The EF Education-ONTO team came home with three national titles won by three different riders. In the junior 15-16 category, Gray Barnett won the time trial, Enzo Hincapie won the road race, and Peyton Burckel won the criterium.

They earned those victories together. Every rider on EF Education-ONTO has bought into the collective vision of the team.

“Our riders are happy to see each other’s successes,” says director Rusty Miller. “They are all winners, but my challenge to them is this: you guys are all great bike racers – without the team you would all do pretty well at bike races – but when we work as a team we can build something greater than the sum of all our individual parts. I am so proud that these young guys have bought into that. They all want to win, but even more than that they want us to win. We have created a culture of winning together.”

That starts off the bike. EF Education-ONTO strives to create a healthy, competitive environment where riders become friends first and push each other to do better every time they ride their bikes. When it comes time to race, they then want to put the team’s ambitions first, just like they will do if they reach the professional ranks. Together, they can create chances for each other that will allow them each to achieve more than they could ever do alone.

That showed in the way they raced the national championships in Roanoke. Rusty is proud of the way they took on the road race and crit.

“In the road race, Enzo got up in a three-man move and his teammates trusted him to perform. They did a lot of work to shut down the chase in the field,” Rusty says. “Enzo stayed up the road and took his road title going up the gnarly finishing climb. No one could win that race in a fluke. Enzo delivered for his teammates. Going into the crit, we said let’s make sure we win again. Peyton jumped out to an early breakaway. For half an hour, the gap was tenuous. It was seven seconds, nine seconds, 12 seconds, nine seconds again. Peyton’s teammates Enzo and Gray did a great amount of work to control and shut down the field and that is what it took. Peyton stayed away and sprinted to the win.”

He still had to have the legs to overpower the best competitors in the country. EF Education-ONTO has uncovered some of cycling’s brightest talents.

Gray Barnett had the best legs in the time trial. His performance that day would have earned him the bronze medal in the 17-18 junior race. He put months of hard work into it. After finishing second a number of times in the past at national championships, he wanted gold.

“Gray had never quite broken through to a headlining ride before, and he did it in the time trial,” Rusty says. “We had trained a lot for it. We did a lot of detailed work on his TT bike and on his position and it paid off. Think about it. USA is going to send five 17- and 18-year-old kids to worlds this year, and Gray beat all but two of them in the time trial at 16.”

Enzo Hincapie finished just six seconds slower and would have come fourth in the 17-18 time trial. He’s just 15.

Next, these boys will join their Canadian teammate Ashlin Barry in Belgium for a couple of weeks of racing on the cobbles. Their big goal for the summer is the Tour de l’Ain, where they will take on the fastest 15- and 16-year-olds in the world in the mountains of France.

They are confident that they can match them by working together.