Gavin Mannion completes 'wild ride' as pro after 12 seasons

After 12 full seasons as a professional, US climber Gavin Mannion called it a career this week and will not pursue a contract to continue road racing. He became a fixture at the front of the peloton with the UnitedHealthcare squad in 2017 and 2018 in his mid-20s, then was one of the leaders on the Human Powered Health organisation for the last four seasons.

“It still sounds strange saying it, ‘retired’,” Mannion, now 31 years old, told Cyclingnews this week.

“Looking back now, I think my years on UnitedHealthcare were some of the best, 2017 and 2018. In those two years, I was pretty much on the podium of most of the races that I wanted to try to win. So, yeah, those were probably my most consistent and most successful seasons.”

At two of the most prominent UCI stage races in the US at the time, Mannion took second overall at “America’s Toughest Stage Race”, the Tour of Utah in 2017 and the next season, he soared to the overall title at the equally-challenging Colorado Classic.

The new England native who now lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado said the move the Rally Cycling, now Human Powered Health, provided opportunities for more European racing, but as a ProTeam, never received a wild card entry into a Grand Tour race. Mannion said it would have been nice to have started a Grand Tour, but he did not feel remorse.

“I definitely would have been nice. I mean, that was definitely like a goal I had in mind a few years ago, but I don't feel like I did something wrong or didn't do enough. I thought maybe it would become an opportunity on Human Powered Health if the team grew into the WorldTour in the last couple of years.”

Several factors played into a decision to retire from racing, Mannion told Cyclingnews. After a winter recovery from shoulder surgery, he broke a wrist in the middle of July. That was followed closely by the realisation that his contract with the US-based ProTeam would not be renewed, so he had two options and neither provided positive.

“After I had surgery for my wrist, I found out that I didn't have a contract with the team for the next year. I think if I have gotten on a ProTeam in Europe, I probably would have continued, at least for another year, maybe two,” Mannion admitted. 

“I mean, the last couple of years, the amount of talent is kind of growing exponentially in Europe, so those jobs are getting harder and harder to come by. Five years ago, when the domestic scene was kind of thriving here [stage races in the US], I would have loved to have come back and done that calendar for a year as a kind of a transition. But that doesn't really exist anymore.

“I had a couple of teammates that went to L39ION [of Los Angeles], and obviously, the NCL is starting up, but I didn’t pursue any of that too intensely. Going back and racing crits didn't seem super appealing. I just figured the best way out for me not hating cycling would be to not go back and do that. I think there's always a place for criterium racing in the states. Honestly, I wish the road stuff would come back.”

Mannion grew up in Boston and raced criteriums and cyclocross. In 2007 when he was 16, he won a junior criterium national championship, riding for the Hot Tubes Junior Development Team in the US, and the next year won a gold medal in the junior circuit event at the nearby Green Mountain Stage Race. Two years later, he landed a spot on the Trek-Livestrong devo team and began to climb on the podium in the Pro 1-2 events, this time a silver at the Green Mountain Criterium. 

But climbing on a podium was different than race climbing, as he had to make the transition in 2012 from his sprinting roots. Axel Merckx, his sports director at the then-Bontrager Livestrong team, thought Mannion was too bulky, so the U23 rider lost six kilogrammes and began to conquer the hills. That year he finished fourth on stage 3 of the USA Pro Challenge in Aspen, mingled among WorldTour riders and finishing ahead of Janez Brajkovič (Astana), Andreas Klöden (RadioShack-Nissan) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin Sharp).

The next year he finished fifth in the US Pro Road Race Championship on a hilly course in Chattanooga, Tennessee, his first year in the elite race. He also finished second in the youth classification at both the Tour of California and the Tour of Utah.
From 2014 to 2016, he rode for four different programmes, including a Pro Continental-level (now ProTeam) Drapac Professional Cycling. By 2017 he landed with the dominant UnitedHealthcare Pro Team, where he solidified his form as a climber.

“The Oro y Paz in Colombia [2018] was just insane. They had probably a million spectators, which was really cool. And the Tour de Suisse, we’ve done the last few years, and that one’s always special because you get to five of the top 10 Tour de France guys, and they’re almost in Tour de France shape, so it’s always eye-opening and humbling every year,” he said about races outside the US.

His two European victories came in 2020 on back-to-back stages of Le Tour de Savoie Mont Blanc, which boosted him to fifth on GC and third in the mountains classification. 

“In 2020, it was the pandemic, a lot of races got cancelled, and things were kind of crazy. I won two races in Europe that year, so that was kind of a big one for me,” he recalled. “And then earlier, a pretty special one to remember was racing with Brandon McNulty and him winning Tour to Sicily, which was kind of his entry into the WorldTour and UAE Team Emirates. It was a pretty big team effort there.”

In his final two seasons with the US-based squad, Mannion also helped two teammates with US Pro road race titles, Joey Rosskopf in 2021 and Kyle Murphy in 2022. Now, Mannion can focus on himself.

“I am in the process of figuring it all out at the moment. I've been coaching for a long time, so I'm definitely going to be doing more of that,” he said about coaching with Durata Cycling. He plans to continue that but is working on other career plans.

“I hope to be working in cycling, but not as a rider. And then, obviously, still riding a bike for enjoyment. Maybe I'll do a gravel race for fun or something.”