Elbowz Racing is the passion project of MotoGP star, Ben Spies. Nicknamed Elbowz for his unprecedented “elbows out” riding style, Ben knows what it takes to ride two-wheeled vehicles fast.
Impassioned by the sport of cycling, Ben has quickly worked his way up through it’s competitive ranks and founded Elbowz Racing in 2011 to foster the development of a select group of elite amateurs. Through his motorcycle racing experience he has firsthand knowledge of what a team should be and how it should be supported to foster success.
In 2011 we were labeled as the most exciting new team in the U.S., chalking up an impressive list of results: 70+ wins, 2nd ranked amateur team in the United States, won the Luxemburg Elite National Championship, 2nd in USA criterium series team standings, 3rd in the USA criterium individual rider standings, 1st in the USA criterium lap leader competition, two Texas state titles, and countless podiums. 2012 was equally amazing, countless victories as the team had even more time training and racing together. We again took the Texas state title and more wins than we could keep track of. In 2013 the team started to really focus on winning at the national level and succeeded with a victory in the USA Cycling National Criterium Championships, A truly amazing team effort. Unfortunately due to an untimely crash during practice at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Ben suffered a career ending injury and all the time we we’re loosing riders to the pro ranks. So with a torn up boss and skeleton of a team we decide to tackle this beast again and put together a team for 2014 to compete nationally. It was a brand new group of guys and new management, needless to say it was a big rebuilding year for us. We were fortunate to have sponsors that believed in our dream and stuck by our side. We managed several top tens at NRC and national events, a success for us. In 2015 we placed 3 different riders on the podiums at USA Elite National Championships in Truckee, CA with Kevin Girkins and Colin Strickland (Road Race) and Michael Sheehan (Criterium), respectively. Just before that, we collected our first NRC race win in our “Elbowz 2.0” project thanks to Stefan Rothe’s Stage 1 win at North Star Grand Prix in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Since then, we collected multiple race wins in Texas (Lago Vista, Texas State Time Trial and Criterium Championships) and the region. Most recently, the team’s sprinter, Chris Tolley, won the only Twilight Criterium of the US 2020 season at the Whiskey City Twilight Challenge in Lawrenceburg, IN.
For 2021, we added two new riders to the roster with Spencer Jones (San Antonio, TX) and Canyon Emmott (Spicewood, TX) and looking forward to an exciting year of racing!
