National Cycling League has folded
Venture-backed criterium league officially calls it quits after going on hiatus in 2024
The National Cycling League closed up shop at the end of 2024, ending the nascent effort by mainstream sports celebrity backers and venture capital to grow an audience for criterieum racing in the United States.
“We had to wind down operations for the National Cycling League (NCL) at the end of 2024,” confirmed NCL chief executive officer Andrea Pagnanelli in a LinkedIn post Monday.
“From the outset, our mission was bold: to create the first majority-minority and female-owned sports league and inspire a more inclusive future for the industry. I’m immensely proud of our strides toward that vision and the incredible team that brought it to life.”
No further information was shared by the organization, and its website and social media profiles appear to be offline.
Founded in 2022, the NCL hosted three races the following year in Miami, Denver, and Atlanta. The series counted points scored by both male and female riders toward a team overall competition. Two official NCL-backed teams competed—the Dener Disruptors and Miami Nights—however non-NCL-affiliated teams competed in the races as well.
The race format was criticized as being confusing, but it still had at least some buy in from the cycling community—the L39ion of Los Angeles team notably did not participate.
Founded by entrepreneur Paris Wallace and NFL agent David Mulugheta, NCL also raised venture capital and investment from NFL, NBA, and soccer athletes. Despite the backing, the league quickly ran into shaky ground.
The league initially launched with a race in Chicago that was switched to a race in Washington D.C., however the D.C. race never happened. In September 2023, about 20 riders were let go by NCL. In April 2024, the league pressed pause on its 2024 season, laying off all riders and staff in a 5-minute video call, leaving riders without a job as the season got underway.
At the time, NCL said it would “restructure and rebuild for the 2025 season,” but details were hard to come by.
Aevolo team director Mike Creed was particularly sharp in his criticism after the April 2024 news broke: “I want to personally thank @nclracing for adding to the scar tissue of the American cycling landscape. Without them, we wouldn’t have riders and staff from 6 different squads left with broken promises and uncomfortable conversations with family + partners, industry sponsors like @primalwear @ekoicycling with bad taste and lost investment in a failed 2024 season, memes for days and headlines that the cycling media is more interested in than reporting on the Redlands Classic.”
“Thanks to NCL’s constant ignorance, lying, backslapping, and lack of accountability, you proved that it’s just about being noticed and not about what you could provide. And to be fair, I should tip my hat to you for hitting that target.”
The shuttered league is the latest in many professional road races that have not been able to survive in America, from the Tour of California to Tour of Utah and beyond. Those two examples were stage races—certainly a different animal than crits—but the point remains the same that it is a challenge to operate cycling events in the US. Recently, the Maryland Cycling Classic had to cancel its 2024 edition because of the Baltimore Bridge collapse last year. The event says it hopes to come back in 2025 but has not announced anything more.
There are still plenty of crits in the US, with the American Criterium Cup leading the way as a de facto national series.
If anything, NCL’s rocky road proves that even big money and big names face challenges in the cycling event business.