Six El Grupo cyclists were recently selected to represent the United States at the Tour de l’Abitibi in July.

El Grupo has never had so many riders participate and qualify for the race.

“The selection camp they attended in Flagstaff with USA Cycling had fierce competition that flew in from across the country,” El Grupo director Daniela Diamente wrote in an email. “It is unprecedented that this many young riders from the same town and the same team make this selection.”

The riders selected are: Daniel Son, Nick Harris, Keenan & Ben Duncan, Christian Santa Cruz, and Logan Boyd.

“Each of these young men have worked tremendously hard over the years, overcoming many obstacles in their lives, and have found a path through El Grupo and riding bikes,”  “And they are fast!”

The trip to the race will cost about $3,500 for each rider and they have all set up crowdfunding sites to help raise money to get there.

Here’s a snippet from Daniel’s story from his site:

When I was 10 years old I was pulled out of my home because of abuse and neglect. From there, I continuously jumped from group home to foster home. For the next four years I tried to find direction in my life. But from everyone making decisions for me and a group of negative peers, I was beginning to spiral into something bad. Luckily I was always interested in BMX, which I was never really good at, but I finally decided to get a bike and try. This is when I met the man Ignacio who would become one of the most important people in my life. When he approached me more than 4 years ago asking if I wanted to ride on his team, I thought it was the coolest thing ever and immediately said yes. When I started I was nothing special; I had hardly done any exercise in my life. But for some reason through all the physical pain I kept with it. Only later did I realize exactly why I did. It was because up to that point in my life I had never felt freedom. I had never felt that I was in control of my life.

Here’s how Diamente said you can help get them to the most prestigious race for junior men:

To make a tax-deductible donation to make sure all go to Canada:

http://www.elgrupocycling.org/donate/ Please include “Canada” in the comments

You can also choose to help out by going to each of their “GoFundMe” sites:

• Daniel: http://www.gofundme.com/adbgv0
• Nick: http://www.gofundme.com/aekd68
• Keenan & Ben: http://www.gofundme.com/aac5x8
• Christian: http://www.gofundme.com/ada7ck
• Logan: http://www.gofundme.com/loganboyd-needs-your-help

Every bit counts and helps to make sure that we all can be proud and represented well by these exceptional young men.