Preview
The 34th running of the Valley of the Sun Stage Race, also known as the John Earely Memorial, is set to take place from Friday, 13th February through Sunday, 15th February, with riders taking on the traditional time trial, road race, and criterium as stages raced for cumulative time. This year’s pro fields are significantly smaller than last year’s, with just 48 women and 77 men registered to start Friday’s time trial, down from 66 and 115 last year.
Much of that thirty percent drop in overall numbers is due to an unfortunate coincidence in scheduling. The 2026 Pan American Track Championships begin next weekend in Santiago, Chile, and both of last year’s general classification winners are finishing preparations for that event, with Carson Mattern riding for Team Canada and four-times-running VotS champion Emily Ehrlich for Team USA. Ehrlich rides professionally for the UCI Continental Women’s team, Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28, and while they have returned with a strong four-women squad, only two of their riders were here last year (and one of those was then riding for another team). Of the seven women who took the start in TWENTY28 colors in Buckeye, Arizona for the time trial last year, at least five are riding the boards in South America next weekend, including Cuban track star Marlies Meijias Garcia, who was second overall here in 2025 behind teammate Ehrlich.
That leaves a wide-open field. The only returning general classification winner for either the women or the men is Cory Lockwood, once again riding for L39ION of Los Angeles, who took the overall back in 2019 and was second in Phoenix last year in the kit of the Miami Blazers. With Ehrlich and Meijias Garcia absent, last year’s women’s podium is represented only by third place finisher Marjorie Rinaldo, likewise riding for a new team, having stepped up from the Domestic Elite Fount Cycling Guild to Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28. Lockwood and Rinaldo must be said to be strong favorites for the overall.
Time Trial
The first rider off the ramp for the pros on Friday will be Gabby Allong, late of the on-hiatus LA SWEAT Domestic Elite Team and riding here unsupported, who is set to roll at 12:32 PM local time in Buckeye. The forecast calls for a prevailing wind of around 8 mph from the SE all afternoon, with chances of rain around 50% over the course of the day.
Last year, Rinaldo took the 10-mile L-shaped out-and-back course with a time of 21:10.760 (finishing second behind stage and eventual overall winner Ehrlich), and with only two other riders from last year’s TT top ten present this year, she’s in a strong position to take the win. The story is similar on the men’s side, with last year’s winner, the aforementioned Lockwood, only facing one other returning top ten rider from 2025 (his teammate of this year, Tyler Williams, who, like Lockwood, is riding for L39ION after racing for another team in the 33rd edition).
Road Race
Saturday will see the riders face stage two in the form of the Silverhawk Private Wealth/Arizona, The Grand Canyon State Road Race. None of the VotS stages offer much in the way of climbing, and this 16-mile loop running partly through the lands of the Keli Akimel Oʼotham, or the Gila River People, is no exception. Each loop of 3 straights and 3 right hand corners features only 470 feet of climbing. The men will push off at 11:30 am local time to ride 94 miles over 5.8 circuits, with the women following 20 minutes later racing 62 miles over 3.8 trips around the course. The forecast is for perfect racing conditions, mostly clear skies and temperatures around 70º F.
Three men from last year’s top ten in the road race are competing: Stephen Schaefer (Landis/Trek) was fifth last year, fifteen seconds off the winning time, while Tyler Williams (L39ION of Los Angeles) and Alejandro Che (Kelly Benefits) finished ninth and tenth, respectively, coming in a further 24 seconds back.
The women’s race presents an interesting case study in the team-hopping nature of American domestic cyling. Five of the women racing Saturday were present in last year’s top ten, but none of them were wearing the team kit they will be in 2026. They are: Cara O’Neill (who is registered as riding for the Team S&M cyclocross team) who placed second last year, Elisa Luo (now Monarch Racing), who came fourth, Marjorie Rinaldo (now Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28), Emmi Gilbert (now Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28) was eighth, and Minori Minagawa (now Speedblock p/b Terún) was tenth. As with the men, this stage seems wider open than the time trial and criterium stages.
Criterium
Turning to that criterium, which constitutes Sunday’s closing stage, racers will navigate an uncrossed figure eight course in downtown Phoenix under partly cloudy skies. The men’s race is L39ION’s to lose, with multiple threats on their roster. Last year, Cory Williams, Tyler Williams, and Justin Williams went first, second, sixth, and they are all here for 2026. The best placed 2025 criterium finisher on the women’s side here this year is Ellexi Snover (Speedblock p/b Terún), who came fifth in the previous edition, while women whose names we’ve already seen, Minagawa and Rinaldo, came seventh and eighth respectively.
