The team worked to protect Holler and keep him safe from any accidents.

Holler would eventually make the front group of only 28 riders and finish 13th on the day and preserving his top 10 general classification placing. Holler still remains 10 seconds behind the leader’s jersey and with more mountainous stages ahead a general classification win is still well within reach.

Stage 6 from Clonakilty to Dungarvan runs 159.1 kilometers is another hilly route, but will provide the sprinters who make it to the end with a fast flat finish. Out of over 150 riders, only 30-40 riders are consistently making it to the finish in the front group. The weather conditions and routes are proving tough for all riders involved, but the team is positive and are looking forward to another day defending the King of the Mountains jersey and chasing an overall win.

Nikodemus Holler gets back the lead in the KOM classification at An Post Rás (UCI 2.2) in Ireland. After lots of points today, Holler now leads with 11 points ahead of second place.

On today’s fifth stage of An Post Rás the guys from Stradalli – BIKE AID had a lot on their minds with what they wanted to do. In the language of football nowadays everybody talks about “setting goals” and so on. Whatever you may think about those kind of “plans” or “missions” one thing is for sure: in real life it is important to set some goals and to try and reach them as good as possible. And honestly, who wants to go through life without any plan?

Today the riders of team Stradalli – BIKE AID agreed together on 2 main goals: first, to take back the KOM – leader jersey for Nikodemus Holler and second, to try to put pressure on the yellow jersey today.

With these targets in their pocket, the riders from the German team went to the start line ready to fight like hell. Sure, during the Rás it is very hard to control the race as the teams consist only of 5 riders and the race is so nervous and hectic but the guys did the utmost to reach their goals. Again working hard as a team with their Stradalli full carbon Aversa road bikes, they controlled the pack until the first KOM and Nikodemus did the rest. He won the first KOM and took second in the KOM number 2 to win again the third.

With taking all these points, Niko now leads with 11 points ahead of the second and wears the leader jersey of the KOM classification again! A very beautiful one by the way, very colourful!

At the end of the stage, Niko finished with a group of other favorites on 13th place 27 seconds back on the winner Wouter Mol form dutch team De Rijke.

So there is one goal left for the upcoming days, guys!

Congrats Debbie Milne of Stradalli – Papa Johns Women’s Elite Cycling Team

Congrats Debbie Milne of Stradalli – Papa Johns Women’s Elite Cycling Team on her win today in the 45-49 U.S. National Criterium Championships. Winston – Salem, North Carolina is hosting the master’s national championships for 2016. Thousands of racers from around the United States have traveled to North Carolina to compete for a stars and stripes jersey. Milne has consistently posted great results for Stradalli – Papa Johns. Stradalli Cycle is very proud to have such an incredible rider on our R7. Congrats, Debbie!