2021 has been quite the year for the team both at the races and online. As we prepare to launch Human Powered Health in the new year, we celebrate our biggest and best social media posts of the season. From back-to-back wins to back pocket candy bars, it’s been a unique ride. Here are our top 10 social media posts.
Body Positivity
In August, New Zealand criterium champion Olivia Ray passionately spoke about body image in regards to both physical and mental health, shining a light on an issue that extends beyond cycling. Her courage and openness in Body Positivity was inspiring.
Professional cycling is a sport in which athletes are affected by body image issues more than average. It’s hard to be wholly body positive when you compete in a sport that has, in the past, prioritized being skinny above all else. pic.twitter.com/seTmq3rn1D
— Rally Cycling (@HumanPwrdHealth) August 18, 2021
Arvid de Kleijn out-sprints world’s best in Turkey
Who could possibly forget the team’s first major win of 2021? An epic sprint from Arvid de Kleijn that ended in a dramatic photo finish lunge, our little gorilla beat the likes of original gorilla André Greipel and Manx Missile Mark Cavendish to take the opening stage victory in Turkey.
The photo finish goes to @arviddekleijn! Your #TUR2021 stage 1 winner 🏆🔥🚀#GetReadyForTomorrow pic.twitter.com/RK6ba1HiLY
— Rally Cycling (@HumanPwrdHealth) April 11, 2021
Colin Joyce wins in Denmark
The fifth of eight victories for the men’s team came when Colin Joyce sped away from his fellow breakaway opportunists on what was predicted as a nailed on bunch sprint. Step forward our fast-finishing American roaring to victory in the Tour of Denmark.
Kyle Murphy makes it a double delight in Portugal
Mere minutes after Joyce got his arms in the air in Denmark, Kyle Murphy was crossing the line for his second stage victory at the Volta a Portugal. An incredible twenty minutes of action, we still think about it to this day.
🇵🇹 You can’t make it up! @stinky_carl wins his second stage of #VPSantander21 only minutes after Joyce wins in #PNDKR21🇩🇰 🤯
Is this what is feels like to be @deceuninck_qst all the time?! pic.twitter.com/UwxDjtMqRU
— Rally Cycling (@HumanPwrdHealth) August 13, 2021
Joey Rosskopf rides into the stars and stripes
Our riders weren’t just dazzling in Europe. Who could forget Joey Rosskopf’s emphatic national championship win in Knoxville? Relive the closing moments with our roadside finish line video.
Robin Carpenter chills out with a coke after Unbound Gravel
332.8 kilometer gravel race ✅
Coca-Cola ✅
Sidewalk vibes ✅
Robin Carpenter was the king of cool (and cracked) after Unbound Gravel.
Carpenter takes victory in UK on Labor Day
A North American had never won a stage of the modern-day incarnation of the Tour of Britain, so when Carpenter skipped away from the breakaway 25 kilometers out and soloed to the line in Exeter, he was writing himself into the history books.
View this post on Instagram
Twitter goes wild for Scottish candy
As our Tour of Britain preview explained, this year’s returning edition of the UK’s biggest actually went through three different countries, ending in Scotland. Home to kilts, bagpipes and Irn-Bru, the Kingdom of the Gaels had a lot to offer our riders, but it was this well-placed Tunnock’s caramel wafer that stole the show.
Hey Scotland, are we doing this right? 🏴🏴#TourOfBritain pic.twitter.com/U6As3nhw6U
— Rally Cycling (@HumanPwrdHealth) September 12, 2021
Championing our riders
After a competing team’s manager made some ill-judged comments on the state of women’s cycling sponsorship we thought it was high time a co-ed team like ourselves reaffirmed our stance. In 2022, Human Powered Health will also be one of the first teams to send the women’s team to the WorldTour before the men’s.
Our women are worth the time and the investment. pic.twitter.com/zpZQlkxC2q
— Rally Cycling (@HumanPwrdHealth) September 22, 2021
Olivia Ray brings year to a close with Lion’s Den performance
What better way to put a ribbon on 2021 than with an emphatic victory back on home soil. With the country’s largest prize purse on offer and a field packed full of big names, that’s exactly what Olivia Ray did. Talk about taming the Lion’s Den.
View this post on Instagram
… and that time we broke cycling Instagram
Okay so we said there were 10, but we couldn’t leave this one out. Whilst the men were racing in Britain, the team’s press officer Tom Owen filmed a seemingly innocuous reel of director Eric Wohlberg attempting a high speed bottle hand up with Nickolas Zukowsky. What was created was a video where everyone was left scratching their heads whether this sleight of hand actually succeeded or not.
A month later, the reel was the most watched piece of cycling content on the platform ever having been viewed (to date) 19.2 million times. That’s more than the populations of Romania, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe, Greece and Belgium.
View this post on Instagram
There you have it, our top social media posts of 2021. If you’re not already, do make sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so that you can keep track of everything Human Powered Health.
