The National Cycling League Rides Into Miami Beach

A new professional sports league launches its first event in Miami Beach this week.

The National Cycling League (NCL) — billed as the world's first professional cycling league with a slew of owners that includes NBA star Bradley Beal, Bachelorette alum Rachel Lindsay, and NFL star Jalen Ramsey — rolls into town for the Miami Beach Invitational on Saturday, April 8, alongside a week of festivities leading up to it.

"We started this company about 15 months ago with a vision of a sports league of the future — majority-minority, female-owned, sustainability-focused, and leaving little to no footprint," NCL cofounder Paris Wallace tells New Times. "And here we are, gearing up for races on some of the most iconic blocks throughout the country."

Unique to the NCL, teams are made of one man and one woman, with ten competing teams in total. On race day, the women will race at 4:15 p.m., and the men will hit the roads at 6 p.m. Each race is 30 laps of a one-mile circuit — starting and ending in Miami Beach at Ocean Drive and 11th Street — where points are earned for the first three finishers of every lap. The men's and women's scores count equally toward the total team score, and whichever team has the most points wins the event.

Notable Olympians that have signed on to be part of the NCL include Daniely Garcia of Venezuela, Chile's Paola Muñoz, and Romania's Serghei Tvetcov. Select cities throughout the U.S. have established teams of cyclists, including the Denver Disruptors and Miami Nights.
Among Miami Nights' roster is Andrea Cyr. Based in Indiana, she has paused her career as a sports medicine physician to become a full-time professional cyclist with the NCL.

"This is all about elevating the professionalism of our sport," she tells New Times. "The opportunity came up, and I am ready to put 100 percent into this sport. As a female rider, I can't overemphasize how awesome it is to have something being built with men and women on the same page and growing together. The sky is the limit."

As part of race day on April 8, there will be a fan fest and food festival, BMX freestyle stunt shows, a kid's race, and a community bike ride hosted by the nonprofit Break the Cycle. Through Wednesday, April 5, there will be community rides throughout the city. Team qualifying for the April 8 NCL Cup race takes place the day prior on Friday, April 7. The full slate of events can be found at nclracing.com.

The Miami Beach Invitational is part of the NCL Cup, a four-city tour in which teams compete for a series prize of more than $1 million. Beyond Miami, the NCL Cup will land in Atlanta, Denver, and Washington, D.C.

"We want NCL race week in Miami to be thought of as one of the biggest weeks of the year in town," Wallace says. "We want this to be an annual occurrence, for sure."

National Cycling League Miami Beach Invitational. 3:45 p.m. Saturday, April 8, at Ocean Drive and 11th Street, Miami Beach; nclracing.com. Admission is free; VIP tickets cost $215 via eventbrite.com.