Kevin Bouchard-Hall spends his days as a physical therapist and is a father of two kids, ages 8 and 3. Kevin has been a long-time member of the cycling community racing for USA Cycling’s U23 Road team at Worlds in 2004. He made his way to the dirt winning of Rasputitsa, Vermont 50, Whiteface 100k, and finishing in second at Vermont Overland. Now you can find him racing virtally and managing Team Velocio in the Premier League on Zwift making him a perfect fit for the Esports World Team.
J Bruhn started out as a triathlete. With his best leg being cycling, he actually didn’t ride as much because he was focused on strengthing his swim and run. In 2020, he found himself trying to exercise during his newborns’ nap time and that’s when he found Zwift and was hooked. He found the DIRT Team (Dad’s Inside Riding Trainers) early on and that was key for helping keep him be accountable and build relationships which made it a lot more fun. In 2021, he decided to really focus on training so would wake up at 3:00am every morning to get his workout in before work.
Qualifying for this team has meant so much to him knowing all the sleep he sacrificed to be there. He’s also always been a major cycling fan and a huge fan of the Olympics, so being on a team that represents something bigger than himself was truly especial. Watching Esport Worlds in 2020, he never imagined he would get to line up with the team the following year. J obviously comes from great virtual results, but admits that his greatest achievement was second place in the Krispy Kreme Challenge (run a mile, eat a dozen doughnuts, run a mile back)!
Katheryn Curi is no stranger to the world of cycling.She has previously represented the USA in four Elite Road World Championships (2005, 2007, 2009, 2010). She has worked as a director sportif with the Amy D Foundation and currently with EF Education-Tibco-SVB. She loves being able to give back to women's cycling. She credits her cycling success to her collegiate rowing experience where she learned how to work hard, suffer and never give up. Virtual racing has allowed her to continue to be competitive while balancing other things in my life, as well as meet amazing athletes from all over the world. Fun fact about Katheryn is that she is slightly obsessed with Daisy cottage cheese, avocados and peanut butter... and her dog Cooper!
Brian Duffy started Zwift in March 2020, and co-founded the NeXT eSport p/b Enshored Team in December 2020. His virtual racing highlights include winning a premier division race, reaching #1 in the ZwiftPower rankings, and helping lead his team to win the Premier Division championship in fall of 2021. Although he loves racing, the management and leadership of the team occupies most of his time, but that’s also what brings him the most joy. In real life competition, he raced as a triathlete for over 15 years!
Brian has a B.S. in Economics from Duke University, an MBA in Finance & Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania, and just recently earned his CFA charter. As you can imagine, he is working in financial services where he leads product pricing & economic strategy.
Maeghan Easler graduated from Iowa State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in biochemistry and currently works as a lab technician. When she’s not logging miles on her trainer or in the lab, she’s running with her Blue Heeler named Moose, or snowboarding, rollerblading, napping, or snacking, but mostly snacking!
Jacquie Godbe is another returning member to the Esports Team! Jacquie has her MD and is currently working as a medical resident in California. She also has a PhD in chemistry where her thesis was "Design Rules to Control Mechanical Properties in 3D Hydrogels for Optimal Neuron Growth." Before she got into virtual cycling, she was a professional triathlete and a swimmer before that. We’re not sure when she finds free time, but when she does, she enjoys playing Dungeons & Dragons.
Brian Hodges rides for the Wahoo Le Col Esports team riding to roughly 300 virtual podium finishes and is a Level 50 Zwifter. He's also a full-time engineer working in cyber security and a proud father of four with his wife Elise who hails from Brittany, France!
Elizabeth van Houweling started Zwifting after her youngest turned one because she decided it was time to get fit again. Elizabeth used to race in real life (Road, MTB, CX, and Track) and was almost embarrassed that she liked Zwift so much so she didn't want to tell too many of her friends. Now she’s embracing her Zwift addiction, which has landed her on the Worlds team, and wants everyone to try it! She rides for the Saris NoPinz team and loves racing with so many strong women, but credits her strength to her early Zwifting years racing primarily in a mixed field.
Elizabeth is a cycling coach and person trainer when her two toddlers aren’t keep her busy. When she needs a little break from reality, you can find her in her happy place: sitting with her husband on a rock on top of a mountain with some wine and chocolate!
Jadon Jaeger was born and raised in North Dakota. He currently resides in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin with his wife, Kimberly, and their dog, Bailey. Between the three of them, they are a pretty active family. Jadon didn’t get into bike racing until he was 30, and fell in love with virtual racing. He has been actively racing on Zwift and RGT since late 2019 and was on the inaugural Team USA Esports Worlds Team. In real life, Jadon is a multi-time Masters National Champion and is currently wearing the stars-and-stripes in the Masters Time Trial.