As the first race of the year for many riders, the Valley of the Sun Stage Race isn’t necessarily predictable. Many of the riders, including some named above, have yet to turn pedals in anger in 2026. Nevertheless, it seems likely that the best-known teams in the race, L39ION of Los Angeles for the men and Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28 for the women, have excellent prospects for producing both stage and overall winners.
Start List
The Domestic Domestique most closely follows national racing as it is run by athletes riding for the fourteen American UCI-registered professional teams and forty-five USA cycling-registered Domestic Elite teams. As such, the start list below, with one exception, only includes riders from the five professional and seventeen Domestic Elite teams racing in Arizona this weekend. The exception is Canada’s TaG Cycling Team, who collectively put in a very strong performance here last year, including winning the men’s general classification.
The complete list of registered riders may be viewed by navigating to the appropriate categories at this page on the BikeReg website, or by downloading the time trial start list from the race organizers, here.
There may be annotations to some of what follows in the form of notes. Readers are encouraged to submit such material as they may believe to be of interest to others in the comments, and I will update the post as is appropriate.
Women’s Start List
L39ION of Los Angeles
Domestic Elite Women’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Holly Breck
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Skylar Schneider
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Melsey Perez
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Monarch Racing
Domestic Elite Women’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Notes: The team is being directed in Arizona by Isaiah Newkirk, who rode Valley of the Sun as an athlete three times. In 2016, riding for the Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek U23 Development squad, one of his teammates was future Vuelta España winner Sepp Kuss.
In addition to the pro women’s team, Monarch Racing has twelve riders registered in the Juniors categories (and one in Cat 4).
Annie Gilbert
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Autumn Vegh
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Claudia Ferreira
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Dana Scott
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Elisa Luo
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Helena Merk
Instagram | Pro Cycling Stats | Road-Results
Meredith Grace Gieske
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Orion Racing
Domestic Elite Women’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Sara Youmans
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Project Chaos
Domestic Elite Women’s Team
Megan Brinkmeyer
Pro Cycling Stats | Road-Results
Stefanie Young
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Speedblock p/b Terún
Domestic Elite Women’s Team
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Notes: Riders Minogawa and Snover both rode very strongly here last year for the Fount Cycling Guild.
Kira Payer
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Camille Laflamme
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Minori Minagawa
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Ellexi Snover
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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TaG Cycling Team
Canadian Elite Racing Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Rachel Canning
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Amaia Ervin-Arambarri
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Pascale Savard
Vanessa Montricard
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Virginia's Blue Ridge TWENTY28
UCI Continental Women’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Emily Gilbert
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Kenna Pfeiffer
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Marjorie Rinaldo
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Ella Sabo
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Men’s Start List
Alto Velo
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Jesse Hogin
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APS Pro Cycling by Team Cadence Cyclery
UCI Continental Men’s Team
Alex St. Andre
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Big Hit Racing
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Matthew Lloyd-Thomas
Cesar Gallego
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Baker Donahue
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Cascadia Cycling Team
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Evan Russell
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Competitive Edge Racing
UCI Continental Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats
Andrew Frank
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
-----------------
Good Guys Racing NYC
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Darren Parham
Instagram | ProCyclingStates | Road-Results
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Kelly Benefits Cycling
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Brendan Luongo
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Jack Diemar
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Alejandro Che
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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L39ION of Los Angeles
UCI Continental Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Cory Lockwood
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Tyler Williams
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Jaylen Briceno
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Jason Paez
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Jyven Gonzalez
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Cory Williams
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Justin Williams
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Landis Cyclery/Trek
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Matt Kleckner
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Jordan Miller
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Michael Hemmerlin
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Matan Sopher
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Kyle Trudeau
Stephen Schaefer
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Conor Schunk
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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Meridian Racing p/b de la Uz
UCI Continental Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats
Thomas Sullivan
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
-----------------
Primal - Audi Denver
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Michael Migler
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Liam Olson
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Asa Child
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
-----------------
South Chicago Wheelmen
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Cole Guest
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Speedblock p/b Terún
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Jacob Timmerman
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Alex Akins
Ryan Chaney
Andrea Cloarec
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Ryder Ritchie
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Logan Unger
Florian Costa
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Stellina Racing
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Ian Williams
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
-----------------
TaG Cycling Team
Canadian Elite Racing Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Monty Rigby
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Maxime Bourassa
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Albert Taylor
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Maxim Wojciechowski
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Charles Bergeron
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Charles Waddell
Jayden McMullen
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Aidan Sebel
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Nathan Pruner
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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UTC – ButcherBox Cycling p/b LOOK
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Nikos Casto
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Visit Pittsburgh
Domestic Elite Men’s Team
Team Webpage | Instagram | Road-Results
Shawn Litster
Instagram | ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
Frank Tiburzi
ProCyclingStats | Road-Results
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