Rally UHC partner with Felt Bicycles

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Rally UHC Cycling have signed a three-year deal with Felt Bicycles to become the bike supplier to both their women's team and their men's Pro Continental squad, beginning this season.

Having previously ridden DiamondBack bikes, riders will be on the Felt FR Disc for road racing and the Felt DA for races against the clock in 2019.

"Felt will play an integral part in our team's performance at the world's biggest races," Managing Director of Rally UHC Cycling, Charles Aaron, said. "They've proven themselves year after year by making some of the best performance-driven bicycles on the planet, and we can't imagine a better bicycle brand to be partnered with."

Felt's VP of Global Marketing, Eric Sakalowsky, voiced the bike company's excitement about a North American team aiming to head to Europe to take part in WorldTour events, with the team taking on a base in Girona, Spain, in 2019, while continuing to race at the biggest North American events.

"They are a motivated team. They are a talented team. And they represent both a freshness and an open perspective that really resonate with our identity and character," said Sakalowsky.

"We've been with teams like Garmin-Slipstream and Argos-Shimano – teams who have punched above their weight class, landing stints in the yellow jersey [at the Tour de France], the maglia rosa [at the Giro d'Italia], and multiple stage victories across the race calendar. The hunger that a younger, upstart team brings to the sport represents our fighting spirit and willingness to innovate, and to take some chancy flyers off the front."

For 2019, Rally have also taken on the main sponsor of the now defunct UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team as a co-sponsor, and line up for the season with teams that include Emma White, Canadian criterium national champion Sara Bergen and new signing Krista Doebel-Hickok on the women's squad, and Rob Britton, Brandon McNulty, and the addition of Gavin Mannion and Svein Tuft – the latter from WorldTour team Mitchelton-Scott – on the men's team.

"This is our 14th year of racing and the most exciting yet," continued Aaron. "With a long history of incredible partners, we're excited to bring our shared mission of health and wellness to a global audience, week in and week out. The 2019 roster is filled with the most talented group of men and women we've ever assembled, and it's sure to be a landmark year.

"I'm a firm believer that you need to learn to walk before you can run, and last year's debut in the UCI Professional Continental ranks proved that. It took our program a dozen years to get there, but, when we did, we had success. I think our performances at the Arctic Race of Norway, the Amgen Tour of California and the Deutschland Tour are just the beginning," said Aaron.