The coronavirus pandemic got the wheels turning in professional cyclist Brendan Rhim’s head this fall.
The virus shut down the competitive season, meaning Rhim spent as much time this year on his couch as on his bike. It became apparent to the Norwich native and Hanover High graduate that if he was going to continue to progress in his chosen sport, he would have to be willing to make a very big move.
And so he has.
Rhim recently signed with Ireland-centered EvoPro Racing and will — pending acquisition of an international travel visa — join the team for the 2021 season. The 24-year-old, whose Tour de Beauce stage race win in Quebec in 2019 tops his competitive resume, will be on a roster of at least 15 riders representing 11 different countries on a team that endeavors to find and develop young professionals.
In a phone interview, Rhim said EvoPro will set up shop in Belgium next season in order to easily access events in what he called “the center of the bike racing universe.”
“I have a minor result or two in Europe, never won anything, but I have held my own in some races, and their director (Morgan Fox) saw that,” Rhim said from his Greenville, S.C., home. “He said, ‘It looks like you just need a chance.’ I pretty immediately signed up.
“I’m over-the-moon ecstatic to get the chance to race over there, do one-day classics in Belgium, hardman-style racing. The weather and terrain is a little similar to Vermont in certain areas of Belgium — lots of wind, cold snow. Miserable.”
Several things, all tied to the pandemic, led Rhim to search for alternative opportunities.
This year began with Rhim planning to race for his Greenville-based team, Hincapie-Leomo, in Europe. The team had set up operations in Spain and was ready to go when the pandemic hit, canceling the campaign and forcing the squad back stateside. The program — run by former Tour de France racer George Hincapie and his brother, Rich — announced last month it was shutting down, another pandemic victim.
“Homeland Security said, ‘Get home now or you might not ever,’ ” Rhim said. “We left Spain and Europe in the spring, and we didn’t race for the rest of the year. … We sat on the couch for the rest of the year. A big bummer.”
Rhim saw pro cycling downsizing in the United States as well, and that hastened the need to look abroad to keep pedaling. He sent out inquiries to “40 or 50” Europe-based teams, hearing back from around 10. EvoPro signed him about two weeks ago.
In a response to email questions, Fox said a former Hincapie rider now competing on the top-level UCI World Tour, Toms Skujins, opened his eyes to Rhim. Fox and Rhim bonded during a Zoom meeting with EvoPro’s Belgium-based sporting director, Tim Meeusen, and Rhim joined the team shortly thereafter.
“He is a young guy who has somehow been overlooked because of cycling’s U23 series,” Fox noted. “He is a later developer, but the U23 ethos does not work the same for everyone. For Brendan, I see a continuous curve of improvement that needs a year or two more to get him into the top flight. He also needs to believe in himself and a team of people around him that believe in him. That’s our specialty.”
Like Hincapie-Leomo, EvoPro was registered for 2020 at the Continental level of the International Cycling Union, the third division of the UCI’s racing ladder. Fox said EvoPro will begin the 2021 schedule — pandemic permitting — at the Classico Valencia on Jan. 24, hitting other major Spanish events before moving on to Belgium “for some wet, cold and hard racing.”
“It’s looking good with the initial vaccines rolling out on Monday,” Fox wrote. “I expect that there will be disruptions but to a much lesser extent than 2020. People in general are very careful here, and it has become quite routine to take big precautions in team bubbles or simple day-to-day life.”
Rhim said European racing has always been his goal; the pandemic simply accelerated the need to get there. He’ll make the move healthy having not raced in a while, the one benefit bestowed by a virus that has hampered everything else this year.
“Ask any athlete, if you’ve spent almost a year and a half not competing,” Rhim said. “The fire is burning hot. I’m ready to race so bad.”
Greg Fennell can be reached at gfennell@vnews.com or 603-727-3226.