The similarities between current NRC leaders Tayler Wiles and Joey Rosskopf

Tayler Wiles riding for Team USA at the 2012 Tour of Flanders (photo by Roxanne King)

[updated 4/10/2014]

Thanks to their bold moves last Sunday Tayler Wiles (Specialized-lululemon) and Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie Development Team) are the initial USA Cycling National Racing Calendar (NRC) leaders. On that final day of the Redlands Bicycle Classic they each attacked and gained enough time on rivals to leave the event as the overall race leader; Wiles rose from fourth place in the general classification and Rosskopf from seventh.

It turns out these athletes hold more in common than daring and NRC ranking.

They’re both 24 years-old. Both attended college, Rosskopf at Georgia State University and Wiles at the University of Utah. They like to cook. One glance at Wiles’ recipe page on her website would send almost anyone into the kitchen to try the quinoa granola or pumpkin crumble, both gluten-free. In Rosskopf’s bio on the Hincapie Development Team website, he says he’s been baking bread.

Additionally, Wiles and Rosskopf both point to the importance of support from their families.

“My Mom has believed in my dream from the very beginning, when it was just me, my heavy pink bike, and some borrowed spandex, she was there cheering,” Wiles writes in a blog at velociosports.com. She also mentions the unflagging support of a friend, Matt Bradley, and her entire family.

The current men’s NRC leader names his parents as his biggest supporters. “When I was younger they would pay for and drive me to all the races. Now they try to visit me at all the races they can,” he says.

However, while Rosskopf cornered his bike in the pack as a young teen, Wiles was pursuing other sports. She competed in soccer and track in high school and didn’t start racing bikes until sophomore year in college. Just two years later in 2010 she finished second overall in the Tour of Walla Walla, second in the U23 category at the national elite road championships, and made it onto the US national team and raced in Europe. Last year she was second overall at Redlands.

At 6’1” Rosskopf is an all-arounder who can ace a time trial. He won the race against the clock in the 2013 Tour de Beauce. Last year he also won the two-day Paris-Arras Tour, finished third in the Philly Cycling Classic, and came in first in the fifth stage circuit race at the Cascade Cycling Classic.

The next event on the NRC appears to offer the Hincapie Devo rider a good opportunity to retain the series lead. The Winston-Salem Cycling Classic is a two-day event with a circuit race and criterium that begins on April 18. Specialized-lululemon’s calendar doesn’t currently list the Winston-Salem race. The 2014 NRC includes nine events and ends on September 13.

Joey Rosskopf at the 2013 Tour of Utah