2024 Tour of the Gila GC winner Tyler Stites has signed a two-year contract to race for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and will move from the US-based Continental programme Project Echelon Racing to begin the 2025 season.
"I am very excited to make the jump to the ProTeam level, something I have been working towards for a long time," Stites told Cyclingnews.
"I felt like I was ready to make this jump a few years ago after five seasons racing and developing on Aevolo under Mike Creed, but the big teams were not interested. I was lucky to end up racing for Project Echelon for the last three seasons, where I continued to develop and became a more well-rounded rider. Results in bigger European races were necessary for a professional team to notice me.
"I am very thankful that Project Echelon made it a priority to get us plenty of European racing opportunities this year. I am looking forward to new experiences next year and going to races I've never done before."
Stites was originally on the roster with Project Echelon Racing to compete at the Tour of Britain next week, but will remain in the US to fully recover from 'deep muscle bruising' sustained in a training crash near his home in Tucson, Arizona a few weeks ago. His final race with his current team will now be El Tour de Tucson on November 23.
According to team manager Eric Hill, one of Tyler's last races in the Project Echelon colors was to be at the six-stage 2.Pro race that starts in Kelso, Scotland on September 3. However, Tyler was knocked off his bike by a driver of a car while on a training ride and remained home for injuries to fully heal. "Tyler suffered deep muscle bruising but is already on his way to making a full recovery from the incident," Hill stated.
Stites landed on the radar of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA from his recent performances against WorldTour talent at US Pro Road Nationals and his performances in European events. The team said he demonstrated "tactical ability in breakaways and his good speed in small groups". Stites said Caja Rural didn't just take note of the race results, but saw him compete at many of the events and they reached out to him.
"European cycling is raced at a higher level than in [North] America, but still many of the skills I learned in America apply to European racing as well. I am an all-rounder. I enjoy racing on any terrain but I have found the most success with reduced group sprints. I am looking forward to contributing to the team's success."
Stites is among a new trio of riders recently signed for 2025 and 2026 by the Spanish-based ProTeam, joining Spaniard Javier Ibáñez from the Caja Rural Alea club squad and Alex Molenaar from Dutch rider Illes Balears Arabay. Caja Rural have a reputation for their balance of global talent. This year three South American riders accumulated a haul of UCI points to put the team in the top 25 of the World Rankings. Ecuadorian Jefferson Cepeda, who won the GC at Tour of Qinghai Lake this summer, has been one of the team's top riders this year and is signed through 2026.
Stites performed consistently throughout his career at US stage races, winning the Mount Sequoyah stage and the mountains classification at the 2021 Joe Martin Stage Race in his final year with Aevolo, the US development programme. In his first season with Project Echelon, the Arizona native won the GC at Redlands Bicycle Classic, won two stages of the Tour of the Gila and was on the podium in three out of four stages at Joe Martin for third overall. He went on to win the GC two more times at Redlands and finish on the GC podium at twice at Tour de Beauce.
"We are excited for Tyler and his opportunity to race a complete European calendar," team founder and director Eric Hill told Cyclingnews.
Hill called Stites "a cornerstone" for the squad with a variety of contributions since 2022 that propelled him to a solid all-arounder, taking top results in hilly road races, fast criteriums and any time of time trial.
"Tyler has been a cornerstone of Project Echelon for the past three seasons. His dedication to the craft, attention to detail, and killer race instincts pushed this team to new levels and elevated the performance of everyone around him."
This year, Stites had eight victories, which included a win at Rhodes GP. He also had two podiums at Volta a Portugal and three top 10s at the Tour of Rhodes. Domestically, he swept GC titles at Redlands and Tour of the Gila. So when he earned the silver medal in the time trial at US Pro Road Nationals, finishing on the podium between winner Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost), European teams took note.
It was not the first time he gave WorldTour riders a run for their money. In 2023 he earned the bronze in the US Pro road race behind winner Quinn Simmons (Trek-Segafredo) and in 2022 he outsprinted Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) for the silver in the US Pro road race.
"We look forward to watching Tyler fly to new heights in the European peloton with Caja Rural-Seguros RGA in 2025, a team we always look forward to competing against when abroad," Hill stated on social media.
Project Echelon will be one of four debutant UCI Continental teams at the Tour of Britain, which begins September 3 in Scotland, where they will line up against four WorldTour teams - Ineos Grenadiers, Soudal-QuickStep, Team DSM-Firmenich PostNL and Bahrain Victorious.