Jadon spends his weekdays as a structural engineer at CSD Structural Engineers designing steel mills. He even worked as a Structural Engineer on 1 World Trade Center in New York City. When he’s not watching bike racing, you can find him following the F1 and MotoGP circuits.
Kristen Kulchinksy returns to the Worlds team for 2022! Zwift has been a life changing experience for her. She loves racing and being a team captain of the Zwift Premier League squad of Virginia's Blue Ridge Twenty24. Kristen is a artist goldsmith and jewelry designer. She used to have a gallery and atelier in SoHo, NYC, but moved the shop to the Hamptons when COVID hit. When’s she’s not riding or making jewelry, she’s taking her Shiba inu, Moscow, on walks at the beach!
Rebecca Larson is a 12-time National Champion and previous member of Team USA on the Road. She was born and raised in Boulder, Colorado and loves to ride Zwift with her husband and 8-year-old daughter. She spends her days as a Professor of Exercise Physiology at the University of Oklahoma.
Ryan Larson raced in the inaugural Esports World Championships in 2020 and is back for round two with Team USA. He was the top placing American finishing in 9th and will bring that experience to the newcomers for this years’ event. If you thought Ryan’s Zwift results were impressive, his day job is even better! Ryan is a Test and Integration Engineer for the United States Air Traffic Control System. He’s also a former Collegiate NCAA D2 Cross-Country and Track runner.
Arielle Martin-Verhaaren is a name you probably already recognize. She is one of our National Team BMX Coaches and has had quite a successful career as an athlete. She was the first American woman to win a BMX World Cup in 2011, a Pan Am Games silver medalist, an alternate for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. After qualifying for London, a training accident forced her off the start list. Fast forward to 2022, she just had an emergency surgery from her intestines twisting into knots and cutting off her blood supply from that same training accident.
With that said, she is on the road to recovery and is still doing her part to help #TeamUSA at Esports Worlds. She got into Zwift as a way to stay fit and rebuild fitness during her second pregnancy and never would have thought she’d be racing bikes in spandex. She’s a proud mother of two and loves to spend her weekends loading up the kids and dog in the camper and finding new spots to camp and mountain bike.
Zach Nehr is a freelance writer for Cyclingnews, Velonews, and TrainingPeaks. At the last Esports Worlds, Zach was one of our team directors and is now taking part as an athlete. Not only was Zach 2nd Overall at the 2019 Cascade Cycling Classic, but he finished 3rd place at the 2019 Project Echelon Team Camp Sushi Eating Contest. Some of Zach’s other notable accomplishments are that, in 2015, he crashed more on group rides than he did in races, and he once won a $5 prime on the track by accident.
Courtney Nelson has worked for Google for over 13 years and is currently managing the data for people and offices around the world! She races for Saris / NoPinz virtually and is known as a climber. She has the QOM for Hawk Hill which is the number one Strava segment in the U.S. with over 220+ pages of QOMs. She also has an addiction for flavored Cheerios and black coffee and has been dubbed once or twice "cereal killer" on hill climbs.
Shayna Powless is another name we’ve been mentioning a lot these past few years. She is a professional cyclist for Legion of Los Angeles, a USA Cycling certified coach, and co-founder of the Dreamcatcher Foundation. She’s been racing on Zwift for three years (and loves gaming too!). She is primarily a road racer, though she’s raced a lot of mountain bike and gravel in the past and is looking forward to some track racing this year! This is her second time on the Esports Worlds team and has represented Team USA three times on the dirt at the Mountain Bike World Championships.
Spencer Seggebruch just became a father earlier this year! He works full time as an investment portfolio manager in St. Louis, Missouri. He has been Zwifting for 4 years now also races track IRL. He most recently won the Team Pursuit National Championship in 2021.
Stefanie Sydlik is a Pittsburgh local and is known for her results at the Dirty Dozen - a race climbing up the 13 steepest hills in the city, one of which includes the steepest paved street in the world, Canton Avenue. Finishing this race is a feat in itself, but Stefanie is the only woman to win it 4 times, and the only woman to place in the Men’s category. So, it’s no surprise that she also won the Mt. Washington Hill Climb in New Hampshire. Back in 2009, she was also on the U.S. Rowing National team and won a bronze medal at Worlds.
Stefanie has her PhD in Organic Chemistry from MIT and is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Her pet bunny, named Prof. Biscuit, helps her teach organic chemistry on Instagram (@profbiscuitsydlik).
Patrick Walle is returning to the Esports team as an athlete instead of a director this time around. He is the co-founder of EVOQ.BIKE, a digital cycling media platform and coaching business, a co-founder of the NeXT Esports p/b Enshored team that he also directs, and father of a 2-year-old! Patrick is third horn of the Nashville Symphony since 2012, and is a sourdough bread baking fanatic!
